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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-13782

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it still plans to report to the Parliament on its evaluation of minimum unit pricing in summer 2023.

Question reference: S6W-13783

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects Public Health Scotland to publish its final report on minimum unit pricing.

Question reference: S6W-13584

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 19 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it or its agencies have undertaken to understand the potential impact on glass recycling rates if local authorities cease kerbside collections of glass in light of the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme.

Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will ensure a higher percentage of glass sent for recycling. Analysis from Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) shows that presently only around 59% of mixed glass is recycled. DRS is expected to capture 80% of glass bottles in the first year of DRS, increasing to 90% thereafter, this will therefore increase the amount of overall glass sent for recycling.

ZWS supports local authorities to assess their recycling collection options to help align services with the Household Recycling Charter Code of Practice, as well as future proofing those services by understanding the impact of other measures such as DRS and Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility.

Question reference: S6W-13585

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 19 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication of the Gateway Review into the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), what consideration it has given to the advice to pursue a "softer" approach to DRS implementation.

The Gateway Review was undertaken more than six months ago and has been superseded. A review carried out in October 2022 concluded that “the DRS Programme has gained increased momentum and is in a much improved position” and that go live in August 2023 is now “feasible”. This is testament to the efforts being made by industry, Circularity Scotland, and the Scottish Government, who are working together to ensure the scheme is implemented in full.

We are committed to a pragmatic approach to implementation. For example, in November 2022, we updated the return point exemptions guidance and in December the application forms to make it easier for retailers to apply for an exemption from acting as a return point, and streamlined the process for retailers and hospitality providers.

Also in December, I announced that we will bring forward amendments to the regulations so that initially only the largest grocery supermarkets will be obliged to provide an online takeback service; all other businesses will be exempt from online takeback obligations.

Question reference: S6W-13621

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12876 by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2022, how many of the projects funded through the Recycling Improvement Fund are being delivered wholly or in partnership with commercial partners, and how many applications for project funding were received from commercial partners in total.

Currently, five funded projects are being delivered by local authorities in partnership with commercial partners, including third sector and/or for profit organisations:

• North Ayrshire

• Fife

• Aberdeen City (two projects)

• East Lothian

The funding programme is only open to local authorities and local authority-led partnerships, no applications were therefore received directly from commercial partners.

Question reference: S6W-13581

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether measures contained in its proposed Circular Economy Bill will seek to make local kerbside collections more consistent across local authorities.

The Scottish Government consulted on a Circular Economy Bill and Waste Route Map in summer 2022, setting out proposed actions that must be taken to meet Scotland's waste targets and deliver a circular economy in Scotland. This included a proposal to strengthen the approach to household recycling collection services through new co-designed statutory guidance to provide a clear strategic direction for recycling in Scotland, improve consistency of services for households, and accelerate improvements to both the quality and quantity of recycling collected to help meet our waste and climate change targets .

The analysis of consultation responses to the Bill was published in November 2022. Programme for Government states that the Circular Economy Bill will be introduced in this parliamentary year.

Question reference: S6W-13582

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it or its agencies have undertaken to understand the potential of material switching to plastic in light of the recently published producer fees for glass, plastic and cans by Circularity Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-13418

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13037 by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2022, whether it will provide the information requested regarding whether a dedicated anti-fraud team has been established, either within SEPA or otherwise, to tackle potentially fraudulent activity in relation to the Deposit Return Scheme, and, if so, when any such team was established.

From 16 August 2023 SEPA will become the enforcement authority for the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland and as part of this will carry out audits, inspections and enforcement activity in relation to the obligations and offences contained within the regulations. Staff have been allocated accordingly.

SEPA is not empowered to investigate and report instances of fraud, but they have a close working relationship with Police Scotland who are the competent authority for this sort of criminality.

Question reference: S6W-13417

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13230 by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2022, whether it will provide a breakdown of the estimated net financial gain for each of the 29 local authorities estimated to receive such a benefit.

As stated in my answer to S6W-13230, these calculations are based on commercially sensitive data provided in confidence to ZWS by local authorities. Therefore, we will not provide a breakdown by local authority.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-13583

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can confirm which local authorities have decided to cease kerbside collection of glass in light of the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme.

All local authorities will consider and monitor the impact of the scheme on glass collection after the implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).

Zero Waste Scotland’s advice to local authorities is not to make service changes in advance of Scotland’s DRS launching and it is currently undertaking modelling of different options for local authorities to provide efficient kerbside glass recycling services and will share this with local authorities in due course.

We are supporting local authorities to modernise recycling services, align with our forthcoming deposit return scheme, and make it easier for households to recycle and increase local recycling rates.