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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-05939

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what benefit has been derived from lowering the rate of non-hazardous soil treatment of recyclable soils.

The introduction of Scottish Landfill Tax in April 2015 did not result in any changes to the liability of soils for the purposes of Landfill Tax. From 1996 to 2008 contaminated land had a blanket exemption under UK Landfill Tax. Since 2008, soils removed from hazardous and non-hazardous contaminated land and disposed of to landfill have been taxed at the standard rate under both the UK and Scottish landfill tax systems. Sub-soils qualify at the lower rate of Scottish Landfill Tax.

The Scottish Government is not currently aware of any evidence to suggest that the amount of soil being treated has changed.

Question reference: S5W-05942

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to reduce the amount of carpet material being sent to landfill.

The Scottish Government is working to divert a wide range of materials, including carpets, from landfill through increasing the rate of recycling, and where appropriate remanufacture and re-use. These measures include supporting the Recycle for Scotland website, which has advice on recycling many materials; the Re-use Line which helps people pass products on; and Revolve accreditation which is a re-use quality standard that is held, for instance, by Spruce Carpets in Glasgow which takes unwanted carpet and prepares it for sale.

Furthermore, in 'Making Things Last - A Circular Economy Strategy for Scotland', we have committed to examining how producer responsibility can increase recycling, remanufacture and re-use for a number of materials that are difficult to deal with.

Question reference: S5W-06115

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has provided to each local authority in each year since 2011 to support (a) kerbside recycling systems, excluding food waste collections and (b) the Recycle for Scotland campaign.

The vast majority of Scottish Government revenue funding for local authorities is provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

In addition, Zero Waste Scotland has been providing support to individual local authorities to support change and incentivise best practice in improving kerbside recycling services.

The following table shows a breakdown of grants awarded to Scottish local authorities from 2011-12 onwards for kerbside recycling services (excluding food waste) and Recycle for Scotland communications.

	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
	£	£	£	£	£
Argyll & Bute	12,500	-	9,980	29,872	-
Aberdeen City	34,485	45,360	18,000	126,773	82,291
Aberdeenshire	31,500	-	126,506	125,200	-
Angus	14,990	5,400	-	14,799	-
Clackmannanshire	7,000	-	-	-	-
Dumfries & Galloway	23,842	332,553	276,518	128,542	10,000
Dundee	21,500	10,000	108,910	179,565	88,134
East Ayrshire	16,500	-	17,500	5,000	121,335
East Dunbartonshire	13,000	31,202	64,061	-	-
East Lothian	13,000	-	-	104,543	63,765
East Renfrewshire	10,000	-	-	-	-
Edinburgh, City of	15,929	30,000	47,500	118,737	345,129
Falkirk	21,000	-	10,785	71,163	258,327
Fife	48,338	103,545	-	14,553	6,799
Glasgow City	85,000	22,919	44,097	-	1,078,979
Highland	31,315	33,022	-	20,716	30,861
Inverclyde	11,000	14,835	79,970	174,584	-
Midlothian	11,000	18,246	-	42,986	-
Moray	12,000	-	13,563	-	-
North Ayrshire	19,000	-	-	-	-
North Lanarkshire	43,500	20,000	-	71,000	-
Orkney	5,255	-	-	-	-
Perth & Kinross	19,500	111,718	38,846	52,276	10,758
Renfrewshire	11,500	6,131	-	20,012	-
Scottish Borders	14,440	-	-	-	-
Shetland	18,445	-	-	-	-
South Ayrshire	15,267	-	-	15,000	-
South Lanarkshire	41,500	-	26,130	3,575	180,612
Stirling	11,500	38,121	-	54,917	-
West Dunbartonshire	13,832	-	130,000	37,800	-
West Lothian	22,000	-	11,445	3,555	-
Western Isles	5,000	-	65,950	-	-

It is not practical to separate out costs for kerbside recycling and Recycle for Scotland as Zero Waste Scotland funding for changing or improving local services usually combines support such as communications, training and temporary ‘implementation’ staff in a single grant award. The exception to this is 2011-12 where all identified expenditure (other than the grant for Shetland council) was specifically for Recycle for Scotland.

