Potential impacts on communities, nature, and cultural heritage, including the cumulative effects of developments, are important considerations in the decision-making process. When an application is received, a full public consultation is carried out, and Scottish Ministers invite representations from members of the public and consult the appropriate community councils, alongside other public bodies. The decision whether to grant consent is taken only after careful consideration of environmental information, consultee responses and public representations.

The Energy Consents Unit administers applications made to Scottish Ministers for determination in relation to energy infrastructure. In reaching their decision, the Scottish Ministers will determine applications in accordance with legislative requirements and relevant policy. The application process allows rural communities to provide views on the development, which are taken into consideration when final decisions are made.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to introduce a centralised fee for multi-agency involvement in environmental authorisations. SEPA is Scotland’s environmental regulator, responsible for granting environmental authorisations, and regularly consults and updates the Environmental Regulations (Scotland) Charging Scheme 2018 for fees and charges.

The Bill will place legal responsibilities on owners of large landholdings to set out how they use their land and how that contributes to key public policy priorities, like addressing climate change and protecting and restoring nature.

Also, in addition to my answer to S6W-32938 on 17 January 2025 about the new land management tenancy, tenant farmers and small landholders will have more equality of opportunity to deliver net zero improvements to the land they farm and cultivate. This will enable them to become more sustainable and productive in their farming and be rewarded for their investment of time and resources.

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

SEPA has been preparing for implementation of the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025 for several years, investing in new systems, people, processes and support mechanisms to ensure a smooth transition to the integrated authorisation framework.

Since 2021, SEPA has developed and launched on-line services for waste carrier registrations, existing private sewage treatment systems, simple waste exemptions, and radioactive substance notification. In July 2024, SEPA launched a new digital service for those who want to apply for an authorisation for a new small-scale sewage treatment system.

When the draft Regulations come into force, SEPA will have a system that will allow all new applications to be received, paid for and issued digitally. To ensure that this system will be ready, SEPA has been developing and testing prototypes of the systems and webpages that easily direct customers and stakeholders to the information they need and takes them through the application process.

The Land Reform Bill will support community ownership through advance notice of certain sales from large landholdings. Communities may then be able to purchase this land, including through existing community rights to buy powers, where a community body may not have expected that the land would be sold.

On sustainable land use practices, Part 2 of the Bill provides for a new land management tenancy to enable people and communities to undertake a range of land management activities; helping to deliver net zero, biodiversity and sustainable and regenerative agricultural ambitions.

The 2024-25 Budget increased funding for SEPA by 7.3% recognising the pivotal role it plays to protect and maintain a safe, healthy and sustainable environment for the people of Scotland. The draft budget for 2025-26 includes a budget increase for SEPA of 5% compared to 2024-25 budget bill allocations.

Implementing the integrated authorisation framework is identified as a high priority in SEPA’s 2024-27 Corporate Plan. Thereafter in each year, SEPA’s annual operating plan sets out how it will deliver these priorities, alongside meeting its statutory obligations, and what resources will be allocated.

As SEPA are directly responsible for its day-to-day operations, I have asked Nicole Paterson, Chief Executive of SEPA to respond. Her response is as follows:

During normal working hours the customer hub will handle any queries it receives in relation to SEPA’s role and operation which will be directed as appropriate. This includes any queries received in relation to activities controlled through the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025. During out of hours periods, the customer hub service continues to provide an immediate response to emergency calls. Any non-urgent calls not requiring escalation, e.g. not related to an urgent environmental event, are triaged and responded to during standard working hours.

Whilst not aware of any specific actions at this time with regards to illegally modified e-bikes on our road network in Aberdeen, we are aware that the matter has been raised and discussed within the Road Safety North East Scotland (RSNES) Lead Officer Group, and at a national level via the Motorcycle Focus Group in conjunction with discussion on e-motorcycles. At this group, Transport Scotland statisticians were asked to obtain more specific casualty data about e-motorcycles to help understand the extent of the issue at a national level.

Addressing the role of modified e-bikes/e-motorcycles in antisocial behaviour, and serious and organised crime, is a matter for Police Scotland.

I would also refer the member to the answer to question S6W-32685 on 13 January 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.

Applying the fit and proper person test in the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025 to all four of SEPA’s regulatory regimes will assist in keeping criminals and illegal operators out of the waste management industry.