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The Scottish Government committed in July 2024 to provide £2 million of support for the National Gas Transmission SCO2T Connect project feasibility study, which successfully concluded in March 2025. The conclusions are commercially sensitive and will not be published.

Forestry and Land Scotland currently holds three species licences. The details of which are as follows:

The national Good Food Nation Plan must be published and laid in Parliament before the end of the period of 3 months, beginning with the expiry of the 60 day period of parliamentary scrutiny. For example, if the proposed plan is laid on Friday 27 June, the 3 month period would begin on 30 September, meaning that the final plan would need to be published and laid within the period of 3 months from that date.

The Scottish Government has not commissioned a formal evaluation of the play park renewal programme. The Scottish Government will provide a report on the play park renewal programme once all renewals have been completed by Local Authority partners.

Following receipt of the Climate Change Committee (CCC)’s report, work is ongoing to consider the advice carefully and at pace. My intention is to lay regulations to set Scottish carbon budgets in legislation as soon as possible following Scottish Ministers’ consideration of both the CCC’s advice and the target-setting criteria contained in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. On the same day as laying the regulations, I will publish an accompanying statement providing further detail on the proposed carbon budgets and the Scottish Government’s position.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37973 on 12 June 2025. 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.

Any changes, including transferring the licence or modifying its scope, must be agreed upon in writing with NatureScot.

The current years red squirrel licence granted to Forestry and Land Scotland contains a condition (i.e. four) stating that, this licence can only be used by agents if prior permission has been granted by a FLS Decision Maker.

The current beaver licence states in condition seven that, the licence holder may permit agents or assistants to work under the terms of this licence.

The research licence states in condition two that, this licence only covers work carried out for FLS, by FLS employees and registered volunteers.

We are working with Planning Aid Scotland (PAS) to strengthen local elected member training, addressing the housing emergency by building capacity and improve decision-making within the planning system. The Scottish Government supported PAS in producing a high-level training route map for elected member training. The recommendations have been considered and we expect the next stage to involve formulating and testing pilot training.

The Scottish Government supported Heads of Planning Scotland (HOPS) to take forward work on a set of standard templates for common planning conditions, good practice on Section 75 agreements and aligning consents. HOPS will share outputs with authorities once complete.

Our work with partners on stalled housing sites to overcome barriers and accelerate delivery of new homes continues at pace, and our blog of 9 June provides further details on progress. A progress report has been prepared and is available by contacting DirectorPAR@gov.scot.

The Scottish Government provides regular progress updates on all workstreams via it’s e-alerts, on X @ScotGovPlanning and on LinkedIn.

The Scottish Government recognises the important contribution of the SME sector to the delivery of the right homes in the right places and their role in tackling the Housing Emergency.

The planning appeal and local review fee structure is designed to correspond with the different scales of planning applications. The fees operate under the same general principle i.e. the smaller the development, the lower the fee. The appeal fees are approximately 60% lower than those which are payable for planning applications.

It is important to note that in recent years, over 92% of planning applications have been approved and so the number of appeals arising is relatively low.

A business and regulatory impact assessment was carried out in relation to the new fees regulations. This considered the potential impacts of the regulations on businesses of all sizes.

We will monitor the implementation of the fees regulations and their impact, including on the performance of the appeals system. This will help us to identify, and in the future address, if necessary, any unintended consequences.

We are making good progress delivering across the 23 actions outlined in our Planning and the Housing Emergency Delivery Plan. Our National Planning Hub is now operational and on 22 May a Chief Planner letter was issued inviting authorities to identify areas for surge capacity, particularly on priority areas including housing.

Our work with key partners to overcome barriers and accelerate delivery of new homes continues at pace, and our blog of 9 June provides further details on progress. We are committed to providing stakeholders regular updates on the Delivery Plan and on 30 April, myself and Chief Planner issued a letter detailing progress across all four themes of policy, delivery, capacity and efficiency.

The Scottish Government provides regular progress updates on all workstreams via it’s e-alerts, on X @ScotGovPlanning and on LinkedIn.