Seòmar agus comataidhean

I met with Orkney Islands Council on 8 th August during my visit to the Northern Isles, where we discussed a range of issues including inter-island connectivity.

The Scottish Government recognises the challenges for local authorities with responsibility for ferries and has provided more than £136m over the last 5 years through the Local Government settlement and Specific Grant. A total of £33.095m has been made available for local authorities in 2022-23, including £13.402m for Orkney, which fully funds the Council to operate inter-island ferry services.

The three projects now offered Option Agreements from Crown Estate Scotland under the ScotWind clearing round are located entirely within the SMP-OWE Plan Option NE1. Adoption of the SMP-OWE and the seabed leasing round followed the delivery of a Sustainability Appraisal, which included a Social and Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA). This SEIA estimated the negative impact of the Plan Option NE1 and the SMP-OWE as a whole, based on a series of development scenarios. Through that process and direct engagement with the fishing sector, the Plan Option was reduced further to avoid overlap with fishing activity. The SMP-OWE planning process considered fisheries data through an assessment of spatial and economic data, alongside consultation and steering group information. Although the planning process attempted to minimise impact on a wide range of receptors, there remains some overlap with receptors and we would expect engagement with the fishing sector as project applications are developed to be critical to determining the ultimate footprint of any development.

The Fuel Insecurity Fund was first established in the winter of 2020, as part of the wider Winter Support Fund, to help households struggling with their energy costs who were at risk of severely rationing, or self-disconnecting entirely because they could not afford their energy costs.

I have not visited Glasgow Airport during my time as Minister for Transport, however I look forward to meeting with the CEO of AGS Airports on 5 October 2022.

Following the ScotWind and clearing announcements, the Scottish Government is undertaking a review and re-assessment of the Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy (SMP-OWE). As part of this process, the draft review of the SMP-OWE and associated assessments will be consulted upon in Spring/Summer 2023. The consultation is planned to last 12 weeks. Fisheries representatives will also be asked to form part of the review steering group.

Spawning and nursery grounds were a key consideration in the planning exercise for the Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind energy. Existing spatial information on the likely locations of spawning and nursery grounds were incorporated into the opportunity and constraint analysis that provided the basis for the initial identification of areas of search for the planning process. Later, when areas of search were narrowed down, the Strategic Environmental Assessment, part of the wider Sustainability Appraisal, assessed the potential for the plan to negatively impact these spawning areas and outlined suitable mitigation measures, where required. The plan highlights where this may be necessary and where further assessment maybe required at a project-level.

All aspects of marine planning include engagement with the fishing sector representatives, not least of all, the planning process for offshore wind. The Scottish Government’s sectoral marine planning process, the basis for ScotWind leasing, included fisheries representatives on both plan steering groups and provided responses to the scoping and draft plan consultations. Almost all Plan options were modified based on feedback from the fishing community.

The costs of global failure to address the climate emergency would be enormous and the Scottish Government is committed to leading the way in delivering early action to reduce emissions while at the same time positioning Scotland to secure and share the opportunities from the transition. The next Climate Change Plan, a draft of which will be published next year, will include costs of delivering emissions reductions to meet the statutory targets between 2025 and 2040. The Scottish Government has not set out a pathway to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 and hence does not yet have a basis for a cost assessment of achieving that goal. The Climate Change Committee suggest “the net costs of the transition (including upfront investment, ongoing running costs and costs of financing) will be less than 1% of GDP over the entirety of 2020-2050”. We believe this is a reasonable estimate while noting that the cost totals and profile for Scotland may differ due to our stricter statutory targets and the likelihood that our pathway to net zero may diverge from that taken by the UK as a whole.

I slanders who are eligible for a Young Scot National Entitlement Card currently receive two free return journeys to the mainland each year.

The introduction of the Road Equivalent Tariff on CalMac ferry services delivered an estimated average 34% reduction in passenger fares and 40% for cars and it continues to save passengers around £25m a year.

The young persons’ free bus travel scheme applies to all young people across the country, including those who live on Scotland’s islands. However, it is important that Government reflects on policy implementation in rural areas and in our island communities. To that end, ferry fares policy and specifically the issue of young people’s access to public transport, will be considered as part of the Fair Fares review.

The Sectoral Marine plan for Offshore Wind Energy was subject to a Sustainability Appraisal that included a plan-level Social and Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA). This SEIA assessed and estimated the levels of positive and negative impact of Plan Options and the plan, as a whole. The SMP-OWE did not specify the number of projects that could progress in each Plan Option and as such, the SEIA assessed the Plan Option under various development scenarios. The SEIA was published for consultation alongside the draft plan and can be found at the following link.https://www.gov.scot/publications/draft-sectoral-marine-plan-social-econimic-impact-assessment/