- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, when assessing ScotWind applications, what account was taken of the locations of potential carbon storage sites in any future carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) programme.
Answer
This is a matter for Crown Estate Scotland (CES) as the assessment and evaluation of the ScotWind applications was undertaken by CES. Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage activity was considered as part of the Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy's Sustainability Appraisal, particularly the Social and Economic Impact Assessment and in the Regional Locational Guidance. Those documents can be found at the links below.
Social and Economic Impact Assessment: https://www.gov.scot/publications/draft-sectoral-marine-plan-social-econimic-impact-assessment/documents/
Regional Locational Guidance: https://www.gov.scot/publications/sectoral-marine-plan-regional-locational-guidance/documents/
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 25 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-05488 by Ben Macpherson on 28 January 2022, whether it will provide the information requested regarding how many of these reports have been solved and how many remain unresolved, and for what reason it did not provide this information in its answer.
Answer
All reports received via the mygov.scot portal between 24 August 2020 and 30 November 2021 have been analysed, with appropriate actions identified and initiated. Social Security Scotland therefore consider that these information reports are resolved.
Information on fraud is regularly published in our Annual Report and Accounts. Social Security Scotland carefully considers the information on counter fraud activity that can be placed into the public domain to ensure that any information release does not undermine the ability of Social Security Scotland to prevent and detect crime.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what the assumption was for Scottish Water's capital spending for new capital works required in the 2021-22 period and funded as part of the 2021-27 regulatory period.
Answer
Scottish Water set out in its 2021 Delivery Plan its expectation that it would invest between £570m and £650m (excluding responsive repair activity) in 2021-22. Scottish Water forecasts that it will outturn in the upper half of this range.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-05508 by Michael Matheson on 4 February 2022, in light of it not being able to detail what impact the closure of Hunterston B and Torness nuclear power stations will have on consumer energy bills, whether it can state what the price of electricity generated by each of them is.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold information on the price of energy generated by Hunterston B and Torness nuclear power stations. This information is of a commercial nature and shared only between the contract holders and the customer.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the first supplementary to question S6O-00736 by Ben Macpherson on 9 February 2022, during which the minister referred to the "greater provision of renewable energy - which...has had a significant positive impact on the reliability of supply here in Scotland", whether it will set out in detail what this definition of “renewable energy” is; what the generation source is of the energy that has had a positive impact on reliability, and whether it will publish any data that (a) shows an increasing "reliability of supply", as opposed to an increasing amount of energy supplied, and (b) shows a correlation and direct "impact" of the greater provision of renewable energy, as defined, on the reliability of supply.
Answer
This is a reserved policy area. Responsibility for security of supply sits with National Grid ESO (the GB electricity system operator).
Renewable capacity in Scotland includes onshore and offshore wind, hydro, solar, marine technologies, bioenergy and waste. Other sources of power generation and interconnection to the rest of GB electricity system are also critical in terms of maintaining secure electricity supply, particularly at times when renewables output is low.
The UK government has now included renewables in the Capacity Market to recognise their “measurable contribution” to security of supply. Renewables sites in Scotland have been successful in securing contracts in the latest T-4 and T-1 Capacity Market Auctions.
The equivalent of 98.6% of gross electricity consumption in Scotland (around 30 GigaWatt hours, GWh) comes from renewable sources.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 25 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider instructing Historic Environment Scotland to assess the site of HMP Barlinnie for listed status.
Answer
I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:
SPS currently has no plans to invite Historic Environment Scotland (HES) to assess HMP Barlinnie for listed building status.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Ash Regan on 25 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what urgent support is being given to 14 fire stations identified as having the “potential for roof collapse” by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
Answer
The Scottish Government is aware of the roof issues in the 14 fire stations, which are as a result of the materials used when the buildings were constructed by Local Authorities. SFRS has confirmed that remedial action has been taken in all 14 fire stations to ensure that the buildings are safe and that there are no immediate safety concerns.
The Scottish Government is in regular contact with SFRS in relation to its resource and capital funding requirements but decisions on the use of those funds is a matter for SFRS.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Ash Regan on 25 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government when regulations will be laid to bring into force (a) section 1 (dealing with serious harm); (b) section 6 (dealing with publication on a matter of public interest), and (c) section 32 (dealing with the single publication provisions) of the Defamation and Malicious Publication (Scotland) Act 2021.
Answer
The Scottish Government expects to lay commencement regulations in early May 2022 that will bring into force the Defamation and Malicious Publication (Scotland) Act 2021 this summer.
- Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government when the proposed National Public Energy Agency will be operational; how many full-time dedicated staff it will employ; what its annual budget will be, and when it anticipates that the virtual agency will move to being a standalone organisation.
Answer
As set out in the Scottish Government's A Fairer, Greener Scotland: Programme for Government 2021-22, published on 7 September 2021, we made a commitment to create a National Public Energy Company. We will work to have a virtual agency established this year, and a dedicated physical agency by September 2025. The virtual agency will be in place throughout the transition period until the standalone Agency is in place.
This is an ongoing area of work, and as a first step we launched a consultation in December 2021 which closed on 8 February to help inform development of the design of the new body. Consultation responses are currently being analysed and further details will be released as the work evolves.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 25 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of police officer impersonation have been reported to Police Scotland in each year since 2013, broken down by police division.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of incidents reported to the police. Information is held on the number of crimes recorded by the police in Scotland, including those for personation of police. This is shown in the following table, by police division, from 2013-14 to 2020-21.
Table: Number of personation of police crimes in Scotland by police division, 2013-14 to 2020-21
Police Division | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 |
Argyll and West Dunbartonshire | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
Ayrshire | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
Dumfries and Galloway | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Edinburgh City | 7 | 37 | 10 | 14 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 8 |
Fife | 10 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
Forth Valley | 3 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 10 |
Greater Glasgow | 19 | 7 | 11 | 21 | 27 | 17 | 11 | 18 |
Highland and Islands | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
Lanarkshire | 6 | 2 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 9 |
North East | 8 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 12 |
Renfrewshire and Inverclyde | 3 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Tayside | 0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
The Lothians and Scottish Borders | 3 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 9 |
Scotland | 67 | 72 | 56 | 68 | 72 | 51 | 58 | 81 |
Source: Recorded crime in Scotland