Chamber and committees

In the current financial year the Scottish Government will invest approximately £2 million on road maintenance schemes on the A75. In addition, there are also road safety improvement schemes being progressed. This financial year these include accident reduction measures at:

• A75 Ardachie Straight - estimated to cost £115,000, subject to road space being available, and;
• A75 junction with the A751 - estimated to cost between £50,000 - £70,000.

Investigations are also on-going for a controlled pedestrian crossing in Crocketford following the public meeting held earlier this year. Estimated cost and timescales for this will be determined upon decision of what type of facility is suitable.

Transport investment has to be supported by robust evidence and the South West Scotland Transport Study is also being progressed. This study is considering the rationale for improvements to all modes of transport on key strategic corridors, including that served by the A75. The study will provide recommendations which identify transport interventions to be considered in more detail through the second Strategic Transport Projects Review. The output of the review will provide Scottish Ministers with a programme of potential transport investment opportunities over the period 2022 – 2042 and will support the vision, priorities and outcomes of the new National Transport Strategy.

At end-August 2019, 445 chargepoints on the ChargePlace Scotland network were located in areas designated as accessible small towns, remote small towns, accessible rural or remote rural as set out in the Scottish Government’s six-fold urban/rural classification. The following table provides a breakdown of these chargepoints by Local Authority area.

The Scottish Government published “A Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland: Full Business Regulatory Impact Assessment” (BRIA) on 9 July 2019. That BRIA concluded that any impact on consumer choice, including a shift towards purchasing larger sized products, is likely to be small. The decision to pursue a scheme design which maximises consumer convenience and targets a high capture rate should help to mitigate this impact.

The £7.5m Strategic Partnership between the Scottish Government, SP Energy Networks and Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks includes Scottish Government funding of £5m and at least an additional £2.5m from the network companies to support the delivery of trial projects. The trial projects are currently under development and once finalised, will be announced ahead of financial year 2020-21.

The following table provides a breakdown of grant funding awarded to all 32 Local Authorities from financial year 2012-13 to 2019-20 (inclusive) for electric vehicle charging infrastructure. This includes £12.1 million awarded to 5 Local Authorities (City of Edinburgh Council, Dundee City Council, Falkirk Council, Glasgow City Council and Stirling Council) through our Switched on Towns and Cities projects which will deliver both charging infrastructure and provide funding for electric vehicles for public sector fleets.

Since 2016, the Scottish Government has made available the funds listed below to the value of £80,526,000 to support public sector energy efficiency.

Telecommunications, including all regulation and legislative responsibility for broadband, is reserved to the UK Parliament and UK Ministers under the provisions of the Scotland Act 1998. However, the Scottish Government has invested its own resources in Scotland’s Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme (DSSB), recognising that insufficient funding had been allocated to the task of addressing poor coverage arising from market failure.

Alongside our partners, we have invested more than £400 million in the DSSB programme, with the Scottish Public Sector contributing £164.9 million of the total expenditure to supplement investment in the programme by the European Union, BT and UK Government. The programme has provided access to fibre broadband to over 940,000 premises to date, with over 90% of those premises capable of accessing download speeds of at least 24 Megabits per second (Mbps).

As this is a national programme, it is not possible to provide an accurate financial breakdown by Scottish Parliamentary region, although to date 151,437 premises in the South Scotland region have been supported to obtain access to superfast broadband of at least 24Mbps, that would not have able to do so in the absence of the DSSB programme.

Phase 1 of the Digital Growth Fund closed on 31 August 2019.

The following table outlines the regional breakdown of where money was invested during the first phase:

Our continued support for oil and gas exploration and production in the North Sea will now be conditional upon a sustainable, secure and inclusive energy transition. This will include an increased net zero investment by industry and government.

Through the Aberdeen City Region Deal we have committed £90 million over the next decade to support the creation of the Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC). Since September 2016, we have provided £23,600,000 towards this.

The OGTC has also received funding from the Decommissioning Challenge Fund (DCF) launched by the First Minister in 2017. In the financial year 2017-18, £1,750,000 was awarded to invest in capital equipment which would further support decommissioning technology and innovation. During 2018/19, a further £2,617,000 was awarded for 3 projects at the National Decommissioning Centre site, located at Newburgh, Aberdeenshire.

In addition, the Scottish Funding Council has contributed £6,571,200 since September 2016 to support the establishment of the Oil and Gas Innovation Centre.

In the same period, Scottish Enterprise have spent £44,694,170 in supporting the oil and gas sector. Additionally, Highlands and Islands Enterprise have contributed £3,977,020 since September 2016. Funding in this area has helped to create and safeguard jobs; attract investment and help to anchor the oil and gas and energy sectors in Scotland as well as ensuring continued energy security of supply.

Scotland’s Energy Strategy, published in December 2017, sets out our priorities for the future energy system in Scotland. This comprises a whole-system approach that promotes renewables – including hydro-power and other low carbon alternatives – as part of a diverse, well balanced energy supply mix, which we believe is vitally important in supporting Scotland’s transition to a net-zero economy.

Hydro-electric power has a long and illustrious history in Scotland and we are committed to encouraging and promoting this by creating a supportive environment.

We continue to recognise the benefits of pumped storage hydro (PSH) – it allows large-scale energy storage which helps to provide security of supply and support renewable growth as we move to a decarbonised energy system and new mix of generation technologies. Investment in new PSH capacity in Scotland could greatly enhance the flexibility and resilience of our electricity network and power supplies.

Such investment would represent major infrastructure projects, with considerable economic and industrial value attached.

Furthermore, we are committed to supporting and working with the small-scale hydro sector to provide an informed, supportive policy framework to encourage the continued deployment of this technology.

The Scottish Government's Hydro Nation strategy supports our vision of Scotland as a country that maximises the economic and non-economic? value of our water resources and manages them sustainably and responsibly.

Our Hydro Nation strategy has led to the introduction of dedicated business and innovation support for the water sector, improved knowledge networks and research programmes on key water issues, all underpinning one of Scotland's fastest growing sectors with potential for further growth.

The 6th annual Hydro Nation Report ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotland-hydro-nation-annual-report-2019/ ) highlighting the work being undertaken to deliver on the Hydro Nation strategy and associated vision was laid in The Scottish Parliament on Tuesday 19 th September and published on the Scottish Government website.