- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 10 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive to clarify what it means by “The contract will provide public bodies with access to energy management measures” in its news release of 18 August 2008 and whether it means consultancy, or retrofitting, provided free of charge across every public sector building.
Answer
The tender for the national contract has requested details from prospective suppliers for the energy management measures which they could provide to support the Scottish public sector. Examples given in the invitation to tender are:
Access to energy management information
On-line energy management tools
Energy efficiency audits
Site assessment for suitability of embedded generation.
Further clarification on what these measures could include will impact on the tender and subsequent evaluation processes. It is therefore inappropriate to comment further at this point in time.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 10 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will support the renewable energy industry by continuing to purchase 100% of its electricity from renewable sources.
Answer
The Scottish Government is already providing a tremendous incentive for the renewables industry to build new renewable generating capacity via our renewables obligation on all Scottish electricity suppliers. Recent information has highlighted that renewable or green electricity tariffs for renewable electricity do not lead necessarily to the production of additional electricity from renewable sources.
Rather than paying what is likely to be a significant price premium for green electricity within the current tight financial settlement, the Scottish Government will divert resources towards energy management measures for its own estate, which will help protect the environment while reducing costs in the medium term via reduced electricity consumption.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 10 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how high a percentage of electricity supply from renewable sources a bidder will need to offer in order to be considered for the contract currently out to tender for the supply of electricity to the public sector.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-15736 on 10 September 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will conduct an assessment of the resilience of the transport networks to heavy or prolonged rainfall and what the timescale and funding will be for such an assessment.
Answer
In June 2005, the Scottish Government published the
Scottish Road Network Climate Change Study. This examined the potential impact of future predicted climate conditions on the operation of the Scottish road network. Rainfall was one of the six broad categories of weather considered in the study. Transport Scotland is implementing the recommendations from the study, including changes to the design standard for surface drainage systems, which has now been modified to account for a 20% increase in rainfall intensity.
As the owner of Great Britain''s rail infrastructure, Network Rail is responsible for ensuring the continued resilience of the Scottish rail network.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 8 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what (a) steps it is taking and (b) funding it is providing to map and address pluvial flooding.
Answer
The forthcoming Flooding Bill will make provision for all types of flooding to be mapped by 2013 as required by the EC Directive on the Assessment and Management of Flood Risks. Funding to map and address these types of flooding will be considered at the next spending review.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide sufficient revenue to fund the increasing maintenance required in the transport networks to cope with heavy or prolonged rainfall.
Answer
Transport Scotland will continue to ensure that suitable adaptation measures are built into its annual trunk road maintenance programme within the constraints of the current Scottish Government financial settlement.
As the owner of Great Britain''s rail infrastructure, Network Rail is responsible for ensuring the continued resilience of the Scottish rail network.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what it is doing to ensure that the transport networks are of a sufficient standard to withstand heavy or prolonged rainfall to prevent further disruption from flooding.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-15712 on 8 September 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s web site, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 June 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 29 July 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether energy performance certificates will give information on (a) the asset rating of a building, (b) the operational rating of a building or (c) both and what the reasons were for its decision on this matter.
Answer
All energy performance certificates will be produced using an asset based rating that follows the methodology framework set out in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. The principal benefit of an Asset Rating is that it has the power to influence the people who can make a difference to the building fabric and services, the building owners. A consultation on the implementation of Articles 7, 8 and 9 of the Directive was carried out in 2006, and a significant majority of consultees supported the asset based approach.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 June 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 29 July 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure compliance with the requirement to display energy performance certificates where the building in question is owned or leased by a local authority.
Answer
Responsibility for compliance for all buildings lies with the local authority. Where cases of non-compliance occur, an authority will be in a position to serve a notice in order to address contraventions.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 30 June 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 29 July 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the European Court of Justice decision C-418/04 (Commission v Ireland), what steps it is taking to ensure that Scotland’s network of Special Protection Areas is large enough to meet the requirements of the EU Birds Directive, in particular in respect of coverage (a) for wide-ranging species such as golden eagle, (b) for scarce species such as bean goose and (c) in inshore waters for those species that depend on them.
Answer
A substantial UK-wide review of the sufficiency of the network of special protection areas was completed in 2001. Following on from that review, work relating to additional areas in Scotland for golden eagle, for bean goose and for species in inshore waters is being progressed by Scottish Natural Heritage.
