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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-18923

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 22 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what target has been set for ensuring that glass collected through the Deposit Return Scheme is (a) not used for aggregate and (b) recycled into high-value forms, such as bottles.

Question reference: S6W-18833

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 21 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made any stipulation to (a) Circularity Scotland and (b) Deposit Return Scheme logistics partners to offset any carbon emissions produced by the scheme’s collection vehicles, and what plans it has to offset any such emissions.

Question reference: S6W-18831

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 20 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it has taken since 2019 to ensure that NHS staff and other health professionals and care providers are informed of Frank’s Law, and whether it will provide details of the budget that has been assigned for this purpose in each year.

In the lead up to the introduction of "Frank's Law" in 2019 there were a number of discussions between Scottish Government officials and stakeholders which covered all aspects of the legislation. At the time of its introduction the Scottish Government issued advice in the form of a Questions and Answers brief which can be found at:

Free personal and nursing care: questions and answers - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

In terms of funding, it was first distributed in the 2019-20 Local Government settlement and then baselined in 2019 it included £29.5 million is to support expansion of Free Personal and Nursing Care for under 65s. With effect from 1 April 2021 the £29.5 million funding was merged into the overall local government finance settlement block grant and as such individual local authority allocations are no longer separately identifiable.

Question reference: S6W-18919

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-15222 by Lorna Slater on 6 March 2023, when it plans to update the guidance to local authorities, and whether it plans for Deposit Return Scheme recycling data to be attributed either to the local authority where a scheme article is returned, or where a recycling facility is located.

Question reference: S6W-18498

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 16 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-17578 by Lorna Slater on 18 May 2023, whether it is aware that, on 24 March 2021, the then Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform wrote to Circularity Scotland stating that “the detailed schedule for you to collect scheme packaging from return point operators and pay them the deposit and handling fee has still to be agreed”, and that “we would consider a failure to provide a schedule (or at least to make such agreements) by 1 October 2021 as a material change in circumstances requiring notification to the Scottish Ministers”; whether any such notification was received by the specified date, and, if so, whether it will provide a copy of that notification.

The letter and anticipated schedule to which the member refers was in the context of a scheme launch date of July 2022. Following an independent Gateway Review in June 2021, the Scottish Government confirmed that it would conduct a review of that go live date, with input from Circularity Scotland, industry and independent advice.

As a result of that review, the Scottish Parliament voted to move the launch date of DRS from July 2022 to August 2023, accounting for the impacts of EU exit and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Circularity Scotland has since published information on returns collections as part of their Blueprint for Return Point Operators and Hospitality Providers . You may wish to review section 9, starting on page 9 which sets out that Return Point Operators (RPOs) will provide details to support collection schedules as part of the DRS registration process. Page 28 provides a sample collection frequency and Circularity Scotland specify that collection frequencies and/or schedules will be agreed following the registration process. Please note that said schedules would be a contractual matter between Circularity Scotland and individual RPOs to manage and that they are not obligated to provide copies of these to the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S6W-18921

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much glass recyclate from kerbside collections has been (a) used for aggregate and (b) recycled into high-value forms, in each of the last five years.

This data is not held by the Scottish Government. Local authority kerbside collections of glass are mixed with glass from various other sources like recycling centres and commercial collections for reprocessing. This is then aggregated through transfer stations, sold to various brokers and split between reprocessing plants. At each stage there will be process losses which lead to glass going to aggregate rather than remelt. It is therefore not possible to trace the origin or eventual destination of recycled glass specifically from kerbside collections.

Question reference: S6O-02423

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of whether its target for a one third reduction in food waste by 2025 will be met.

Question reference: S6W-18096

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications with no capital expenditure elements were successful in the first round of funding from the Circular Textiles Fund broken down by funding awarded.

Question reference: S6W-18157

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 6 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to use the evidence collected in the call for evidence on single-use food containers and other single-use items.

Question reference: S6W-18098

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 6 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what support it has made available for early-stage circular textiles projects, in light of reports that the Circular Textiles Fund excludes such projects in its application criteria.

Circular Economy Business Support, provided by Zero Waste Scotland, continues to provide support for textile businesses wishing to develop circular models. Scottish Enterprise also recently published its Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Guide , https://unlockingambition.scot/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Scottish-Entrepreneurial-Ecosystem-Guide-April-2023.pdf

which provides an overview of the range of support available to new and growing companies in Scotland including incubators, accelerators, specialist industry programmes, co-working spaces and networking organisations. This support is available to any early-stage innovative business.