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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: S6W-13230

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of forecast reports conducted by Zero Waste Scotland showing any (a) potential savings and (b) net losses resulting from the forthcoming Deposit Return Scheme in each local authority area.

Modelling by Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) projects that 29 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities will incur a net financial benefit from the implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). Local authorities are also expected to benefit from a reduction in the impact of litter, and from efficiencies to collection services following the implementation of DRS.

ZWS it is engaging with individual local authorities, in particular the three currently projected not to make savings, to assess the impacts of DRS on them and look at options for service improvements.

These calculations are based on commercially sensitive data provided in confidence to ZWS by local authorities. We will therefore not publicly identify the three local authorities that stand to incur a net cost.

Question reference: S6W-13169

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether there is a need for future monitoring and evaluation of the Deposit Return Scheme and, if so, whether (a) it or (b) Circularity Scotland will fund it.

The Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) Regulations require the Scottish Government to carry out a review of DRS before 1 October 2026.

The Scottish Government has commissioned external consumer research to provide a baseline and follow ups on recycling and awareness and uptake of DRS and any related barriers. This research is being undertaken by an experienced team from Union Advertising. The Scottish Government is also undertaking work with Zero Waste Scotland and Keep Scotland Beautiful to collate data through the Litter Management System survey on the impacts of DRS on on-the-ground litter.

Question reference: S6W-12876

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of how projects funded through the Recycling Improvement Fund have delivered (a) increased frequency of recycling collections, (b) extended food and garden waste collections, (c) increased recycling capacity for problematic materials and (d) increased local authority compliance with the Household Recycling Charter.

Proposed impacts of individual projects are captured at both assessment stage and subsequent monitoring stages of each project.

The Recycling Improvement Fund has funded the following projects under these headings:

(a) increased frequency of recycling collections

Council	Summary of impact on (a)	Total project grant (£m)
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	Expansion of collection services to rural areas.	£0.8m
East Lothian	Charter aligned single weekly pass service for source separated kerbside recycling and food waste.	£2.7m
Perth & Kinross	Expansion of recycling service.	£2.6m

(b) extended food and garden waste collections

Council	Summary of impact on (b)	Total project grant (£m)
Aberdeenshire	Service change to align with Charter and increased food waste collection.	£3.4m
East Lothian	Charter aligned single weekly pass service for source separated kerbside recycling and food waste.	£2.7m
Highland	Introduction of an additional, chargeable garden waste service.	£0.2m
Midlothian	Expansion of food waste recycling service to a further 1,800 rural properties.	£0.1m

Council

Summary of impact on (c)

Total project grant (£m)

Fife

TOMRA plastic film sorting

equipment, allowing collection of film from all households

in Fife.

£0.4m

North Ayrshire

Mattress cleaner to allow mattress

reuse/recycling.

£0.07m

(d) increased local authority compliance with the Household Recycling Charter.

Council	Summary of impact on (d)	Total project grant (£m)
Aberdeenshire	Service change to align with Charter and increased food waste collection.	£3.4m
East Lothian	Charter aligned single weekly pass service for source separated kerbside recycling and food waste.	£2.7m
West Lothian	Introduction of a kerbside service change to move to twin stream recycling to comply with the Code of Practice.	£4.04m
South Ayrshire	On-the-go recycling in local community parks, that align with charter.	£0.09m

Question reference: S6W-13231

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it is engaging with the digital deposit return trial being run by Ocado, and whether it has requested that Zero Waste Scotland reviews the results.

The Scottish Government has not engaged with Ocado regarding its digital deposit return trial.

We would anticipate that industry will make extensive use of digital technology in delivering our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), for example by developing an IT system to track payments made and received, adopting state-of-the-art reverse vending technology to prevent fraud, and using digital media to communicate with the public regarding DRS.

We are aware of the so-called ‘digital DRS’ as a proposed approach to delivering deposit return whereby consumers redeem deposits on scheme articles by scanning them with a smartphone before placing them in their kerbside recycling. We considered this approach during the policy-development process for DRS and the strong feedback from both industry and environmental NGOs was that the technology is not sufficiently mature for implementation on the timetable for our DRS.

Question reference: S6F-01661

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 December 2022

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reported warnings that the implementation of the Deposit Return Scheme will be "ruinous for consumers and businesses".

Question reference: S6W-12879

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 19 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many people in Scotland have claimed unemployment-related benefits in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) age group and (b) local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-12878

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 19 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many companies are currently accredited to carry out home insulation work in each local authority area in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-12883

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 19 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many homes in Scotland have been insulated with support from government funding in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-12767

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 16 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what lessons it can learn from the reported use of an expert working group during the introduction of the UK Aggregates Levy, and whether it will consider establishing a similar working group during the introduction of a Scottish Aggregates Levy.

The Scotland Act 2016 empowers the Scottish Parliament to legislate for a devolved tax to replace the UK Aggregates Levy. This is an environmental tax that aims to reduce extraction of primary – fresh or new – aggregate, mainly crushed rock, gravel and sand, used as bulk fill in construction.

The Scottish Government is progressing work to develop a devolved replacement for the UK levy. Consistent with the Scottish Approach to Taxation, set out in Scotland’s Framework for Tax, we will continue to consult and engage with stakeholders via a range of channels and fora to help inform this work.

Question reference: S6W-12882

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS Scotland patients in each NHS board have been referred for surgical treatment in the rest of the UK in each of the last five years.