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The Scottish Government allocated £4 million in 2024-25 to support road authorities in the development and implementation of 20 mph speed limits on appropriate roads. A further £10 million was available in the current financial year, reflecting the Government’s ongoing commitment to the rollout of 20 mph speed limits on roads where it is appropriate to do so.

Wildlife Crime is unacceptable and the Scottish Government has taken numerous actions to tackle wildlife crime in recent years. This includes increasing the penalties for the most serious offences and increasing powers for Scottish SPCA inspectors under the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Acy 2024 to search for, examine, and seize evidence of relevant offences whilst on non-domestic property when attending that property under their existing powers.

We are supporting Police Scotland by continuing to fund the full time Scottish Wildlife Crime Investigative Support Officer role within the National Wildlife Crime Unit for 2026-27. This is a crucial role that supports law enforcement investigations across Scotland. The Investigative Support Officer provides Police Officers with specialist advice and guidance as well as hands on practical support with investigations and searches.

Ultimately, prosecutorial decision-making in individual cases is a matter for the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service, who are operationally independent of the Scottish Ministers.

The Scottish Government announced its intention to launch ScotZEB on 17 November 2025 with the scheme opening to bids on 5 December 2025. Officials met with interested stakeholders on request, and responded to all queries regarding eligibility, scheme guidance and technical requirements, both directly and through the scheme administrator, the Energy Saving Trust. The Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) was also notified at the point of scheme launch.

The Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray awards grants on a competitive basis. Geothermal projects are able to apply as long as the funding criteria are met.

The Community and Renewable Energy Scheme provides support for communities across Scotland to develop their own renewable energy projects through its Community Energy Generation Growth Fund. This support covers a range of technologies and applications for deep geothermal projects are assessed on a case-by-case basis.

The draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan referred to the planned publication of a Renewables Export Plan to grow exports of goods and services related to energy produced from renewable sources, such as geothermal. We subsequently published ‘A Trading Nation – A Framework to Grow Scotland’s Renewables Exports’ in March 2023 and the ‘Renewables Exports: Action Plan’ in February 2025.

We will continue to work with stakeholders to improve understanding of Scotland’s deep geothermal resource and how it can help the journey to net zero.

ScotZEB3 is a capital grant subsidy scheme rather than a procurement exercise. As such, the Procurement Act 2023 does not apply. The Scottish Government does not directly procure buses; vehicle procurement is carried out by bus operators.

The Scottish Government engages regularly with Transport Scotland, which is responsible for taking forward the M8 Woodside Viaducts Permanent Solution project. Work is in progress to develop the Strategic Outline Case for the project, including consideration of a range of alternative approaches that are currently the subject of a public consultation which runs to 25 March. Feedback from that consultation will be considered alongside other factors to determine the preferred approach for the project, which will balance issues such as engineering, environmental, economic, health and safety and social value considerations. Transport Scotland will discuss the emerging findings from this assessment with the Scottish Government when this work is sufficiently advanced.

Electric vehicles are carried by the current operator in line with standard booking requirements. Serco Northlink Ferries applies additional safety measures by identifying and segregating EVs on board, in accordance with evolving maritime regulations, and provides EV charging facilities at all terminals.

As part of the next iteration of the NIFS4 contract we will continue to ensure that the service allows those who wish to travel with an electric vehicle to do so in accordance with operational requirements and applicable safety regulations.

The only site in Scotland that is used for decommissioning and storing nuclear submarines is the Royal Rosyth Dockyard in Fife. The Scottish Government’s position is that this activity must be undertaken under the strict oversight of the relevant independent regulators, including SEPA, to ensure that Scotland’s people and our environment are protected.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-43959 on 12 March 2026. 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.

The Scottish Government previously received an information request under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004, for the following:

“All documents, records, assessments, briefings, reports, emails, and meeting notes created, held or considered by the Scottish Government in relation to the decision to remove email as a method for members of the public to submit representations on energy consent applications, and to require use of the Energy Consents public portal for public submissions.”

Our response has been published and can be found at the following address:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202600502867/

It is also important to distinguish between the different roles and relationships in the Section 36/37 consenting process.

Developers, or applicants, have an ongoing working relationship with the Energy Consents Unit throughout the application process. They are required to pay fees, provide additional information, respond to queries, submit technical reports, and engage in iterative dialogue about their applications. This necessitates direct communication channels.

Statutory consultees are public bodies and agencies with specific statutory duties to provide expert advice on applications. Their consultation responses are part of an ongoing professional dialogue and often require discussion and exchange, which again necessitates direct communication channels. It should also be noted that whilst not statutory consultees by definition, we engage Community Councils during this period and through this mechanism.

Members of the public making representations are exercising a right to submit views on applications during a defined consultation period. This is a different type of engagement from the ongoing professional relationships described above. The portal and postal routes are designed specifically for this purpose: to capture representations during the public consultation period in a standardised, accessible, and compliant manner.

Ultimately, these are different functions with different needs. The distinction is based on the nature of the engagement, not on favouring one category over another. Members of the public retain the same right to participate in the decision-making process, it is only the submission method that has changed.