Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 3410 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S4W-13544

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-13003 by Fergus Ewing on 5 March 2013, whether it will provide a breakdown of the sectors and nature of the estimated 28,000 jobs that the National Renewables Infrastructure Fund aims to help deliver.

The figure of up to 28,000 jobs in offshore wind were estimated in the Creating an Industry report commissioned from independent consultants IPA Energy and Water Economics which provided the baseline data for Scotland's Offshore Wind Route Map. The report estimated job creation across a range of sectors from development through supply and installation to operation but did not attribute specific job numbers to individual tasks.

Question reference: S4W-13542

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-13003 by Fergus Ewing on 5 March 2013, whether it will provide an estimate of the jobs delivered by each of the projects supported by the National Renewables Infrastructure Fund and whether it is on course to create the estimated 28,000 jobs.

In the National Renewables Infrastructure Plan (N-RIP 2) an analysis was carried out to identify the potential direct job benefits arising from the development of all the sites identified. This illustrated that should all the sites be developed for their assumed set of uses Scotland would benefit from 5180 direct manufacturing jobs. This analysis does not include multiplier effects or jobs arising from research and development, installation processes and on-going operation and maintenance jobs. For further detail please refer to N-RIP 2 Report, Section 7.

The projects that have been supported and those under development indicate that this magnitude of direct manufacturing employment is achievable.

The 28,000 jobs is a longer term target. Scotland is already seeing significant progress with announcements from inward investors such as Gamesa, Samsung Heavy Industries, Areva of their intention to locate manufacturing in Scotland and announcements by Scottish companies of investments in the sector.

Question reference: S4W-13551

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 21 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-13001 by Fergus Ewing on 5 March 2013, how many expressions of interest were received for the National Renewables Infrastructure Fund in (a) 2010, (b) 2011 and (c) 2012 and have been received in 2013.

Through the development of the National Renewables Infrastructure Plan both Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise worked closely with the identified ports and therefore encouraged them to submit expressions of interest in the National Renewables Infrastructure Fund (NRIF).

As a result the majority of interest was noted in the first two years of the Fund, as shown below.

2010: 27

2011: 12

2012: 3

2013: 0

The call remains open for those ports keen to take advantage of the offshore renewables opportunity.

Question reference: S4W-13545

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-13004 by Fergus Ewing on 5 March 2013, how it will assess the economic benefit of expenditure from the National Renewables Infrastructure Fund.

Question reference: S4W-13543

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-13003 by Fergus Ewing on 5 March 2013, how it will measure its success in delivering the estimated 28,000 jobs that the National Renewables Infrastructure Fund aims to help deliver.

Projects supported by Scottish Enterprise or Highlands and Islands Enterprise develop a Monitoring and Evaluation framework, which follows Treasury Green Book approach. Overall at a programme level Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise monitor milestones that have been identified as forming the critical path to the realisation of the 28,000 jobs estimate.

A number of key milestones relate to actions which are outwith the control of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, such as electricity market reform, consents for site development, grid connections and financing of offshore wind projects. Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise work with a range of stakeholders to articulate the need for progress on these issues.

Question reference: S4W-13554

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what projects the Renewable Energy Investment Fund has supported and what private sector support was leveraged for each.

Question reference: S4W-13550

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-12998 by Fergus Ewing on 5 March 2013, what funding packages are in place for the ports not listed in the answer and how much private sector funding has been leveraged; how many jobs have been delivered, and what economic benefit has been assessed in each case.

Question reference: S4W-13559

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has estimated the number of jobs that will be delivered by projects receiving support from the Renewable Energy Investment Fund.

Question reference: S4W-13558

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the economic benefit gained by moving £15 million from the Renewable Energy Investment Fund to other projects as a result of the Budget (Scotland) (No.2) Bill passed on 6 February 2013 and what these projects are.

The funding for renewable energy projects through the Renewable Energy Investment Fund has been re-profiled to reflect industry needs. In line with the overall economic strategy set out within the Draft Budget, the assessment was that the maximum benefit to the economy and jobs would be through redirecting any unused funding to alternative short term uses, such as the additional shovel ready projects announced in June and December 2012, whilst ensuring the funding will be available in the medium term when required for renewable projects.

Question reference: S4W-13552

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications it has received for funding from the Renewable Energy Investment Fund.

Since launched in October 2012, there has been a good level of interest in REIF from a wide variety of sources with 95 enquiries received which have been, or are being, considered by the REIF delivery team covering all priority sectors; of these, some have been declined as being unsuitable, others are still at an early information enquiry stage. Several of these are expected to progress through to active and live projects during the course of the fund.