Chamber and committees

Access to the best and most up-to-date advice is essential to any business. Aimed specifically at farmers and crofters across Scotland the new Farm Advisory Service, provides a faster and less complicated entry point to a range of relevant practical advice, information and tools including business efficiency, green farming and climate change advice.

Full details are available at: https://www.fas.scot/

The Scottish Government actively promotes the GB-wide non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme. Keen to maximise its up-take and its benefits to business, we provide a wide range of support programmes aimed specifically at Scottish businesses.

Resource Efficient Scotland (RES) provide free advice and support to businesses looking to implement energy and resource efficiency measures, to reduce costs and increase economic competitiveness. Loans of up to £100,000 are available through the Resource Efficient Scotland SME Loan scheme, providing finance for the installation of energy and resource efficiency measures and renewable energy technologies. The Green Network for Businesses gives SMEs the opportunity to visit green businesses within their area and experience first-hand the installations that help cut energy costs. Administered by Energy Saving Trust (EST), the District Heating Loan Fund offers low-interest loans to local authorities, registered social landlords, small and medium sized enterprises and energy services companies to support the development of district heating networks in Scotland.

Additionally, we recognise the role of a strong supply chain in facilitating the up-take of renewable technologies. EST delivers our Supply Chain programme, helping Scottish businesses to participate effectively in the supply chain for energy efficiency and renewable measures. This is helping to strengthen the market for renewable technologies, supporting more installations and accreditations under the non-domestic RHI.

The UK Government has recently proposed a number of changes to both domestic and non-domestic RHI schemes, which has resulted in some uncertainty among Scottish businesses, with many delaying capital investment until clarity is given. Despite this, Scotland continues to punch above its weight in its share of both domestic and non-domestic RHI accreditations, accounting for 20% and 19% of UK totals respectively.

The Scottish Government participated actively in the June 2016 examination conducted in Geneva by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and welcomes the emphasis placed by the Committee to the need for practical action to protect and progress the right to food.

The Scottish Government’s response to the report of the Independent Short Life Working Group on Food Poverty will be published in the near future.

It is a priority for this Government to ensure everyone has access to a warm and affordable home and we are committed to tackling fuel poverty and improving energy efficiency. By 2021 we will have committed over £1 billion pounds to tackling fuel poverty and improving energy efficiency, building on the over 1 million energy efficiency measures delivered to almost 1 million Scottish households since 2008. In addition we will be carefully considering the recommendations of the Strategic Working Group and the Rural Fuel Poverty Task Force which will inform our new fuel poverty strategy.

Control of airspace is reserved to Westminster and governed by the UK Civil Aviation Authority. It is for Edinburgh Airport to ensure that their Airspace Change Programme complies with all relevant legislation.

The 2016 Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) Technology survey showed that only 4% of farmers had engaged with the programme. This evidence suggests that the programme has a strong record on delivering for those farmers who have taken part. Our focus now lies on helping more farmers access practical advice on sustainable and profitable voluntary measures.

The UK Climate Change Committee have recommended further steps to assess the effectiveness of Farming For a Better Climate, and we are in discussion with them regarding this.

We announced the introduction of compulsory soil testing last year, and since then we have been working on the detail with a range of scientific, environmental and industry stakeholders. We are considering options for compulsory soil testing to be part of the package of measures to reduce emissions from agriculture in the Climate Change Plan, the third report on policies and proposals which will be published in draft in January next year.

While aviation policy is largely Reserved to the UK Government, the Scottish Government ensures that all its policies are compliant with all legal and international obligations through a robust policy development and impact assessment process including Environmental Impact Assessments and public consultations.

The Scottish Government grant funds the Energy Saving Trust for a range of transport programmes, which includes fuel efficient driver training sessions. These sessions are promoted to organisations through the local EST transport advisor network and are usually promoted with further advice to businesses on reducing the carbon impact of their transport. Additionally, individuals can book a session through the Home Energy Scotland advice line.

These sessions are free to the participant and up to 3,000 places a year are funded. Each session lasts approximately 50 minutes. Sessions are also available for Electric Vehicle drivers, which last approximately 2 hours. More information is available at http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/scotland/businesses-organisations/transport/fuelgood-driver-training

The Scottish Government is encouraging the uptake of agroforestry through a new grant as part of the Forestry Grant Scheme within Scotland Rural Development Programme 2014-2020. This is the first time a grant specifically for agroforestry has been available in Scotland. It is also working closely with farming stakeholders to encourage greater levels of woodland planting as part of farming enterprises.