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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-20819

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 12 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the quantity of any critical minerals captured through urban mining in each of the past three years in Scotland.

Urban mining” is not a term that is in use by the Scottish Government, but we understand it to refer to the recovery of critical raw materials from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

The WEEE Regulations 2013, which are the regulations underpinning WEEE recycling in the UK, do not require information on recovery of critical minerals to be reported and so the Scottish Government does not hold this information. Along with the other UK governments, we intend to consult later this year on a suite of reforms to the WEEE Regulations; we are considering as part of that measures to increase the recovery of critical raw materials.

Question reference: S6W-20826

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 12 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the Scottish National Investment Bank’s investment activity has been used to support companies able to demonstrate both carbon and material savings.

National Investment Bank sets out in detail its approach to assessing its impact, and its impact to date, in its annual Impact Report. That sets out how the Bank works across its portfolio to assess emissions generated, to support emissions mitigation and to support circular economy initiatives where possible.

In particular, the member may wish to be aware that the Bank has committed to adopt the Task Force on Climate related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) recommendations as its climate risk and reporting framework. It has further committed that from financial year 2023/24 all investments will involve a commitment to develop a Carbon Management or Net Zero plan, thereby ensuring that all the Bank’s capital supports Scotland’s transition to net zero. The Bank is also working with current investees to support them in the development of such plans and strategies. The Bank then reports on emissions associated with its investment activity through its annual Impact report.

The Bank’s Impact Report 2023 is available at: https://www.thebank.scot/impact-report .

Question reference: S6W-20812

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it is assisting efforts to explore potential reserves of critical minerals in Scotland.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of critical minerals for the future prosperity of Scotland.

Critical mineral mining relates to powers reserved to the UK Government, and the Scottish Government is supportive of the UK Critical Minerals Strategy. This sets out the UK’s vision and actions to improve the resilience of its critical mineral supply chain through signposting financial support opportunities for UK critical minerals businesses.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with the UK government to explore the potential reserves of critical minerals in Scotland and to ensure their secure and sustainable supply.

Question reference: S6W-20815

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has undertaken to explore the potential for lithium refining in Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-02510

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its progress in removing highly combustible cladding from buildings.

Question reference: S6W-20663

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 6 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when the financial appraisal of the proposed Scottish Veterinary Service will conclude, and whether the findings will be published in detail or summary format.

The Scottish Government is committed to the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS) to ensure there are highly trained staff to provide Scotland with good animal health and food safety to meet all our needs across the public and private sector for animal health issues.

A Programme has been established to manage the work required to create an SVS, which includes determining which functions the Service should deliver, and conducting a financial appraisal of the operational and investment costs of the Service.

The financial appraisal will be refined throughout the programme as actual costs are better understood, as is standard practice, and the conclusions will be communicated in due course.

Question reference: S6W-20696

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) calls have been made to the Dumb Dumpers hotline and (b) prosecutions for fly-tipping have resulted from calls made to the hotline, in each year since it was launched.

The Dumb Dumpers Hotline, which closed earlier this year, was one of a number of ways for members of the public to report flytipping, The following table shows the number of reports made through the Dumb Dumpers Hotline only.

Year*	Calls	Time Period
2017	446	August - December
2018	1321	Full year
2019	1311	Full year
2020	494	March - October
2021	Unable to obtain figures**	N/A
2022	889	Full Year
2023	256	Until March 2023 when service closed

*The hotline was established in 2004 but the cyber-attack on SEPA has limited capability to source the data for the years preceding 2017 and has led to only partial data sets being available for certain years from 2017 onwards.

**The Cyber-attack on SEPA in December 2020 led to ZWS taking over dissemination of Dump Dumper reports during 2021 so no data for this time period is available.

There is no process to connect flytipping prosecutions to the reporting route. This is because a single incident could be reported multiple times to both Dumb Dumpers and the relevant local authority.

Question reference: S6W-20690

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether an impact assessment of proposals to introduce a charge on single-use cups will be carried out before the end of 2023.

Question reference: S6W-20691

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-20139 by Jenni Minto on 15 August 2023, whether it will provide an update on the composition and activity of the task group considering indoor air quality, as outlined in the report, Cleaner Air for Scotland 2.

Question reference: S6W-20140

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 16 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much targeted funding for sustainable textiles projects it has budgeted (a) for 2023-24 and (b) beyond 2023-24.