Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government will continue to lead work to support the delivery of Low Carbon Scotland - Meeting the Emissions Reduction Targets 2013-2027. It is our intention that RPP2 (the second report on proposals and policies) will be delivered in full, and where policies and proposals are not being delivered, we will look to bring forward new policies with the same, if not greater, level of emissions abatement.

The Cabinet Sub-Committee on Climate Change has been established to ensure climate change policy is given the highest priority across all Government objectives. The Cabinet Sub Committee met for the second time on 8 January 2015 and discussed both the good progress made to date and the policy options available across the members’ portfolios to help ensure Scotland stays on track to meet its world-leading climate change targets. These included options in energy, housing, transport, local government and communities, land use, agriculture and forestry.

Transport Scotland assisted the City of Edinburgh Council with the evaluation of their 20 mph speed limit pilot scheme in South Central Edinburgh which demonstrated that traffic speeds can be reduced without the need for additional traffic calming measures. There is overwhelming evidence that the frequency and severity of accidents rises disproportionately with speed, which is why the Scottish Government supports the use of 20 mph speed limits and zones, where appropriate.

The Scottish Government recognises that poor air quality can impact on health, and those with existing heart or lung conditions are more susceptible to the increased health risk associated with air pollution. However, due to the wide range of factors that can impact on the health of patients with these types of conditions, it is not possible to accurately assess the financial cost directly attributable to poor air quality.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-24387 on 17 February 2015.

The Air Quality Standards (Scotland) Regulations 2010 transpose into domestic legislation the requirements of Directive 2008/50/EC on ambient air quality and clean air for Europe.

Any legal action taken for breaches of the directive is by the European Commission against individual EU member states. The UK is currently the subject of formal infraction proceedings relating to non-compliance with the nitrogen dioxide limit values. The vast majority of other EU member states are subject to similar action.

The UK Government, in partnership with the devolved administrations, has formally responded to the commission’s infraction letter outlining the actions being taken to ensure compliance as soon as possible. We are currently awaiting the commission’s response.

We are also updating the action plans referred to in the answer to S4W-24387, which outline the national and local policies being implemented in relation to air quality.

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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Crofting (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2013 simply made it possible for owner-occupier crofters to apply to the Crofting Commission to decroft the whole or part of their crofts, and for the Crofting Commission to give directions on such applications.

The Crofting Commission will consider such applications on the merits of individual cases and decide whether the land in question should remain subject to crofting tenure or not.

The total estimated and reported actual carbon savings from projects in receipt of grant awards from the Climate Challenge Fund since 2008 are 1,080,411 tCO₂e and 281,597 tCO₂e respectively.

These figures are not directly comparable. Of the 266 projects funded since 2012 many are still underway or have not yet started. Consequently, only 34 final project reports with estimates of actual carbon savings have been received. Additionally, when the fund was first introduced there was not the same requirement, as now, to submit carbon reduction figures in final project reports and a standard methodology for doing so was not introduced until 2012.

As part of their local air quality management responsibilities under the Environment Act 1995 and associated regulations and guidance, all local authorities are required to submit an annual report to the Scottish Government summarising their work on air quality during the previous year. Where an air quality management area is in place, this report should also describe progress with implementing the measures in the air quality action plan.

These reports are formally appraised by the government and feedback is provided to each authority, especially focusing on aspects where it is considered that insufficient progress is being made.

All reports are publically available on the Scottish air quality website:www.scottishairquality.co.uk In addition, many local authorities make the reports available on their own websites.

The Air Quality Standards (Scotland) Regulations 2010 transpose into domestic legislation the requirements of Directive 2008/50/EC on ambient air quality and clean air for Europe.

Although local authority action has an important contribution to make, responsibility for complying with the directive lies with EU member states. The four UK administrations have jointly produced a series of action plans outlining the national and local policies which are being implemented to ensure compliance with the directive. The UK Government is also required to submit an annual compliance report to the European Commission. The commission may take any action it deems appropriate if it considers that insufficient progress is being made.

The plans and annual reports can be viewed on the UK-Air website: http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/

The Scottish Government recognises that this is an ambitious target that will require efforts to address the barriers which are preventing new planting and to increase the demand for planting grants.

The Scottish Rural Development Plan 2015-2020 includes new forestry proposals, which should encourage more woodland creation applications. Programme approval from the European Commission is expected in 2015, however the new Forestry Grant Scheme will open for applications from mid-March 2015.

The following table shows the amount of new planting since 2012:

When the new scheme opens in March 2015, Forestry Commission Scotland expect to approve an additional 1,500 hectares of planting for 2015-2016 planting season giving a forecast figure of new planting in 2015-2016 of 7,000 hectares.

Since the National Forest Land Scheme opened in 2005, there have been 55 applications approved to date covering 12,976 hectares.

A detailed breakdown of all the applications broken down by project category, tenure type and land area is shown in the following tables:

National Forest Land Scheme applications approved and sold or leased

National Forest Land Scheme approved but not yet sold or leased

National Forest Land Scheme approved but withdrawn