Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-17972

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-05651 by Maree Todd on 20 January 2022, whether sportscotland has allocated funding to support the development of a tennis centre at Park of Keir for the financial year 2023-24.

sport scotland’s provisional allocation of up to £5m for the development of a potential tennis facility at Park of Keir remains in place.

However, at this stage,a full application for a tennis facility at Park of Keir has not been received. Any decision on whether to make a capital award and the appropriate level of any award will only be taken on completion of a full application (as outlined in response to S6W-05651 on 20 January 2022).

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-17939

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14072 by Jenny Gilruth on 31 January 2023, whether it will provide an update on how many young people have now received a free bus pass through the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme, broken down by local authority area, based on the latest information available.

As of Sunday 30 April 2023, there were 619,900 cardholders under the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel Scheme. The following table shows the number of cardholders broken down to local authority level.

Total	619,900
Aberdeen City	26,659
Aberdeenshire	30,871
Angus Council	12,566
Argyll & Bute	7,211
City of Edinburgh	74,217
Clackmannanshire	3,901
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	1,958
Dumfries and Galloway	10,513
Dundee City	20,668
East Ayrshire	15,893
East Dunbartonshire	11,084
East Lothian	14,083
East Renfrewshire	12,491
Falkirk	12,189
Fife	50,825
Glasgow City	66,539
Highland	18,243
Inverclyde	11,302
Midlothian	11,486
Moray	9,047
North Ayrshire	18,962
North Lanarkshire	41,658
Orkney Islands	1,756
Perth & Kinross	15,313
Renfrewshire	20,384
Scottish Borders	10,445
Shetland Islands	2,754
South Ayrshire	10,069
South Lanarkshire	36,492
Stirling	9,020
West Dunbartonshire	11,795
West Lothian	19,506

Cardholder data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO). NECPO supports the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data. The figure includes travel products collected from the Transport Scot Pass Collect mobile app.

Question reference: S6W-17938

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14071 by Jenny Gilruth on 31 January 2023, whether it will provide an update on how many journeys have been completed by young people using a free bus pass through the Young Persons' (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme, based on the latest information available.

Question reference: S6W-18009

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 23 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been allocated to the H100 Fife project to date, including through the Scottish Budget 2023-24.

The use of hydrogen for the provision of domestic heat using the gas network will be demonstrated over the next few years in Scotland as part of the SGN H100 Fife ‘neighbourhood trial’ and in the UK as part of the larger village and town trials. The H100 Fife project is currently under construction, with aims to fit 100% hydrogen boilers into 300 homes in Leven. The project is scheduled to go live in 2024, and operate until March 2027. The Scottish Government has provided £6.9m grant funding to the project.

Question reference: S6W-18010

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 23 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it will be evaluating the success of the H100 Fife trial project, including whether it plans to assess the (a) cost and (b) energy efficiency of the project by comparing green hydrogen heating with electrified heating.

The SGN H100 Fife project, which will help us understand the role hydrogen can play in decarbonising heat using the gas network, is currently under construction, with aims to fit 300 hydrogen boilers into homes in Leven. The project is scheduled to go live in 2024, and operate until March 2027. The Scottish Government has provided £6.9m grant funding to the project.

SGN will undertake the required evaluation and assessment of the project. The Scottish Government continues to engage with the H100 Fife project as it develops.

Question reference: S6W-18102

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2023
Current Status: Answer expected on 6 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a full breakdown of its spend on Nature Networks from the Scottish Budget 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-17572

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to Friends of the Earth Scotland's latest report, On the Move: Investing in public transport to meet carbon targets and create jobs, which found that increased investment in public transport could create 22,000 direct and 416,000 direct/indirect jobs in Scotland's transport sector, while significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Scottish Government welcomes this report and recognises that reaching our target of a 20% reduction in car km by 2030 will require a broad combination of interventions, including infrastructure, incentives and disincentives.

I further refer the member to the answer to question S6T-01336 on 25 April 2023, with regard to investment in public transport. All answers to oral parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, which can be found at: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/meeting-of-parliament-25-04-2023?meeting=15260&iob=130152

Question reference: S6W-17526

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 11 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment has been made of any climate implications of redefining the definition of deep peat from 40cm to 30cm in relation to the muirburn licensing provisions of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill.

