Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-25575

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 7 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what workforce modelling has been carried out regarding an energy policy that has a presumption against any oil and gas exploration.

Oil and gas continue to play an important part in Scotland’s energy transition. The Scottish Government’s focus is on reducing emissions in line with climate change goals, meeting our energy security needs and ensuring a just transition for workforces as North Sea oil and gas resources decline. As part of this approach, our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan (ESJTP) consulted on a presumption against new exploration for oil and gas. Fields that are already identified and progressing through the licensing process towards production would be subject to a robust Climate Compatibility Checkpoint. Following a comprehensive consultation process, the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan will be published by Summer 2024.

In support of the draft ESJTP, the Scottish Government commissioned Ernst and Young to undertake a programme of work to better understand energy requirements as we transition to net zero. This programme of work, which was overseen by an independent panel of experts and has been published in full ( Publication of the outputs from a programme of work to better understand our energy requirements as we transition to net zero - Energy system and Just Transition: independent analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ), includes detailed economic analysis and projections of jobs for Scotland’s offshore energy transition. Findings include that, with the right support as part of a just energy transition, the number of low carbon jobs in Scotland is projected to rise from 19,000 in 2019 to 77,000 by 2050 - delivering a net gain in jobs across the energy production sector overall.

Question reference: S6W-25576

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 7 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has carried out any economic impact analysis regarding an energy policy that has a presumption against any oil and gas exploration.

Question reference: S6W-25542

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 7 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of the workforce was unemployed in each of the last five financial years, also broken down by local authority area.

Estimates for the unemployment rate for people aged 16 years and over in Scotland, broken down by local authority, are shown in the following table for the last five financial years.

Area	Apr 2018 - Mar 2019	Apr 2019 - Mar 2020	Apr 2020 - Mar 2021	Apr 2021 - Mar 2022	Apr 2022 - Mar 2023
Aberdeen City	4.9	2.5	4.7	3.6	4.3
Aberdeenshire	2.6	2.0	3.6	3.0	2.4
Angus	3.7	2.6	4.7	3.1	3.2
Argyll and Bute	3.1	2.6	4.0	2.9	3.1
City of Edinburgh	3.8	2.5	4.3	3.1	2.4
Clackmannanshire	4.3	3.6	4.8	3.4	4.7
Dumfries and Galloway	3.0	2.7	4.7	3.4	4.0
Dundee City	5.8	5.1	5.4	4.6	5.6
East Ayrshire	5.5	4.6	5.2	3.8	3.7
East Dunbartonshire	2.9	2.3	3.7	2.9	2.5
East Lothian	3.6	2.5	4.1	2.8	2.5
East Renfrewshire	3.5	2.4	4.1	3.1	2.5
Falkirk	3.8	3.7	4.2	3.2	3.8
Fife	4.6	4.1	5.0	3.7	3.9
Glasgow City	5.5	4.6	5.6	4.4	4.7
Highland	2.9	2.1	3.8	2.8	2.6
Inverclyde	5.0	4.7	4.9	3.5	3.6
Midlothian	3.5	2.4	4.0	2.3	2.5
Moray	3.7	2.7	4.3	3.2	3.2
Na h-Eileanan Siar	2.5	2.0	3.7	2.6	2.5
North Ayrshire	5.8	5.0	5.9	4.0	3.4
North Lanarkshire	4.4	4.0	5.7	3.7	3.9
Orkney Islands	2.0	1.5	3.1	2.8	2.0
Perth and Kinross	2.9	2.3	4.3	2.5	3.1
Renfrewshire	4.8	3.7	4.4	3.2	3.7
Scottish Borders	3.2	2.8	4.4	3.3	3.5
Shetland Islands	2.1	1.7	3.2	2.1	1.9
South Ayrshire	4.5	3.5	4.9	3.8	4.5
South Lanarkshire	4.0	3.0	4.6	3.1	3.2
Stirling	3.7	3.1	4.0	3.1	3.2
West Dunbartonshire	4.8	4.2	5.2	3.6	4.0
West Lothian	3.9	2.9	4.1	3.0	2.9
Scotland	4.1	3.2	4.7	3.4	3.5

Source: Annual Population Survey, April to March data, ONS and Claimant Count, ONS

Notes:

1. Unemployment figures for local authorities are model-based, except for the Scotland estimates which have been taken directly from the ONS Annual Population Survey (APS) dataset. The model-based estimates improve on the APS estimates by borrowing strength from the claimant count to produce an estimate that is more precise.

2. Data is subject to sampling variation.

3. Rates are based on unrounded numbers.

4. Rates are rounded to the nearest decimal point.

5. Estimates are based on those aged 16 and over.

Question reference: S6O-03182

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when the remaining £46 million of deferred funding from the agriculture budget will be returned.

