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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S4W-13332

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 9 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many and what percentage of homes are not connected to the electricity grid.

Question reference: S4W-13548

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 9 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to S4W-12998 by Fergus Ewing on 5 March 2013, how much private sector investment has been leveraged into the projects supported by the National Renewables Infrastructure Fund at (a) Port of Dundee, (b) Port of Leith, (c) Rosyth, (d) Methil, (e) Hunterston, (f) Inchgreen, (g) Westway, (h) Kishorn, (i) Arnish, (j) Machrihanish, (k) Nigg, (l) Wick, (m) Scrabster and (n) Mallaig.

Scottish Enterprise are investing in project development at Dundee, Leith and Rosyth and in project delivery at Methil, Hunterston, Inchgreen and Westway.

Similarly Highlands and Islands Enterprise are investing in project development at Kishorn and Wick and project delivery at Arnish, Macrihanish, Nigg, Scrabster and Mallaig.

Leverage at the project development stage is in the form of private sector involvement in masterplanning and site appraisal processes. At project delivery stage leverage arises from the appraisal of each individual project. Therefore, the amount of private sector investment at each site is as follows:

Site Name	Investment Amount
Port of Dundee	£0
Port of Leith	£0
Rosyth	£15,000
Methil	£0
Hunterston	£0
Inchgreen	£75,000
Westway	£800,000
Kishorn	£135,420
Arnish	£0
Macrihanish	£5.9 million
Nigg	£9.231 million
Wick	£0
Scrabster	£7.8 million
Mallaig	£364,250

Question reference: S4W-13542

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-13003 by Fergus Ewing on 5 March 2013, whether it will provide an estimate of the jobs delivered by each of the projects supported by the National Renewables Infrastructure Fund and whether it is on course to create the estimated 28,000 jobs.

In the National Renewables Infrastructure Plan (N-RIP 2) an analysis was carried out to identify the potential direct job benefits arising from the development of all the sites identified. This illustrated that should all the sites be developed for their assumed set of uses Scotland would benefit from 5180 direct manufacturing jobs. This analysis does not include multiplier effects or jobs arising from research and development, installation processes and on-going operation and maintenance jobs. For further detail please refer to N-RIP 2 Report, Section 7.

The projects that have been supported and those under development indicate that this magnitude of direct manufacturing employment is achievable.

The 28,000 jobs is a longer term target. Scotland is already seeing significant progress with announcements from inward investors such as Gamesa, Samsung Heavy Industries, Areva of their intention to locate manufacturing in Scotland and announcements by Scottish companies of investments in the sector.

Question reference: S4W-13676

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 27 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how it determines which fuel storage sites are subject to the provisions of the Water Environment (Oil Storage) (Scotland) Regulations 2006.

Question reference: S4W-13677

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 27 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government for what reasons the SSE power station on South Uist is subject to the provisions of the Water Environment (Oil Storage) (Scotland) Regulations 2006 but the Shore Street fuel depot in Kirkwall is not.

The oil stored at the SSE Power Station Loch Carnan is used on site, and as such is subject to the requirements of the Water Environment (Oil Storage) (Scotland) Regulations 2006.

The Kirkwall Fuel Depot is an oil storage facility used for the onward distribution of oil, and such installations are exempt from the Regulations.

A guidance note, Model Code of Safe Practice Part 2: Design, construction and operation of petroleum distribution installations (3rd edition) by the Energy Institute http://www.energyinst.org.uk/ is specifically focused at distribution installations.

Question reference: S4W-13544

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-13003 by Fergus Ewing on 5 March 2013, whether it will provide a breakdown of the sectors and nature of the estimated 28,000 jobs that the National Renewables Infrastructure Fund aims to help deliver.

The figure of up to 28,000 jobs in offshore wind were estimated in the Creating an Industry report commissioned from independent consultants IPA Energy and Water Economics which provided the baseline data for Scotland's Offshore Wind Route Map. The report estimated job creation across a range of sectors from development through supply and installation to operation but did not attribute specific job numbers to individual tasks.

Question reference: S4W-13551

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 21 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-13001 by Fergus Ewing on 5 March 2013, how many expressions of interest were received for the National Renewables Infrastructure Fund in (a) 2010, (b) 2011 and (c) 2012 and have been received in 2013.

Through the development of the National Renewables Infrastructure Plan both Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise worked closely with the identified ports and therefore encouraged them to submit expressions of interest in the National Renewables Infrastructure Fund (NRIF).

As a result the majority of interest was noted in the first two years of the Fund, as shown below.

2010: 27

2011: 12

2012: 3

2013: 0

The call remains open for those ports keen to take advantage of the offshore renewables opportunity.

Question reference: S4W-13556

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what changes there have been to the expected spending profile of the Renewable Energy Investment Fund as a result of the Budget (Scotland) (No.2) Bill, passed on 6 February 2013.

Question reference: S4W-13549

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-12998 by Fergus Ewing on 5 March 2013, how much private sector investment has been leveraged into the wider renewables industry through projects supported by the National Renewables Infrastructure Fund at (a) Port of Dundee, (b) Port of Leith, (c) Rosyth, (d) Methil, (e) Hunterston, (f) Inchgreen, (g) Westway, (h) Kishorn, (i) Arnish, (j) Machrihanish, (k) Nigg, (l) Wick, (m) Scrabster and (n) Mallaig.

In terms of the wider picture of investment into the renewables industry more generally Scottish Renewables have recently published an assessment of investment into renewables in 2011. This is based on the capacity installed in each technology multiplied by estimates of capital cost per Mega Watt. Their analysis shows projects with a total capital cost of £757.2 million were commissioned in 2011. Similar analysis for the first nine months of 2012, shows that this exceeded over £1.3 billion.

Scottish Renewables also undertook more detailed assessment of investment into offshore wind and this research shows that £164.5 million has been invested in the Scottish economy by the six companies currently developing offshore wind projects in the Scottish Renewable Energy Zone with more than one third of this investment (£63.66 million) delivered in 2012.

Question reference: S4W-13560

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how it determined that delaying spending from the Renewable Energy Investment Fund will not harm efforts to develop renewable energy.

The phasing of expenditure on the REIF will reflect the needs of industry and community developers. Scotland is enjoying record activity and investment in renewable energy. We exceeded our interim target to generate 31% of our energy requirement by 2011 by some 4%. Scottish renewables have shown that investment in Scotland’s renewable energy industry topped £900 million pounds in the first six months of 2012, putting it well on track to reach £1 billion over the course of the whole year.