Chamber and committees

As part of implementing the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Health Check, the Scottish Government was required to submit changes to the Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP) to the European Commission by 15 July 2009 to show how it was meeting the new challenges set by the European Commission. The Scottish Government has submitted the changes to the SRDP required following consultation with stakeholders on the SRDP''s Programme Monitoring Committee. The European Commission is currently considering those proposals and we expect to have approval from Brussels by the end of 2009. In addition, the Scottish Government is required to report annually to the European Commission on progress towards meeting the commission''s new challenges and is in the processes of setting up systems in order to do so.

The Scottish Government''s thermal guidance will set out policy on the development of CCS technology for both new and existing power plant. This guidance will be issued following consideration of responses to our consultation on this subject last year and the completion of the UK consultation process.

The uniform monitoring of prices across Europe could be a useful tool to help analyse how food affordability differs across countries and how these trends evolve through time. Any monitoring of prices, price transmission and contractual arrangements should, however, be considered against the cost of collecting and processing such data. Careful consideration would need to be given to the implementation arrangements in order to avoid unnecessary burdens on industry.

The government is in favour of farmers organising themselves into co-operatives and other collaborative structures in order to strengthen their commercial position. Financial support for such collaboration can be offered in a number of ways, using both national and EU funding.

The Scottish Government held a consultation on its draft thermal guidance, which included questions on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Carbon Capture Readiness (CCR), which closed earlier this year. Following the consultation, we have had on-going engagement with stakeholders on the development of CCS through workshops and meetings. We have decided to await the completion of the UK consultation process on clean coal before issuing our final thermal generation guidance. This will ensure that the regulatory framework in broad terms is similar across the UK as a whole, with the overall objective of encouraging CCS deployment and the objective of decarbonisation of the electricity sector by 2030. In the meantime, we have set out our position on CCR for all thermal stations above 300MW.

This was set out in an answer to question S3W-24912 on 17 June 2009. 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.

The Scottish Government considers that a carbon capture ready power station will demonstrate consideration of the following criteria:

demonstrate that there is sufficient space on or near the site to accommodate carbon capture equipment in the future;

undertake an assessment into the technical and economic feasibility of retrofitting carbon capture technology;

propose a suitable area of deep geological storage offshore for the storage of captured CO₂;

undertake an assessment into the technical and economic feasibility of transporting the captured CO₂ to their proposed storage area, and

if necessary, apply for and obtain Hazardous Substance Consent (HSC).

This position applies to all new gas, oil, biomass, waste-to-energy and also coal power station applications on or above 300MW. This approach is in line with that taken by the UK Government and reflects the wish for a broadly similar regulatory framework across the UK.

Withdrawals and buy-ins has received only limited use in Scotland. Should the proposed amendment be adopted, the Scottish Government anticipate that it would not have a significant impact in Scotland.

The Scottish Government will issue its final thermal guidance later this year following the completion of the UK consultation process. This thermal guidance will set out policy on the introduction of CCS levels to new and existing power plant, in terms of timing and capacity.

Under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989, Scottish ministers are obliged to accept and consider all thermal power station applications in excess of 50 megawatts of generating capacity. Each application is subject to statutory consultation with the determination taking into account all material issues, including the thermal guidance applicable at the time the decision is made.

All thermal power station applications over 50 megawatts in generating capacity will be considered by Scottish ministers under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989. Following a request from Ayrshire Power Limited, Scottish Ministers provided a scoping opinion on 20 March 2009 on the Hunterston project, which included a wide range of consultee advice on the outline design. The developer is currently working in partnership with stakeholders to develop an application which addresses the relevant planning, community and legislative issues, and we have recommended to the developer that they take into account in any application our draft guidance and the answer to question S3W-24912 on 17 June 2009.

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.