First, we are delighted to be building the first long-duration energy storage in Britain in 40 years, including pumped hydro storage projects that will help us store renewable energy for when we need it. Secondly, there will be local benefits from that and I do not agree with the hon. Gentleman’s point about jobs. These are big construction projects and there will be jobs relating to running them afterwards. However, I will look further at his point on community benefits, because the community should benefit from such projects being built.

Will the Minister acknowledge that the highlands and islands produce a disproportionately large amount of our renewable energy? Will he also acknowledge that last week’s Ofgem go-ahead for three pumped storage schemes will produce almost no jobs, no legacy housing and no community benefits, along with minimal, if any, advantage to the highlands of Scotland?

The UK Emissions Trading Scheme applies a UK‑wide regulatory framework and is non‑discriminatory. Adjustments were designed to be consistent with the effective operation of the UK internal market.

The 50% surrender deduction for voyages between Great Britain and Northern Ireland ensures carbon pricing obligation equivalence on voyages across the Irish Sea, avoiding potential re-routing via Ireland and assisting in mitigating against any disproportionate impacts on businesses and consumers in Northern Ireland.

The exemption for ships operating Scottish ferry services reflects the unique challenges faced by those communities and the statutory duties on the Scottish Government to consider those communities.

Exemptions will apply to ferry services to Scotland’s islands and certain peninsular communities. These are based on the unique and pressing challenges faced by these communities due to exceptional reliance on ferries for essential goods, healthcare, education, and employment, as well as additional legal duties under the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018.This exemption will be reviewed in 2028.

The UK Government is providing targeted funding to the places in Scotland that need it most, while simultaneously delivering the largest Block Grant settlement for the Scottish Government in the whole history of devolution, which they can use to improve general funding settlements for local government services and priorities.

The Local Growth Fund is targeting five regions that contain the local authorities with the lowest Real Disposable Household Income per capita (RDHI) in Scotland, which is an established metric for measuring spatial disparities in living standards across the country. The local authorities in the Highlands and Islands had higher living standards and so did not meet the threshold for funding from this programme.

The Local Growth Fund is just one UK Government investment programme and the Highlands and Islands region is benefiting from more than £300m in other UK Government investments, including Community Regeneration Partnerships for Argyll & Bute, and the Western Isles; Local Regeneration Fund projects including the Fair Isle Ferry and Elgin Town Centre masterplan; the Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport; Pride in Place Programme funding for Elgin, Sutherland, Orkney, and Lewis; and the completion of the four regional Growth Deals.

The BBC has specific requirements under its Framework Agreement in relation to broadcast security and resilience, and works closely with DCMS in ensuring its networks are able to support emergency communications. DCMS has full oversight of these plans and works with Cabinet Office and other lead Government Departments to ensure BBC’s capabilities are integrated into wider resilience planning.

Detailed planning and preparations for a range of risks including power outages is an operational matter for the BBC. The BBC has informed the Government that its plan for maintaining emergency communications to the public in an extended national power outage includes a detailed assessment of back up power generation capacity and capabilities at key BBC sites and transmitter sites operated by third-party providers. The plan for this risk is designed to maintain broadcasts of key BBC radio channels nationally to both urban and rural communities. The BBC regularly tests its plan and procedures including live tests of its broadcast systems.

The loss of broadcast coverage to a specific geographic area is an operational matter for the BBC. The BBC collects and holds detailed information about the disruption of its radio services from individual transmitters.

It is vital that Scotland’s island communities continue to thrive. Reliable, affordable transport connections are a critical part of that.

The Scottish Government has failed to deliver that, and island communities, rightly, are demanding a credible plan for sustained improvements.

The Scottish Government has received a record devolution settlement, and has the powers and resources to address this issue. Our island communities deserve better.

There are few issues which better encapsulate the incompetence and arrogance of the SNP government than their long-running ferry fiasco.

Scotland’s island communities have been let down time and time again, from Nicola Sturgeon pretending to launch a ferry with the windows painted on, to the recent reports that the Glen Rosa may not be delivered until 2026 - eight years behind schedule.

John Swinney and the SNP have left Scotland’s islands with no functioning ferry network. Our island communities deserve better, they deserve a new direction.

Q8

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Mr Alistair Carmichael (Orkney and Shetland) (LD):

Last month, SSE, the operators of the new Viking energy wind farm in Shetland, was paid £2 million in order not to generate any electricity from it. Is there not something badly wrong with an energy market that pays big corporates not to produce electricity while the people living among the turbines endure some of the highest levels of fuel poverty in the country? Will the

Prime Minister and the Government now look seriously at the idea of an islands tariff, so that islands communities such as those represented by me and his hon. Friend the Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Torcuil Crichton) may see some genuine benefit for the community from hosting such renewable energy developments?