Chamber and committees

The vast majority of funding available to councils is provided by means of a block grant from the Scottish Government. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on maintenance of local roads and bridges, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Scottish Government has provided an additional £570 million to local government in 2023-24, however it is for locally elected representatives to manage the allocation of resources and the level of services that are delivered to their local communities.

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 (the Act) sets a default position that no carbon credits purchased by Scottish Ministers can be used to meet any of Scotland’s statutory greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, and the Scottish Government currently has no plans to change this by regulation using powers under the Act.

The Scottish Government is considering the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) latest advice on greenhouse gas emissions targets and will respond as soon as possible. Under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, the CCC’s advice on future target levels must be sought at least every five years to ensure they are still in line with, among other things, current international carbon reporting practice.

The Scottish Government provides grant funding to HIAL to operate the entire business, comprising all airports and a range of corporate and support functions. We do not hold information broken down by airport and by corporate function. I have asked HIAL to write to Mr McArthur to see if it can provide more detailed information

Local authorities are responsible for the development and delivery of flood protection schemes. The 2015-2021 Flood Risk Management Strategies included 42 formal flood protection schemes. Local authorities were expected to start work on development of these schemes by 2021. However as flood protection schemes can have significant impacts on individuals, communities and the environment, and so require careful and detailed planning and consultation, it was recognised that construction work may not be completed within the 2015-2021 timeframe.

Schemes (a) under construction are as follows:

No further flood protection schemes or engineering works have been removed from the list of the 42 formal flood protection schemes since the answer to question S6W-05146.

Flood Risk Management Plans for the period 2022-2028 were approved by Scottish Ministers in December 2021 and published by SEPA in January 2022. They coordinate the efforts of all organisations that tackle flooding to where the risk of flooding and benefits of investment are greatest. They state the objectives, as agreed by responsible authorities, for tackling floods in areas at risk of flooding. Actions that will then deliver these objectives are described and prioritised in six-year planning cycles.

The plans contain proposals for a number of new flood protection schemes. Local authorities are now in the process of preparing Local Flood Risk Management Plans (LFRMPs) which are due to be published by the end of December 2022. The LFRMPs will provide more detail on how, and when, the actions set out in the Flood Risk Management Plans for 2022-2028 will be delivered.

Crown Estate Scotland does not have powers to issue a Compulsory Purchase Order.

We are currently reviewing the F-gas Regulation jointly with the UK and Welsh Governments. We will publish an assessment report on the efficacy of the Regulation in the coming weeks.

Following the report, we will jointly consider policy options to ensure our regulations continue to support our ambitious Net Zero targets. As part of this, we will also consider other important issues including leakage incidents. We expect to publish a joint consultation on these future policy proposals in due course.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12543 on 13 December 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers