I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-39825 on 9 March 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

This information is not held centrally and I have asked the Chief Executive of Scottish Water to reply to the member.

The expected income to Forestry Commission Scotland by 2020 is £30 million per year from the development of renewable energy facilities on the national forest estate.

Our woodland creation targets are mainly achieved through grant support under the Scotland Rural Development Programme together with the Forest Leasing Scheme and some direct planting undertaken by Forestry Commission Scotland. The 2011-12 Draft Budget provides sufficient funding to meet 10,000 hectares of woodland creation and we have actually increased grants available for forestry by £8.9 million to £36 million.

Our policy is to continue to allow sufficient funding to achieve 10,000 hectares each year, which will deliver the 100 million trees target by 2015.

The Scottish Government has not had any discussions with Research Councils UK on this matter, but has held discussions with the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) on research collaboration. Marine Scotland will be involved in the steering groups for a number of relevant projects.

Mitigation can be identified at the strategic level through the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Habitats Regulations Appraisal (HRA) processes. The Scottish Government has undertaken a strategic SEA and HRA for offshore wind energy in Scottish Territorial Waters. An SEA for marine renewables (wave and tidal) was undertaken in 2007. Work is currently beginning on an Appraisal of Sustainability for marine renewables which will refresh the 2007 SEA and also include a strategic level HRA. Further detailed assessment and identification of appropriate mitigation measures for individual developments must be made at the project level.

The Survey, Deploy and Monitor policy, which is currently being developed by Marine Scotland and SNH, will provide a pragmatic, risk based approach to allow the deployment of renewables and will be a key tool to facilitate the delivery of initial demonstration projects. In addition, research and the demonstration strategy are focused on tackling environmental issues.

The licensing process delivers mitigation by ensuring that any licence issued for relevant activities has appropriate conditions. Any conditions put in place with regard to a licence would be enforced by Marine Scotland.

A strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of the National Renewables Infrastructure Plan (N-RIP) was undertaken, in accordance with the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005, and the Environmental Report was published for consultation in September 2010. The purpose of the SEA was to identify potential environmental effects and measures for their mitigation, and to ensure that this information is made available when decisions are made by site owners to progress individual sites contained within the N-RIP. In this way, it was considered that the SEA would assist site developers and investors by providing information about the potential environmental issues pertaining to the development of the individual sites, and how they can best be overcome.

The Energy Saving Scotland home loans pathfinder scheme was available across Scotland and home loans have continued to be available in Home Insulation Scheme and Universal Home Insulation Scheme areas.

Following the completion of the home loans evaluation and in the context of the Feed-In Tariff and Renewable Heat Incentive, we have just announced a further round of home loans funding to support micro renewables installations. More information on this scheme is available from the Energy Saving Scotland advice network who can be contacted on 0800 512 012.

The Scottish Government carried out a consultation on Conserve and Save: Consultation on the Energy Efficiency Action Plan for Scotland in late 2009. The analysis of the consultation responses were published in April 2010 on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/04/15164620/0.

Annex 1, question 28 provides details to the consultation question on whether local authorities should retain a duty to promote energy efficiency for housing in their area.

Half of all respondents favoured the alternative mechanism of incorporation into the Local Housing Strategy and Single Outcome Agreement processes. 21% supported the retention of a HECA duty while 29% made other suggestions or comments.

Young Scot used their networks and experience to establish the teams. The process of identifying locations included ensuring that the teams should represent urban and rural areas.

The process also involved ensuring that participants included young people of different ages in full time education, and young people who are currently not in education or employment. Two schools and one training organisation are involved in the local investigation teams, which are based in Stirling, Lochgilphead and Kilmarnock, and worked with the young people attending their organisations to identify team members.