Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government has no additional plans to provide specific funding for local road bridges. However, an additional £793 million cash funding has been provided to local government in 2023-24. It is the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Scottish Ministers are responsible for trunk road bridges and structures and plan to invest £85 million in 2023-24 on maintenance and the operations of trunk road structures.

Officials received a scoping paper from Police Scotland that outlines their programme for delivery, particularly on what they are looking to deliver and a detailed timescale. My officials met with Police Scotland on 13 July and during the meeting they discussed the development of the business case. The business case will look at the service design, delivery, organisation policy and life time management of the National Dashcam Safety Portal.

My officials remain in discussion with Police Scotland on this matter and will meet with them again later in August as we look to progress this important road safety initiative.

The Scottish Government does not hold or collate any information relating to the registered address of companies who own wind turbines in Scotland.

The UK Government’s Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) tracks the progress of UK renewable electricity projects. The database can be filtered to show all projects in Scotland and their operators.

Transport Scotland is undertaking a National Speed Management Review to support a range of policies that help our Government’s national outcomes and indicators. These include related policy drivers such as better road safety and health outcomes, promotion of active travel, climate change mitigation, place making and economic growth.

The review covers comprehensive analysis of all types of speed management policies and initiatives in Scotland as well as a review of what has been introduced in other countries throughout the world.

The process will also include a stakeholder and public consultation later this year to consider their views of whether any changes to speed limit policies, including HGV speed limits and speed management measures should be introduced as part of our speed management plan.

We have published a housing guide which provides information about applying for social housing in Scotland. This sets out how Service leavers and veterans can obtain clear information about the housing allocation policy for the area where they want to live and their level of priority for social housing.

We have also revised the social housing allocations practice guidance Social housing allocations in Scotland: practice guide - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) to include a specific section on Armed Forces and veterans to help landlords consider the needs of this group in their allocation policies and respond appropriately.

The Scottish Government does not hold or collate any information relating to the future decommissioning of onshore wind turbines.

In respect of offshore wind turbines, none are due to be decommissioned in the next five years.

Zero Waste Scotland published a report in April 2021 titled ‘ The future of onshore wind decommissioning in Scotland’ . The report provides projections for the number of onshore wind turbines in Scotland that will be decommissioned up to 2050.

Research published in 2020 (commissioned by Zero Waste Scotland in partnership with Transport Scotland and Scottish Enterprise) assessed the current and future use of batteries in Scotland across the entire length of the battery supply chain, from chemicals to end of life. This research is published and is available here: Battery use in Scotland now and in the future | Zero Waste Scotland. This research suggests that by 2030 there could be up to 16000 tonnes of vehicle batteries available in Scotland for second life purposes.

Due to the novelty of batteries being used in their second life the market opportunities and business models for their use or disposal are not currently certain. Current UK Extended Producer Responsibility legislation dictates that the battery manufacturer remains responsible for the collection, recycling and disposal of the battery, meaning that it will be at the manufacturer’s discretion whether they use a domestic reprocessing facility located in Scotland or the UK

Urban mining” is not a term that is in use by the Scottish Government, but we understand it to refer to the recovery of critical raw materials from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

The WEEE Regulations 2013, which are the regulations underpinning WEEE recycling in the UK, do not require information on recovery of critical minerals to be reported and so the Scottish Government does not hold this information. Along with the other UK governments, we intend to consult later this year on a suite of reforms to the WEEE Regulations; we are considering as part of that measures to increase the recovery of critical raw materials.

National Investment Bank sets out in detail its approach to assessing its impact, and its impact to date, in its annual Impact Report. That sets out how the Bank works across its portfolio to assess emissions generated, to support emissions mitigation and to support circular economy initiatives where possible.

In particular, the member may wish to be aware that the Bank has committed to adopt the Task Force on Climate related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) recommendations as its climate risk and reporting framework. It has further committed that from financial year 2023/24 all investments will involve a commitment to develop a Carbon Management or Net Zero plan, thereby ensuring that all the Bank’s capital supports Scotland’s transition to net zero. The Bank is also working with current investees to support them in the development of such plans and strategies. The Bank then reports on emissions associated with its investment activity through its annual Impact report.

The Bank’s Impact Report 2023 is available at: https://www.thebank.scot/impact-report .

Nature Scot collect data for bird strikes at onshore wind farms via their online reporting tool. The reporting is voluntary, meaning it is likely they only receive reports on a proportion of strikes. Where possible the data is supplemented with information they receive from general correspondence.

Two offshore wind farm projects have commissioned studies to detect bird strikes. Kincardine offshore wind farm have eight cameras installed on each of their wind turbines. The first study from April 2020 to October 2021 detected one strike. The second study began in January 2022 and will complete in January 2024 and has so far detected two strikes.

Aberdeen offshore wind farm has a radar monitoring system deployed on one turbine. This monitored seabird flight activity during the breeding season and post-breeding season from April to October 2020 and 2021. No strikes were recorded during monitoring.