The Act Reports on proposals and policies for meeting annual targets
73.Subsection (1) of section 35 requires the Scottish Ministers to lay before the Scottish Parliament a report as soon as reasonably practicable after making an order under section 4 setting annual targets. That report must contain the information set out in subsections (8) to (11).
74.Subsection (2) requires the Scottish Ministers to lay a draft of the report before Parliament before laying the actual report. By virtue of subsections (3) and (4) the actual report may not be laid until the expiry of a 60-day “period for Parliamentary consideration”. Of those 60 days no fewer than 30 must be days on which the Parliament is not dissolved or in recess.
75.Subsection (5) requires the Scottish Ministers, before laying the report, to have regard to any representations on the draft report made to them, any resolution passed by Parliament relating to the draft report, and any report relating to the draft report published by any parliamentary committee. Subsection (6) provides that the Scottish Ministers, when laying the actual report, must also lay a statement setting out details of the representations etc. that were made in respect of the draft and any changes that were made in response to these, including the reasons for those changes.
76.Subsection (8) requires this report to set out the Scottish Ministers’ proposals and policies intended to meet the annual targets, and their timescales, with an explanation of how these are expected to contribute towards the delivery of the interim target, the 2050 target, and in each target year, the domestic effort target. Subsection (9) requires that the report must, in particular, detail proposals and policies regarding the respective contributions to meeting the annual targets that should be made by (a) energy efficiency, (b) energy generation, (c) land use, and (d) transport. Subsection (10) requires the report to explain how the proposals and policies are expected to affect the different sectors of the Scottish economy. Subsection (11) requires the second and each subsequent report to provide an assessment of progress towards implementation of the policies and proposals in earlier reports, and make any adjustments to those proposals and policies which are considered appropriate.