Seòmar agus comataidhean

Further to Scottish Government’s answer to your query on this report in February 2021 (S5W-34878 on 10 February 2021), Zero Waste Scotland have confirmed that £51,000 was spent on this work.

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

Details of the proposal to introduce measures to ban the destruction of unsold goods and associated impact assessments, including a business and regulatory impact assessment, are included in Delivering Scotland's circular economy: a consultation on proposals for a Circular Economy Bill Delivering Scotland’s circular economy: a consultation on proposals for a Circular Economy Bill - Scottish Government - Citizen Space .

The Scottish Government’s consultation on proposals for a Circular Economy Bill, published on 30 May 2022, proposes that Scottish Ministers should have powers to require mandatory public reporting of unwanted surplus stock and waste of certain materials by Scottish businesses in order to improve data capture and public transparency and help businesses measure and take action on their waste and surplus. The consultation also set our intention that the initial priority for subsequent secondary legislation, with further consultation, would be to introduce mandatory public reporting of food waste and food surplus.

Subject to the outcome of our consultation, we will work with stakeholders to develop detailed assessments and proposals for further consultation, including on the type and size of business that should be subject to any reporting requirements.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-09005 on 23 June 2022. 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 .

On 17 June 2022, Crown Estate Scotland published a summary of responses to its INTOG leasing engagement process and has outlined its response, including Crown Estate Scotland’s scoring and weighting criteria. Crown Estate Scotland will now finalise the leasing process ready for launch in summer.

Dr Church, the independent chair of the review, has advised that he intends to launch another round of stakeholder engagement for stakeholders by the end of July, running through to August or early September, during which he will be both seeking responses to specific questions and open to any further representations stakeholder may wish to make. This is in addition to the engagement already undertaken through the Call for Evidence for the review.

To date, over £20.3 million of the Recycling Improvement Fund has been awarded to 13 local authorities. This funding has been profiled over several years, based on individual project requirements. In 2021-22 local authorities required £5,267,640 of available funding, due to the lead in time needed to establish projects and some delays due to procurement and supply chain issues. The remainder is being phased over subsequent years of the fund, based on the local projects’ spend profiles.

As outlined in the recent Outcome of the Targeted Review of the Capital Spending Review, funding that has not been allocated to date will be available to invest in remaining years of the Fund. The Scottish Government remains committed to investing £70 million through the Recycling Improvement Fund to improve the quantity and quality of recycling in Scotland.

Consideration of opportunities to decarbonise waste incineration has not been removed from the review of the role of incineration in the waste hierarchy (the Review).

As independent Chair of the Review, Dr Colin Church determined the detailed scope of the Review, taking account of parameters set by Ministers. The Review prioritised an assessment of the capacity required to manage residual waste in Scotland. It also considered the options for managing residual waste in Scotland; the economic, environmental and social trade-offs of these options; the location of waste management capacity; and options to improve carbon and societal impact of residual waste treatment facilities.

In his Call for Evidence for the Review (published 20 December 2021), Dr Church noted that he intended to commission separate work to review potential options to decarbonise the existing incineration infrastructure in Scotland and that this may extend beyond the initial Review’s timeframe.

We published Dr Church’s main report on 10 May 2022. In this report Dr Church confirmed that the further work on decarbonisation options was expected to last for a further six to nine months. In the meantime, Dr Church has made two provisional recommendations relating to decarbonisation, alongside the 12 full recommendations, in his main report.

At the request of Ministers, Dr Church has agreed to extend his role to provide independent oversight of this additional work.

We published the Report of Dr Church’s independent review of the role of incineration in Scotland’s waste hierarchy on 10 May 2022. Dr Church sets out 14 recommendations in his report. Two of these recommendations, on decarbonising incineration infrastructure, are provisional pending completion of further work on options to decarbonise residual waste infrastructure.

We will set out our initial response to the 12 full recommendations on 16 June 2022.

The Scottish Government has made no such estimate.

However, I understand the new plastic recycling plant based in Glenrothes is expected to recycle up to 15,000 tonnes per annum of low-grade post-consumer plastic. This follows an award to Fife Council of £470,000 from the Scottish Government’s Recycling Improvement Fund. Further information is available here: Yes Recycling Fife and Ecosheet , and the latest data on the amount of plastic waste generated and recycled is available at https://www.sepa.org.uk/environment/waste/waste-data/waste-data-reporting/waste-data-for-scotland/ .