Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of working closely and collaboratively with the UK Government and other devolved administrations to deliver our net zero targets in a way that is mutually beneficial in economic, environmental and social terms.

The engagement that we have had thus far with the new UK Government administration has been encouraging, and we continue to consider the value of a standalone climate response group in the context of this renewed relationship. We will continue to engage directly with them and other devolved nations to understand the best ways of working, ensuring constructive collaboration and information sharing, including the roles of inter-ministerial groups across the four nations and a programme of areas for priority cooperation is under development.

The Scottish Government has committed to the development of a just transition plan for Mossmorran following completion of the just transition plan for Grangemouth in 2025. As with the Grangemouth just transition plan, this work will be co-designed with key stakeholders including industry, the workforce and the community. The Scottish Government is actively engaging with relevant stakeholders as part of the scoping phase of this programme of work.

Our Public Engagement Strategy for Climate Change (PES) highlights the importance of effective engagement to build support for climate action. The Scottish Government continues to build on outcomes from Scotland’s most recent Climate Assembly, by delivering a programme of participative engagement in support of the just transition planning process. We are exploring options to establish an additional participative process to engage the public in order to build understanding of the transition to a net zero and climate resilient Scotland. This is further to our existing engagement work, including the £5.5m Community Climate Action Hubs, £425k Climate Action Schools programme, and awarding funding of £272k through our Climate Engagement Fund.

With partial rewetting, the water table in peatlands or peaty soils is held deeper underground than with full rewetting or restoration. In theory, this delivers a carbon benefit but also allows certain types of agriculture that may be limited by full rewetting to continue.

The Peatland Science and Technical Advisory Group have advised there may be some potential in lowland grassland systems and at the edges of some raised bogs where the use of ‘leaky dams’ may have a part to play in finer control of water table depth. However, significant areas of lowland agricultural peats are difficult to identify and map.

We have commissioned scientists at the James Hutton Institute to advise on the distribution of grassland on peat and on the relationship between water table depth and carbon emissions in peat grassland systems.

When complete, this will inform on-going work in government considering options for incorporating peatland protection, management and restoration within the new four-tier agricultural support framework.

The Scottish Government welcomes the work of the independent Green Heat Finance Taskforce and looks forward to receiving its Part 2 report shortly. Following publication of its Part 2 report, the Scottish Government will formally respond to the Taskforce, setting out the actions we will take, in partnership with others, on recommendations from both Taskforce reports.

Our response will be informed by the New Deal for Business sub-group on Non-Domestic Rates (NDR) which will, alongside other matters, consider how non-domestic rates levers support Scotland’s transition to net zero.

On 18 April 2024, the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Net Zero and Energy made a statement to the Scottish Parliament confirming that the Scottish Government’s ambition and legal commitment to reach net zero by 2045 remains unchanged.

In the statement the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Net Zero and Energy announced several new measures aimed at accelerating Scotland’s journey to net zero, including a pilot scheme with some Scottish farms to establish future appropriate uptake of methane supressing feed products.

There has been significant development in this area in recent years and it is taking time to develop the details of a pilot which could explore options for recognising appropriate use of these products and other practices which can reduce greenhouse gas emissions on farms. Further information on the timetable of a pilot project will be shared as soon as possible.

The Scottish Government is committed to the long-term delivery of Regional Land Use Partnerships (RLUPs). Having recently concluded a pilot programme in four regions across Scotland, Officials are working to consolidate learning and are co-developing an approach that will see the transition from pilot into formal initiative.

This work will directly inform the wider rollout of RLUPs beyond the four regions, providing a clear framework that will support us in bringing new regions into the program.

Funding certainty and market stability for farmers is absolutely crucial and we want to do all that we can to try to ensure that that is the case in Scotland. As announced at February’s NFU Scotland Conference, Tiers 1 and 2 will receive at least 70% of the available budget. Work on the future framework is continuing to be developed and any announcements will be made in due course. As always, we are committed to working with the industry to co-develop the new payment framework to ensure there are no cliff edges.

There is no minimum percentage of uniforms that must be produced by supported businesses for the NHS Scotland uniform contract. The current contract is based on the volumes ordered by health boards and so allows for fluctuations in demand.

Supported businesses have produced approximately 33% of uniforms supplied to NHS Scotland over the last three years.