General Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 6 June 2024.
Mr Mark Ruskell
Green
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide further details of the process that it will follow to develop a just transition plan for the Mossmorran industrial site. (S6O-03540)
Gillian Martin
Scottish National Party
The Scottish Government has committed to publishing a just transition plan for Mossmorran following the delivery of the Grangemouth just transition plan. Work will commence in early 2025.
Lessons will be learned from developing the just transition plan for Grangemouth. I anticipate taking a sequential and measured approach, and the plan is likely to include a data-driven baseline, an outline vision for 2045, a corresponding action plan and a monitoring framework.
I am committed to ensuring that that work is business credible while embedding the ambitions of both workers and the community. I welcome early engagement with all stakeholder groups to ensure that their voices are heard, and the plan will be co-designed with them.
Mr Mark Ruskell
Green
I thank the Minister for the detail of that answer. ExxonMobil and Shell run Mossmorran. Around 250 workers work there, and many more are employed through short-term maintenance contracts. Any credible just transition plan for the site must be co-designed with the workers and the unions from the get-go, to safeguard their livelihoods. What engagement process does the Government plan to follow to ensure the development of a worker-backed plan? Will the minister join me, alongside site operators, workers and unions, at the summit that I will organise on the issue later this year?
Gillian Martin
Scottish National Party
As with the Grangemouth just transition plan, unions and the voices of workers will be central to the development of the Mossmorran plan. I approached ExxonMobil at Mossmorran to say that I would like to work with it on a just transition plan, and it was happy for that to happen.
It is probably more important to get the Grangemouth plan off the ground, given the situation at the Grangemouth complex, but work will be brought forward into how we approach the Mossmorran plan. Many of the same unions will be involved in that process, and we will be able to learn the lessons from the Grangemouth plan and adapt them for the Mossmorran plan.
Alexander Stewart
Conservative
In December, the Scottish Government, which the Greens were then part of, cut the just transition fund. The Greens now ask about a just transition for the Mossmorran industrial site. Now that the Bute house agreement has collapsed, will the Minister commit to restoring funding to the just transition fund for the future?
Gillian Martin
Scottish National Party
The just transition fund is for the north-east and Moray, and I am considering how other areas of Scotland might benefit from it. It has not been cut. In its current form, it will be the same as it was when it was announced, and it will be delivered over 10 years. It is not true at all to say that it has been cut.
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