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No specific assessment has been undertaken to assess the impact of Scottish Landfill Tax on the quantity of waste soil going to landfill.

Statistics published by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) show that the overall amount of waste going to landfill has reduced from around 4.2 million tonnes in 2015 to around 2.6 million tonnes in 2020. The amount of soil going to landfill has also reduced over the same period, from around 1.24 million tonnes to around 0.83 million tonnes. Statistics for 2020 will however have been affected by the impact of Covid-19 restrictions.

The SEPA waste statistics are available at www.sepa.org.uk/environment/waste/waste-data/waste-data-reporting/ .

Funding provided by the Scottish Government (Chief Scientist Office) for research falls into three broad areas of activity, i.e. research studies, capacity building and supporting infrastructure.

The specific amounts provided by condition are set out below although it should be noted that research studies (funded by non-commercial and third sector organisations) would also have benefited from the provision of service support costs and other generic resources which are not routinely recorded by condition.

Research Grants

The Chief Scientist Office supports response mode grant committees and a small catalytic grants scheme (2016-19). The committees which comprise independent experts as well as public representatives consider applications across broad research remits to address health and care challenges in Scotland. Applications are subject to independent expert peer-review with funding recommendations made by the committees. It should be noted that (1) funding rounds were significantly impacted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic which saw a significant research response and (2) for 2021 to date only one of the two funding rounds has been completed.

Local authorities are responsible for the provision of local waste services and are, therefore, best placed to comment on their readiness to comply with the ban on sending biodegradable municipal waste to landfill in 2025.

However, we understand that 18 local authorities have contracts in place for 2025 that comply with the landfill ban, these are: Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, City of Edinburgh, City of Glasgow, Dundee City, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Fife, Midlothian, Moray, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Orkney, Renfrewshire, Shetland, and South Lanarkshire.

We are providing centrally supported procurement to help other local authorities secure contracts in preparation for the forthcoming ban. As part of this support, Zero Waste Scotland is working with local authorities to provide technical, legal and procurement advice on their contracts.

a) personal injury accidents

A90 Dundee to Stonehaven Personal Injury Accidents

(Between Emmock roundabout Dundee and where the A957 Slug Road crosses the A90 at Stonehaven)

A90 Dundee to Stonehaven Fatal Casualties

(Between Emmock roundabout Dundee and where the A957 Slug Road crosses the A90 at Stonehaven)

The information requested on how many specialist osteoporosis nurse positions are (i) filled and (ii) vacant by NHS Board is not centrally available.

Numbers of radiography staff have increased from 1,836.8 WTE to 2,507.7 WTE since September 2007 - a 36.5% increase.(September 2007 - September 2021).

Information on how many radiographer positions are (i)filled and (ii)vacant by NHS Board, can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

As per the answer to S6W-04540 on 1 December 2021, we expect that 29 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities will incur a net financial benefit from the implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). This figure is calculated for the first year in which the scheme target is set at 90%, so savings will be realised by 2025.

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. Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) is engaging with the three local authorites currently projected to not to make savings, to explore how such efficiencies may be realised.

These results have been calculated based on commercially sensitive data shared with ZWS by individual local authorities in confidence. It would therefore not be appropriate to provide a breakdown of these results publicly.

The following table outlines the number of calls made to the Dumb Dumpers hotline each year since 2014. As a result of the cyber attack experienced by SEPA, the Dumb Dumpers Hotline was down between 24 December 2020 and 27 June 2021.

During this time, the public were still able to report flytipping incidents through the online form on the Zero Waste Scotland website.

However, due to this cyber attack, we do not have access to Dumb Dumpers data between 1 November and 24 December 2020.

* Figures from 1 June 2020 to 30 October 2020

** Figures from 28 June 2021 to 30 November 2021

Through Zero Waste Scotland, Scottish Government has provided the amounts shown in the table below, since 2011, directly to support local authorities’ recycling and re-use services. These grants included support for communications.

There is now a suite of 15 ecosystem health indicators relating to condition, function and resilience of ecosystems, available on Scotland’s Environment Web at: https://www.environment.gov.scot/our-environment/state-of-the-environment/ecosystem-health-indicators/ . NatureScot is currently working on updates to the indicators to take advantage of new data that have become available.

At the time of the 2018 discussion paper, NatureScot and the James Hutton Institute were working to develop two new indicators, for nitrogen pollution and summer temperatures. Both indicators use bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) which are very sensitive to environmental change. This work has been completed and the additional indicators are available on Scotland’s Environment Web, at: https://www.environment.gov.scot/our-environment/state-of-the-environment/ecosystem-health-indicators/resilience-indicators/ .