S6W-27314

Asked by: Eagle, Tim (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - Highlands and Islands)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many so-called mobile phone "notspots" there are in the Highlands and Islands region, broken down by local authority area.

Answered by Arthur, Tom - Minister for Community Wealth and Public Finance

The Scottish Government does not collect or hold data on current 4G and 5G mobile notspots.

Ofcom produces an annual Connected Nations report including coverage and performance of mobile networks at local authority area. This is accessible at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/multi-sector-research/infrastructure-research along with underlying datasets.

S6W-27306

Asked by: Eagle, Tim (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - Highlands and Islands)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it (a) has allocated for 2023-24 and (b) plans to allocate for 2024-25 to the Young Islanders Network.

Answered by Gougeon, Mairi - Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands

In 2023-2024 the Scottish Government awarded Youth Scotland £120,000 to support the delivery of the Young Islanders Network.

In 2024-2025 the Scottish Government will provide a grant of up to £130,000 to Youth Scotland.

S6W-27318

Asked by: Eagle, Tim (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - Highlands and Islands)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has multi-year funding in place for its Scottish 4G Infill Programme (S4GI) beyond 2024-25, and, if so, whether it will provide details of this.

Answered by Arthur, Tom - Minister for Community Wealth and Public Finance

Delivery of the Scottish 4G Infill Programme completed in November 2023 and no further funding has been allocated to this programme beyond 2023-24 .

S6W-27152

Asked by: Matheson, Michael (Scottish National Party - Falkirk West)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it is supporting the Scottish Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) Cluster to produce low carbon hydrogen at scale, as set out in its Hydrogen Action Plan.

Answered by Martin, Gillian - Minister for Energy and the Environment

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the development of the Acorn project and the Scottish Cluster, which are essential for the production of low carbon hydrogen at scale. I attended the Inter-Ministerial Group in February and sit on the UK CCUS Ministerial Forum to represent Scottish interests and make the case for progress on Acorn to be accelerated. The Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy, and the previous Cabinet Secretary for Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy have also written to the UK Government in recent months to make the case for the acceleration of the Acorn project.

The decision to award the Acorn project is reserved to the UK Government and despite announcing in July 2023 that the Acorn project is ‘best placed’ to meet the criteria, there is still no final decision from the UK Government. This adds further delays to the deployment of CCUS in Scotland.

S6W-27172

Asked by: Matheson, Michael (Scottish National Party - Falkirk West)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made in driving technological progress and advancing innovation in Scotland through its Hydrogen Innovation Scheme, as set out in its Hydrogen Action Plan.

Answered by Martin, Gillian - Minister for Energy and the Environment

The Hydrogen Innovation Scheme (HIS) aims to support the development and demonstration of renewable hydrogen technologies and products needed to support our ambition of 5GW installed hydrogen production capacity by 2030. The HIS targets support for innovation under the themes of renewable hydrogen production, hydrogen storage and distribution, and integration of hydrogen into our energy system.

Successful applicants were announced by the then First Minister Humza Yousaf at the All Energy Conference in May 2023. Over £7m in HIS funding grant awards were made to 31 to feasibility and demonstration projects in Scotland.

To date, 10 projects have been successfully completed, with the remaining 21 projects due for completion by March 2025. All have performed or are performing well in meeting their agreed outputs.

S6W-27035

Asked by: Johnson, Daniel (Scottish Labour - Edinburgh Southern)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any impact on local economies of the decision to close all VisitScotland information centres.

Answered by Forbes, Kate

VisitScotland has taken the decision to close its iCentre network by March 2026 in response to reduced footfall and demand for information, with data showing that the majority of visitors to Scotland access information ahead of travelling to the country. As this was an operational decision for VisitScotland, the Scottish Government did not conduct an impact assessment.

However, data indicates that the previous phase of iCentre closures in 2018-2019 did not negatively impact the visitor economy. Since 2019, the number of overseas visitors to Scotland has increased by 14%, with the number of tourism businesses increasing by 6%.

VisitScotland continues to support the growth of the visitor economy in every region of Scotland through its marketing activity, support for events, destination development and free-to-access business advice and support programme.

S6W-27028

Asked by: Rennie, Willie (Scottish Liberal Democrats - North East Fife)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-26975 by Richard Lochhead on 24 April 2024, and in light of the UK Government’s publication, Project Gigabit progress update - April 2024, whether it expects Project Gigabit procurement covering Fife to launch throughout 2024.

Answered by Forbes, Kate

The Scottish Government and Building Digital UK (BDUK) have worked together to develop a number of potential Type A (local) and Type B (regional) Project Gigabit procurements in Scotland. The Scottish Government will lead delivery of these procurements, so that Project Gigabit and our own Reaching 100% (R100) programme can work together in Scotland.

A potential procurement in the Fife, Perth and Kinross areas has been identified as part of this process. It is expected that this procurement will launch later in 2024, so long as the Scottish Government is confident that there is the continued supplier interest necessary for it to succeed.

S6W-27276

Asked by: Regan, Ash (Alba Party - Edinburgh Eastern)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what preparations in relation to (a) public safety and (b) transport are being taken for the upcoming Taylor Swift concert in Edinburgh, in light of the anticipated demographic of the audience being primarily younger women.

Answered by Brown, Siobhian - Minister for Victims and Community Safety

The Taylor Swift concerts are wholly commercial events and the Scottish Government has no locus for involvement. It is the responsibility of the City of Edinburgh Council as the relevant licensing authority to oversee events of this nature, including ensuring compliance by the organisers with the appropriate public safety regulations.

Like with similar major events, security arrangements including the deployment of officers is an operational decision for Police Scotland.

Enhanced transport arrangements have been put into place across Lothian Buses, Edinburgh Trams and ScotRail services to meet the increase in demand expected over the weekend. This includes adding later trains on numerous routes and providing additional carriages on existing rail services to manage the demand. There will be enhanced staffing plans and additional British Transport Police (BTP) officers in place at key locations, as well as on board trains to ensure a safe environment for passengers traveling to and from the event.

S6W-27288

Asked by:

Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to use digital and social media platforms to effectively disseminate wildfire prevention information to the public.

Answered by Brown, Siobhian - Minister for Victims and Community Safety

Efficient and effective dissemination of wildfire prevention information to the public is key to preventing wildfires. Before igniting any flames in a rural or outdoor setting, the SFRS encourage everyone to check which area of Scotland may be at threat of wildfires. If a threat is in place, the key prevention advice from the SFRS is that people should refrain from igniting any flames. People can check the current threat levels in their area by visiting the following SFRS website:

https://www.firescotland.gov.uk/outdoors/wildfires/wildfire-danger-assessments/

When Scotland is at a high threat of wildfires, the SFRS work in partnership with the Scottish Wildfire Forum (SWF), to alert the public and partners to the threat of wildfires by issuing “Wildfire Danger Assessments”. SFRS issue alerts through their social media channels, their website and local media outlets, and request assistance from Local Authorities across Scotland to share safety messaging to seek engagement with as many members of public as possible. These warnings detail which areas across Scotland are most likely to be affected. The SFRS also alert the Scottish Government who pro-actively re-issue these warnings across digital and social media platforms.

S6W-27311

Asked by: Eagle, Tim (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - Highlands and Islands)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many new masts have been deployed through the Scottish 4G Infill Programme (S4GI), broken down by (a) year and (b) local authority area since the programme was established.

Answered by Arthur, Tom - Minister for Community Wealth and Public Finance

The following tables set out the 55 new masts deployed through the Scottish 4G Infill Programme which completed in November 2023 by year and by local authority area.