Question reference: S6W-25278

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has distributed in flood recovery grants to (a) homes and (b) businesses affected by Storm Babet.

The Scottish Government has funded Angus, Aberdeenshire, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross Councils to distribute £516,000 in community recovery grants and £240,000 in business recovery grants to eligible homes and businesses affected by Storm Babet, totalling £756,000.

In addition, £100,000 was provided to Angus Council through the Homelessness Prevention Fund to help families who had been flooded to rebuild their lives, and £1.8m was pledged to support farmers to help repair damaged floodbanks. Ministers also activated the Bellwin Scheme to help affected local authorities with revenue and uninsurable expenditure resulting from the storm, and extended the eligibility period of claims from two to four months.

Question reference: S6W-25282

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many of its civil servants are currently employed in the Aberdeen City Council area.

Question reference: S6W-25265

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 5 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the percentage change in the amount allocated to the Just Transition Fund is from financial year 2023-24 to 2024-25.

In 2024-25 there has been a regrettable 51.2% reduction in capital allocated to the Just Transition Fund in 2024-25.

There has been a 100% reduction in financial transactions allocated to the Just Transition Fund in 2024-25.

The change in budget allocation to the Just Transition Fund is due to a reduction in capital and financial transactions funding allocations from the UK Government which the Fund relies on. I remain entirely committed to the multi-annual funding commitment to provide £500m over ten years. 75m has been provided to date and 16m will be spent in 24/25.

Question reference: S6W-25267

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 5 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of spend from the Just Transition Fund in financial year 2023-24.

A total of 20 projects are currently being delivered through the Just Transition Fund in 2023-24.

Spend is still ongoing to March end 2024 with just under £12 million drawn down by projects to date. This is comprised of £10.3 million in capital, £1 million in financial transactions and £671,000 in resource.

A further £3.15 million of 2023-24 forecast spend has been reprofiled into 2024-25 financial year.

In addition, £25 million was allocated to the Scottish National Investment Bank for 2023-24, to be invested in the North East on a commercial basis, in line with the Bank’s Investment Strategy and its Missions, including to support a Just Transition to net zero.

Question reference: S6W-25266

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 5 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of spend from the Just Transition Fund in financial year 2022-23.

The Just Transition Fund has allocated £75 million to date, supporting projects and communities across the North East and Moray to create jobs, support innovation, and secure the highly skilled workforce of the future.

A total of 23 projects were delivered through the Just Transition Fund in 2022-23.

Spend totalled £10.9 million comprised of £9.93 million in capital, £500,000 in financial transactions and £465,000 in resource funding support. A breakdown across projects is detailed in the flowing table:

Energy Transition Skills Hub (formerly Advanced Manufacturing Skills Hub	£1,180,000 (capital)
Cabrach Distillery	£361,767.25 (capital)
Climate Assemblies Pilot	£214,055 (resource)
Community Capacity Support	£23,968 (resource)
Digital Innovation Lab	£313,982.04 (capital)
Easter Anguston Farm	£504,446.86 (capital)
Energy Skills Passport	1,871,967.88 (capital)
Findhorn Ecovillage	£226,775 (capital)
Findhorn Watershed Initiative	£139,972.45 (capital)
Hydrogen Offshore Production (HOP2)	£126,000 (capital)
Hydroglen	£262,270.09 (capital)
Just Transition Hub	£243,601.16 (capital)
Moray Council Just Transition Masterplan	£250,544.62 (capital)
NESS Carbon Capture Feasibility Study	£96,750 (capital)
North East Adventure Tourism (NEAT)	£397,000 (capital)
Participatory Budgeting	£1 million (capital), £200,000 (resource)
Pilot Energy Skills Project	£39,960 (capital)
SeedPod	£500,000 (capital)
Social Enterprise Just Transition Fund	£476k (capital), £500k (FT’s), £27,180 (resource)
Sustainable Solvent Recovery/EV Battery Recycling	£457,559 (capital)
Supply Chain Pathway and Energy Transition Challenge Fund	£1,299,598 (capital)
Tidal Rotor Generator	£71,200 (capital)
Moray Net Zero Bottlenecks	£41,596.47 (capital)
Wave Energy Converter	£70,000 (capital)

Question reference: S6W-25735

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-25234 by Fiona Hyslop on 22 February 2024, in light of the answer to question S6F-02532 not providing the information requested regarding timeframes for the ScotRail consultation on alcohol on trains, whether it will confirm by what date (a) the consultation will be completed and (b) a decision will be made on reallowing alcohol at certain times.

Tell us your views

Seòmar agus comataidhean