Seòmar agus comataidhean

EU Structural and Challenge Fund funding spend in each of the last five years in:

(a) Scotland

(b) The Highlands and Islands and

(c) Orkney is as follows:

	Scotland (£)	Highlands and Islands (£)	Orkney Islands (£)
2011	162,279,283.36	27,149,283.62	1,672,841.84
2012	88,405,472.56	25,593,773.02	2,434,849.71
2013	85,598,361.89	20,403,525.08	3,826,567.42
2014	75,870,285.72	16,466,846.44	803,207.08
2015	77,386,720.88	17,584,625.26	974,992.05
Grand total	489,540,124.00	107,198,053.42	9,712,458.10

The Special Working Group of the Expert Commission on District Heating submitted its report on potential regulatory frameworks for district heating in Scotland to Scottish Ministers in February 2016. I welcome the report which will be published shortly. The recommendations in the report are currently being considered by the Scottish Government as part of the work to develop a new energy strategy alongside the third report on policies and proposals for climate change. Further investigation and consultation will be necessary to fully explore the implications of the recommendations with regards to devolved competence and their impact on both operators and consumers.

The Young Innovators Challenge was developed and established in response to this 2011 manifesto commitment. Launched in 2013, the Young Innovators Challenge is a competition for people in training, further and higher education. Its key aims are to encourage a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship among students and trainees and to help them turn their ideas into viable business propositions. The challenge is run for the Scottish Government by the Scottish Institute for Enterprise, and in the three years since its launch, it has awarded over £420k in prizes to over 300 winners.

As part of the process of designing and optimising Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband roll-out on Orkney, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) asked BT to explore what synergies could be achieved with SSE and other utilities providers in order to make the deployment as effective as possible. It was established that SSE had no commercial plans to lay further cable in or around Orkney at that time and BT planned its fibre deployment on that basis.

For any future broadband projects, the Scottish Government and HIE will continue to look at how existing infrastructure could be used.

The Energy Act 2004 requires the Hydro Benefit Replacement Scheme to be reviewed every three years. The UK Government set out its position on the Hydro Benefit Replacement Scheme and Common Tariff Obligation at the end of 2015. The consultation document issued by the Department of Energy and Climate change states that the “UK Government is minded to not make any changes to the Orders governing both the Hydro Benefit Replacement Scheme and Common Tariff Obligation at this time”.

Further, the UK Government has indicated that the full costs of the cross-subsidy for Shetland should be spread over Great Britain from the date at which the new energy solution for Shetland is implemented, which is currently expected to be around 2019. This change will have the effect of reducing energy costs for all consumers in the north of Scotland. The UK Government believes that cross-GB cost recovery of the Shetland subsidy would be best delivered through the existing Hydro Benefit Replacement Scheme. The Scottish Government has noted the UK Government’s intentions.

Consumers in the north of Scotland face some of the highest energy bills in the country, with extreme fuel poverty currently affecting many households in the Highlands area. We will continue to do everything we can to address fuel poverty in the north, and indeed throughout Scotland. For rural and remote communities, a fair network charging regime is a crucial factor – but other factors like energy efficiency and raising household incomes are equally important. That is why we have commissioned the Scottish Rural Fuel Poverty Task Force to examine the issues around fuel poverty in rural areas. We look forward to the task force producing a report of their findings, together with their proposals later in 2016.

We have allocated over half a billion pounds to our energy efficiency programmes since 2009, and we are already introducing greater flexibility across our fuel poverty programmes to help increase delivery of our schemes in rural areas.

In 2015-16 we allocated £65 million to our HEEPS: Area Based Schemes which is delivered by local authorities. Through this programme councils are given the flexibility to identify areas that are most likely to be fuel poor and to provide the measures most suitable for those properties.

The Scottish Government also funds Home Energy Scotland to provide free and impartial advice on energy efficiency measures to all householders in Scotland. This includes advice on schemes they may be eligible for as well as tailored advice for an individual’s own home. Home Energy Scotland also provides a community liaison service to join up with other local and national service providers to reach the most vulnerable people in our communities.

This information is not held centrally

The answers have now been provided. The response was delayed as our priority was for ministers to work across portfolios, officials and the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs to all work in unison to find a solution. This has now been done, as set out in our responses to the above questions.

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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

As previously indicated in the answer your question on 23 February 2015 (S4W-24406), considerable discussion took place with EU representatives about the concept and application of management fees for EU students. My predecessor, Michael Russell MSP, made clear to the Scottish Parliament on 5 December 2013, introduction of such a policy would need to meet with EU requirements and is therefore difficult to implement.

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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to remove debt repayments owed to the Student Loans Company by Scottish-domiciled students and resident graduates.

Average student loan debt in Scotland is the lowest in the UK.