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)
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 that is an absolute no-brainer for me.
Those are planning decisions and we are having a lot of discussion with our colleagues at the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities about how we can co-locate any developments that might have waste heat associated with them. A great deal of work will be done on heat networks in the next Parliament.
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...