The Scottish Government is now supporting Councils with the implementation of the Household Recycling Charter and it has been made clear that support to local authorities for best practice in recycling (through Zero Waste Scotland) will be
re-aligned to support the Charter. To date, 23 Councils have signed up to the Charter with more authorities expected to follow suit.

Question reference: S5O-00610

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what assurance it can give communities that objections to proposed developments will be fully considered in the appeals process, given the reported 25% increase in the last year in the number of local authority planning rejections overruled by ministers.

Question reference: S5W-05941

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 19 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government which stakeholders it has held discussions with regarding a review of animal welfare legislation, and whether it will provide details of discussions it has had involving the possibility of licensing animal rehoming agencies.

My officials held meetings with stakeholders on 23 November 2015 and 3 June 2016 in connection with the ongoing review of pet welfare. Discussion at those meeting covered a range of issues, including that of licensing animal rehoming agencies. Officials have also discussed that issue at meetings with individual stakeholders.

The minutes of the meetings of November 2015 and June 2016, with participants listed, are available on the Scottish Government website at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/farmingrural/Agriculture/animal-welfare/AnimalWelfare/companion/welfarestakeholder. Representatives from the pet industry, animal welfare, local government and veterinary organisations presented their views.

Question reference: S5W-05896

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the timescale is for a consultation on the review of the exemption for a food waste collection service for rural households.

During 2017, we intend to work with local authorities to develop viable options that may have the potential to achieve the aim of giving every household in Scotland access to a food waste service. That will include consideration of whether a realistic and cost-effective alternative to the present rural exemption is possible.

Any consequent changes to legislation would of course be subject to consultation, and I will ensure that the member is updated on the timescale of any such work.

Question reference: S5W-05894

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of non-exempted households it anticipates will have access to a separate food waste collection service by 2021.

Question reference: S5W-05478

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 9 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action is being taken to catalogue and measure biodiversity changes resulting from the spread of beaver populations.

A range of detailed studies were undertaken at Knapdale, Argyll as part of the Scottish Beaver Trial. Monitoring took place from 2009-2014, and reporting was concluded in 2015. The independent monitoring programme was coordinated by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and involved a number of partner organisations. Beaver interactions with species and habitats, such as aquatic macrophytes, woodland habitat (including Atlantic hazel woodland), river habitat, otter, fish, and odonata were monitored. Individual monitoring reports can be found at www.snh.gov.uk/beavers-in-scotland and a summary is provided in the SNH ‘Beavers in Scotland’ report published in 2015.

Measures of biodiversity change have not been monitored in the Tayside area to any significant extent at the catchment scale, partly because the presence of beavers there was unplanned and limited baseline information is available.

Question reference: S5W-05475

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 9 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it had with countries that have successfully reintroduced species when considering whether to allow the reintroduction of beavers to Scotland.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has had extensive and wide ranging discussions with numerous beaver specialists and managers, country agency staff and academics over the 21 years since it started investigating beaver reintroduction issues.

This has resulted in the development of a wide network of specialists from across North America and Europe that the Scottish Government can now draw on for advice. Much of the advice provided so far has been incorporated within a range of publications produced by SNH, which can be viewed at www.snh.gov.uk/beavers-in-scotland. This includes the substantial ‘Beavers in Scotland’ report published by SNH in 2015.

Question reference: S5W-05479

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 9 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what advice and support is being offered to farmers, land owners and other relevant stakeholders regarding mitigating potential damage caused by beavers, and what steps it is taking to engage with these groups.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has a dedicated web page and advisory service in place to give farmers one-on-one advice and help on the ground. Farmers can get more information at: http://www.snh.gov.uk/protecting-scotlands-nature/beavers/beaver-management-advice

Advice to farmers and others was formalised with the creation of the Tayside Beaver Study Group in 2012 when the field officer provided a bespoke service. This service has been carried forward to the present with a specialist contractor working for SNH. SNH will continue to work with stakeholders to seek to develop solutions and mitigation measures which will underpin further advice to those landowners that are affected by beaver activity.