Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-16250

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 24 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has done to analyse the accuracy of the statistic regarding a £20 billion finance gap for nature in Scotland, as used in the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy to 2045: Tackling the Nature Emergency in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-16247

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 24 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what commercial benefits it anticipates that financial partners, including Hampden & Co and Lombard Odier Investment Managers, will receive as part of the private finance investment pilot to mobilise £2 billion in landscape scale restoration of native woodland.

Question reference: S6W-16249

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 24 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it was able to determine that £2 billion in funding could be leveraged from the private finance investment pilot that was announced on 1 March 2023 on the NatureScot website.

Question reference: S6W-16202

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on what the average contract for difference (CfD) price is for an operating (a) offshore and (b) onshore wind farm in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-16246

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 24 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates the first private finance investment pilot, focused on the Borders Forest Trust "Wild Heart" project in southern Scotland and expected to begin in spring 2023, will conclude, and how much funding it will provide to fund this pilot.

Question reference: S6W-16251

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 19 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will undertake a review of the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy to 2045: Tackling the Nature Emergency in Scotland, in light of the new assessment report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and, if so, when it anticipates any such work will take place.

The draft Scottish Biodiversity Strategy reflects the interdependence of climate, biodiversity and the close linkages between climate change adaptation, mitigation, ecosystem health, human well-being and sustainable development in the same way as the IPCC’s 6 th Synthesis Report. We are currently reviewing the draft Strategy in light of the outcomes of COP15 and in doing so, we will take into account other significant developments such as the IPCC’s assessment report. A consultation on the Strategic Framework for Biodiversity in Scotland, comprising the Strategy and its first Delivery Plan, will take place in summer 2023, followed by publication of the final Strategy later in 2023.

Question reference: S6W-16279

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 19 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether it plans to make road improvements to increase road safety at Toll of Birness on the A90; what the evidence base is that indicates that any such road improvements will increase safety specifically at that junction, and, if (a) it has no such road improvement plans and (b) no evidence base exists, whether it will confirm this.

Transport Scotland undertakes an annual assessment of the safety performance of the entire trunk road network, including the A90. This assessment considers accident patterns and rates in the form of Route Accident Reduction Plans (RARP), and screens all locations where three or more personal injury accidents have occurred in a three-year period. This ensures that full consideration is given to accidents that may be spread along a specific corridor. Further investigations are then carried out and, where appropriate, mitigation measures are prioritised for delivery.

Two interactive signs were erected in 2017 with a third interactive sign to supplement the northbound signs erected in 2021. These signs alert drivers to vehicles turning at the junction and encourage drivers to drive within the speed limit. Other work involved an additional northbound advance direction sign. There are currently no further road safety improvement plans at A90 Toll of Birness, however, this will be monitored through the Annual Road Safety Review.

Question reference: S6W-16278

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 19 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the timetabled dwell time at (a) Usan and (b) Montrose junction (signals MN39 and MN5) is, and on how many occasions in the last 24 months the dwell time has been exceeded to the extent that trains were officially "delayed" on this section of the railway.

Question reference: S6W-16621

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 14 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on what it classifies as "maintenance and safety schemes" on each of Scotland's A roads in each year since 2007, also broken down by individual A road.

Question reference: S6W-16254

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 12 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the announcement of 13 projects being selected as part of the Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing process on 24 March 2023, whether any (a) funding and (b) polices will be introduced to increase skills development and recruit and train any workers required to support the anticipated energy projects.

INTOG provides significant support to the delivery of the oil and gas sector’s decarbonisation targets in the North Sea Transition Deal and offers the opportunity for the transfer of skills from one sector to the other.

With INTOG projects, we are supporting growth in the supply chain to service ScotWind and promoting the transfer of knowledge and skills across the energy sectors. We are working with the energy sector to plan for a multi-skilled workforce, one that can benefit from opportunities across the energy system.

Our £500m Just Transition Fund is providing financial support to help energy workers reskill and find good jobs and to build confidence in the potential for a just transition. Funding from the Just Transition Fund has already been allocated to support development of the energy skills passport; to create an advanced manufacturing skills hub in Aberdeen and a pilot scheme with the National Energy Skills Accelerator to determine the skills required for an energy transition.

Our National Strategy for Economic Transformation makes clear that we will launch new skills guarantee for workers in carbon intensive industries and together with Skills Development Scotland, we launched the Green Jobs Workforce Academy, a national long term programme to support the retraining and upskilling needed for the transition to net zero.

INTOG will further support the transfer of skills between renewables and oil and gas sectors, with the 2021 Robert Gordon University's Workforce Review suggesting that more than 90% of the UK’s oil and gas workforces have medium to high skills transferability and are well positioned to work in adjacent energy sectors, and that a majority of offshore workers could be delivering low carbon energy by 2030.

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