Chamber and committees

One of the headline targets in Scotland's Energy Strategy is for the equivalent of 50% of the energy for Scotland's heat, transport and electricity use to come from renewable sources. This is one of Scotland's 81 indicators in the National Performance Framework and the latest data is published on the National Performance Framework website ( https://nationalperformance.gov.scot/measuring-progress/national-indicator-performance ) as well as the Scottish Energy Statistics Hub ( https://scotland.shinyapps.io/Energy/?Section=WholeSystem&Chart=RenEnTgt ). Provisional figures for 2019 indicate that the equivalent of 24.0% of total Scottish energy consumption came from renewable sources

The Scottish Government intends to publish a draft refresh of the 2017 Scottish Energy Strategy in Spring 2022, and we will be reviewing this target as part of this wider piece of work.

The Saltire Tidal Energy Challenge Fund was launched on 10 February 2019 with a total of up to £10 million available to help accelerate the commercial deployment of tidal energy in Scottish waters.

Following a process of evaluation and due diligence, two projects were supported under the Fund, with total funding of up to £4.945 million being awarded. A total of £4,604,882 has been paid to the two projects to date. The Fund closed for applications on 6 December 2019.

As the UK Government’s own recent White Paper on rail acknowledges, the current structure of the industry was supposed to bring ‘greater efficiency and innovation’, but ‘little of this has happened’. Rather, ‘the system does not always encourage the different part of the sector to work together’.

We saw this in Scotland where a lack of co-ordination led to late and over budget delivery of projects, as flagged in our Major Projects Review 2016. We have worked hard with the industry to rectify these issues through the Team Scotland approach, making best use of the limited powers that we have. In putting arrangements in place for ScotRail services beyond March 22, we will use the opportunity to place an emphasis on the integration of rolling stock and train service plans with infrastructure works, improving the efficient whole system delivery of the Rail Decarbonisation Action Plan.

Scottish Ministers continue to believe that a devolved railway, public sector controlled and operated in the service of the public, fully integrated and truly accountable, will deliver better and more efficient services for our people and our communities. As part of the Rail Review, the Scottish Ministers and officials presented a clear case for the full devolution of rail powers. The UK Government has chosen to refuse this reasonable request.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00341 on 17 th June 2021, which states details concerning contractual arrangements for UK MoD projects are a matter between the UK Government and Babcock.

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 .

Details of defence programme contractual arrangements are reserved and a matter between individual companies and the UK Government.

Information on contracts awarded through the UK Government Ministry of Defence are published and publicly available.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00341 on 17th June 2021, which states details concerning contractual arrangements for UK MoD projects are a matter between the UK Government and Babcock.

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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00341 on 17th June 2021, which states details concerning contractual arrangements for UK MoD projects are a matter for the UK Government and BAE Systems.

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 .

The oil and gas sector continues to play an important role in Scotland's economy and energy mix, including in helping to ensure a secure energy supply. The Robert Gordon University Energy Transition Institute have estimated that while employment supporting oil and gas is expected to decrease as we transition to net zero, there will still be an estimated 70,000 UK offshore jobs supporting oil and gas in 2030. Importantly, 90 per cent of current oil and gas jobs have high or medium transferability to low-carbon offshore energy roles, which are expected to make up over 65 per cent of the 200,000 expected UK offshore workforce in 2030.

We are wholly committed to ending Scotland’s contribution to climate change and doing so in a way that is fair for all, ensuring a green recovery and a just transition that supports good green jobs, skills and expertise and leaves no-one behind. The new administration has committed to starting to refresh Scotland's energy strategy in 2021, reflecting our commitment to net zero and key decisions on the pathways to take us there.

The Energy Investment Fund, and its predecessor Renewable Energy Investment Fund, has made investments of £90.4 million to date.

The timetable impact of the breakdown of the MV Loch Seaforth is summarised below:

The MV Loch Seaforth was removed from service on 14 April and other vessels were redeployed to ensure continuity of service across the network.

CalMac were unable to charter any suitable vessels at short notice, meaning re-deployment of a vessel from within the current fleet was required. The MV Isle of Lewis was redeployed from Castlebay-Oban to cover daytime Stornoway-Ullapool sailings, and the MV Isle of Arran redeployed from Ardrossan-Brodick to cover the overnight freight service. The MV Lord of the Isles provided a combined Castlebay-Oban-Lochboisdale-Mallaig service. The MV Isle of Arran subsequently incurred a technical issue and was swapped with the MV Hebridean Isles on the Kennacraig-Islay service, maintaining Islay’s two vessel service and a dedicated freight service for Ullapool-Stornoway, with the Ardrossan-Brodick service reduced to a single vessel service and delayed the start of the summer only Ardossan-Campbeltown service which shares a vessel with Ardrossan-Brodick. Some additional capacity for Arran was provided by deploying a second vessel, MV Loch Linnhe, to the Lochranza-Claonaig service. These changes resulted in revised timetabling for the affected routes. CalMac operated additional sailings where possible, however this was restricted by crew hours and availability.

MV Loch Seaforth resumed full service on Stornoway-Ullapool on the evening of 31 May. All services were back to normal with their usual vessel deployment on 3 June.

We are aware of the significant impact on communities and businesses throughout this unacceptable period of service. This includes impacts on island producers, tourism and haulage businesses across the network. As I have stated to Parliament, we are looking at all options to provide greater resilience to minimise disruption during any future prolonged periods of disruption – as well as ensuring any lessons are learned that prevent further breakdowns where these could be avoided.