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The Scottish Government would welcome an increase in EU funding for plant and animal genetic resources in areas where this reflects our current policies on plant and animal improvement.

Withdrawals and buy-ins has received only limited use in Scotland. Should the proposed amendment be adopted, the Scottish Government anticipate that it would not have a significant impact in Scotland.

The Scottish Government will issue its final thermal guidance later this year following the completion of the UK consultation process. This thermal guidance will set out policy on the introduction of CCS levels to new and existing power plant, in terms of timing and capacity.

Thermal generation guidance for Scotland will be based on the revised section 36 guidance for the development of thermal power stations which was published in late 2008 for consultation. In addition to this consultation process, we have also had on-going engagement with Scottish based stakeholders on the development of carbon capture and storage through a series of seminars and meetings. The UK consultation invited respondents with a particular interest in Scottish Government policy to copy their responses to Scottish ministers. We have also been working closely with DECC on the current consultation and held a workshop where Scottish Government and others discussed the consultation with DECC officials. Scottish ministers are currently considering the consultation responses and their decisions will be further informed by responses to the UK consultation.

The Scottish Government aims to ensure that the regulatory framework in broad terms is similar across the UK as a whole, with the overall objective of encouraging CCS deployment and the objective of decarbonisation of the electricity sector by 2030. We will await the completion of the UK consultation process before issuing our final thermal generation guidance including what the expected position is on demonstration capacity.

The Scottish Government have received a number of representations on an emissions performance standard in response to our consultation on thermal guidance. The development of an emissions performance standard is also considered in the UK consultation on clean coal and we are currently working with the UK Government closely on this issue. We will consider our position once the consultation process is fully complete.

Under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989, Scottish ministers are obliged to accept and consider all thermal power station applications in excess of 50 megawatts of generating capacity. Each application is subject to statutory consultation with the determination taking into account all material issues, including the thermal guidance applicable at the time the decision is made.

All thermal power station applications over 50 megawatts in generating capacity will be considered by Scottish ministers under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989. Following a request from Ayrshire Power Limited, Scottish Ministers provided a scoping opinion on 20 March 2009 on the Hunterston project, which included a wide range of consultee advice on the outline design. The developer is currently working in partnership with stakeholders to develop an application which addresses the relevant planning, community and legislative issues, and we have recommended to the developer that they take into account in any application our draft guidance and the answer to question S3W-24912 on 17 June 2009.

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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989, the building of any new thermal power station in excess of 50 megawatts in generating capacity would require consent from Scottish ministers. The Scottish Government published draft thermal guidance in late 2008 for consultation. We await the completion of the UK Government consultation, before publishing our final thermal guidance in Scotland.

The Scottish Government will issue its final thermal guidance later this year following consideration of responses to our own consultation and the subsequent UK consultation which closed on 9 September 2009.