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Chamber

Meeting of the Parliament 19 March 2026 [Draft]

19 Mar 2026 · S6 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Portfolio Question Time
Data Centres (Regulatory Framework)
Boyack, Sarah Lab Lothian Watch on SPTV

Stop Climate Chaos Scotland has warned that, although the draft climate change plan outlines a range of policies that are aimed at increasing energy generation from renewables, it does not discuss the potential huge energy demand coming from data centres that planning authorities are now having to consider. In Edinburgh, for example, a temporary moratorium on data centres has been agreed and will be in place until the true level of energy and water consumption required is actually understood.

To follow on from the initial advice that has been given, will the cabinet secretary outline what advice and monitoring the Scottish Government will provide? Can lessons be learned from Dublin and Amsterdam about tightening controls on large data centres, and also from Odense, where 100,000 homes are now being heated by a data centre?

In the same item of business

3. Sarah Boyack (Lothian) (Lab) Lab
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the regulatory framework currently in place to monitor the development and operation of data ce...
The Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy (Gillian Martin) SNP
Scotland benefits from a robust, although complex, regulatory and policy landscape that applies to data centre development. Under national planning framework...
Sarah Boyack Lab
Stop Climate Chaos Scotland has warned that, although the draft climate change plan outlines a range of policies that are aimed at increasing energy generati...
Gillian Martin SNP
I really like hearing examples of planning decisions that lead to co-location. Data centres need cooling and our homes and public buildings need heating, so ...
Sue Webber (Lothian) (Con) Con
The cabinet secretary has outlined some of the safeguards in the current regulatory framework. A massive data centre proposed in Edinburgh would be similar i...
Gillian Martin SNP
Sue Webber will know that I cannot comment on planning applications. However, it is important to note that, if a site does require an environmental impact as...