There is no clear scientific consensus relating to muirburn on peatlands. A 2022 report by NatureScot has shown that there is limited and unclear evidence on the impact of muirburn on the total carbon budget. Therefore no specific assessment has been made of any climate implications of redefining the definition of deep peat from 40cm to 30cm in relation to the muirburn licensing provisions of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill.

When in good ecological condition, peat can store significant amounts of carbon and that this can help address the impacts of climate change. The provisions in the Bill take a precautionary approach aimed at allowing muirburn to continue as a land management tool, and as a method of controlling the risk of wildfire, alongside reducing the risk and volume of carbon emissions.

The Bill contains regulation-making powers which will allow further changes to the new law on muirburn to made by secondary legislation, should further relevant scientific evidence come to light.

Question reference: S6W-17573

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its commitment to reduce car kilometres by 20% by 2030, in light of the Friends of the Earth Scotland's latest report, On the Move: Investing in public transport to meet carbon targets and create jobs, which estimates that, in order to meet Scotland's emissions targets, it would need to shift 6 billion car kilometres a year by 2030 to public transport and active travel.

We are committed to finding ways to make alternative travel modes more attractive, and supporting people to take fewer journeys by car. The Scottish Government’s plans to encourage the use of public transport and active travel alongside plans to reduce car use, are set out in the draft route map on 20% reduction in car kilometres by 2030, jointly developed with COSLA. We have also set out our future transport infrastructure priorities in the second Strategic Transport Projects Review published on 8 December 2022 which includes a focus on active travel, mass transit and bus priority for mode shift away from the predominance of cars.

However, the evidence is clear that incentivising sustainable alternatives alone will not be sufficient to bring about the behaviour change to deliver the scale of 20% car KM reduction. Therefore as outlined in our draft 20% route map, we have commissioned research exploring equitable options for demand management to discourage car use.

The most direct levers on the cost of buying or running a petrol or diesel car – fuel duty and vehicle excise duty – are currently reserved, and the recent rises in the cost of motoring underline the unfairness of the current, regressive motoring tax regime. As such, we will continue to press the UK Government for a fair and progressive future transport tax system that better incentivises the transition to zero-emission vehicles, reduces unnecessary journeys and raises revenues to fund policies to support a shift to more sustainable travel.

The final version of the route map to achieving a 20% reduction in car km in Scotland by 2030 will be published alongside the public consultation analysis of the responses to the draft version of the route map, and the commissioned demand management research, in the coming months.

Question reference: S6W-17722

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 May 2023
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Lorna Slater on 5 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication of Dr Church’s second report on the decarbonisation of residual waste infrastructure in Scotland on 3 February 2023, when it plans to publish its response.

The First Report of the independent review of incineration was delivered in April 2022. Having accepted all of its recommendations, we have already taken actions to deliver the commitments we set out in our response. This includes introducing new restrictions on the development of energy from waste proposals in National Planning Framework 4, and working with UK Government to develop a methodology to report emissions from energy from waste separately.

Following careful consideration of the key findings and recommendations of Dr Church’s Second Report, we have published our response to the Report today. The Scottish Government’s response is available at: Scottish Government Response to: Stop, Sort, Burn, Bury? The Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy in Scotland. Second Report: Decarbonisation of Residual Waste Infrastructure in Scotland. Our response accepts, in full or in principle, all of the report’s recommendations and sets out the actions we are taking to decarbonise the waste sector, in particular by ending the unnecessary incineration of plastics.

Our 2022 Waste & Circular Economy Route Map consultation set out a range of proposed measures that will support the ambition to end the unnecessary incineration of plastics. These include continuing to deliver the £70 million Recycling Improvement Fund, implementation of extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes, and greater transparency in the end destination of recycling collected. In addition, we will continue to work with other governments of the UK to consider the expansion of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme, which the Report notes could be an important decarbonisation tool.

We are also continuing to incentivise and support the deployment of combined heat and power, including for incineration facilities through our £300 million Heat Networks Fund. This is available across this Parliamentary session to support the rollout of new zero emission heat networks and communal heating systems, as well as the expansion and decarbonisation of existing heat networks across Scotland. Further details on implementing these recommendations will be incorporated into the final waste Route Map.

I would like to thank Dr Church for his hard work in delivering this important report for Scotland.

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