Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-15095

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

To ask the Scottish Government whether Circularity Scotland is subject to the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, and whether it is required to openly tender above threshold procurement opportunities.

Question reference: S6W-15097

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

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide details of the procurement procedure used by Circularity Scotland in appointing Biffa as the official waste collection and logistics service provider, and what information it holds on how this contract opportunity was advertised.

Circularity Scotland (CSL) are a private non-profit organisation and are therefore not subject to public procurement requirements. Decisions regarding their contracts are for them – this is entirely appropriate for a scheme that has industry responsibility at its heart. CSL carried out an extensive tender process over a period of around 12 months before appointing Biffa to be the scheme’s official logistics service provider.

Question reference: S6O-02046

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how the education system encourages a better understanding of circular economy principles and skills.

Question reference: S6W-15363

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 13 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the public funds used by (a) it and (b) its agencies, in each of the last 12 months, to support (i) Circularity Scotland and (ii) Deposit Return Scheme-related activities.

Previous requests under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 have provided information on the costs associated with the creation of the Deposit Return Scheme in Scotland and are published on the Scottish Government website. As of 18 May 2022 it cost the Scottish Government £182,722 to set up DRS including costs associated with preparing legislation, consulting, evaluation, and independent reviews and assurance. The Scottish Government is open to further requests for information under both FOISA (2002) and EIR (2004).

Question reference: S6W-15102

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 13 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when NatureScot plans to publish a progress report in relation to each of the 92 recommendations that were accepted by the Scottish Government of the Deer Working Group’s report, The Management of Wild Deer in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-15104

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 13 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how often NatureScot has used its full enforcement powers, in light of the direction from the Scottish Ministers in 2017 that the then Scottish Natural Heritage “take a tougher approach to dealing with non-cooperative landowners, using the full range of enforcement powers at its disposal”.

NatureScot has a range of legislative powers available to them under the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996. A summary of how NatureScot has used those powers since 2017 has been provided in the following table:

Section of the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996

Description

Extent of use since 2017

6A

Requirement for deer management plan

1

7

Control Agreement

Control agreements in operation each year

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

5

3

2

8

Control Scheme

None.

10

Emergency Powers

5

40

Statutory Return

Requests are sent to 3300 properties annually. NatureScot received returns from 2730 in 21/22. A further 1500 properties have submitted returns between 2017 and 2022.

40A

Require number planned to be killed

None.

Question reference: S6W-15379

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 13 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the process used to set up and install Circularity Scotland as scheme administrator for the Deposit Return Scheme.

The Scottish Government released information regarding Circularity Scotland’s application to Scottish Ministers to become a scheme administrator for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme, in response to an information request under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004. The information released in response to that request was published on the Scottish Government website on 22 January 2022 under reference FOI/202200276068.

Question reference: S6W-14919

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14359 by Lorna Slater on 7 February 2023, what evidence it used to assert that "there are many companies providing these services in Scotland", in light of its statement that it has not carried out an assessment.

Deposit Return Schemes operate in 44 territories and many companies have developed Reverse Vending Machines (RVMs) for use with these schemes.

The Scottish Government and other organisations engaged with other countries operating deposit return schemes through the design, business case development and consultation process for Scotland’s DRS including schemes in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Germany as well as organisations with broad expertise in international Deposit Return Schemes, such as Reloop. As part of this work, it was clear that many companies would be able to provide RVMs that would work with our scheme.

Question reference: S6W-14917

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14359 by Lorna Slater on 7 February 2023, which states that the "Deposit Return Scheme is an industry-led scheme, delivered by industry, led by the scheme administrator, Circularity Scotland Ltd”, whether it is the case that industry can change the launch date of the scheme, and, if so, by what process.

Question reference: S6W-15344

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its communication with drinks suppliers outside of Scotland to inform them of the Deposit Return Scheme, and which companies it has informed of the scheme in each of the last 12 months, also broken down by country or region.

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