- Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 27 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the number of businesses with existing contracts to collect glass from commercial premises that may lose business as a result of the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme.
Answer
During the development of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), a number of documents were produced, including the Full Business Case and Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment which look at the expected impacts to business and others of this scheme.
Scotland’s DRS represents a significant, transformative, change in the way in which waste is handled across the country. These changes present opportunities for waste handling businesses to work with Circularity Scotland and their primary logistics contractor Biffa, to help support the scheme.
Any companies which wish to participate in Scotland’s DRS activities should contact the DRS enquiries team at Biffa and this will be discussed with Circularity Scotland.
- Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 13 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 27 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many businesses in total have registered with the Deposit Return Scheme to date, and how this compares with the number of businesses that were expected to register.
Answer
More than 670 businesses have registered so far, representing 95% of products sold in Scotland.
The number of companies in the drinks industry inevitably changes over time and, at the outset of developing a deposit return scheme, approximately 4,500 companies were estimated to have an interest in the scheme.
However, significantly less would have to register – for example, once groups of companies registering under one registration are identified, the number of individual producers/importers is likely to be below 2,000.
- Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made in working with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to agree an increased noise budget for projects within the 50km safeguarding zone at Eskdalemuir, and when it expects that any announcement will be made on the agreed way forward.
Answer
Safeguarding the Eskdalemuir Seismic Array is the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence and any decision to amend the seismic noise budget for the array is a decision for the UK Government.
The Scottish Government and Ministry of Defence have been working constructively together and the Scottish Government has conducted a series of technical studies over the course of 2020 to 2022 in order to provide updated wind turbine data that can be used in the noise budget allocation calculation.
The results of these studies are publicly available and are hosted on the Scottish Renewables’ website. The Scottish Government shared these studies with the MoD and we understand the MoD is in the process of reviewing their noise budget management. The Scottish Government continues to engage with the MoD as they develop their approach.
- Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 21 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on administering the Zero Emission Bus Market Transition Scheme.
Answer
The Scottish Government is providing £50,000 in grant funding to Energy Saving Trust (EST), an independent organisation working to address the climate emergency, to administer the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Market Transition Scheme in the 2022-23 financial year. The administrative costs, inclusive of EST staffing, are set out in the following table alongside the value of funds that EST are distributing and the outputs achieved.
Financial year | Administration cost | Funding being delivered through EST | Output |
2022-23 | £50,000 | £359,729 (£500,000 was made available) | Twelve grants have been offered to support small to medium sized bus and coach operators obtain advice on transitioning their fleets to zero-emissions. Six grants have been offered to companies to develop propositions to offer multiple operators a simple route to shift to zero-emission buses. One grant has been offered to support a commercial demonstration of repowering and research into the role repowering can play in the transition. |
- Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 21 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on administering the Plugged-in Communities Grant Fund.
Answer
The Scottish Government has provided funding to Energy Saving Trust (EST), an independent organisation working to address the climate emergency, to administer the Plugged-in Communities Grant Fund each year since 2020. The administrative costs, which include staffing costs in each year, are set out below alongside the value of funds that EST distributed and the associated deliverables.
Financial year | Administration cost | Funding delivered through EST | Output |
2018 - 2023 | £845,685.00 | £3,311,415.48 | Administration, promotion and monitoring of zero emission car club and community transport schemes providing services to residents and local communities. |
- Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 21 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on administering the Electric Vehicle Loan scheme.
Answer
The Scottish Government has provided funding to Energy Saving Trust (EST), an independent organisation working to address the climate emergency, to administer the Low Carbon Transport Loan each year since 2011. The administrative costs including staffing costs in each year are set out in the following table alongside the value of funds that EST distributed, and the associated deliverables.
The administration and staffing costs cover loans for new and used vehicles to individuals and to businesses. Separate administration and staffing costs for different types of loans are not available.
Financial years | Administration cost | Funding delivered through EST | Output |
2011 – 2023 | £2,415,312.00 | £187,808,619.00 | Promotion and management if a set of interest free loans supporting the update of electric cars and vans, currently totalling 7033 loans to individuals and businesses. |
- Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 21 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on administering the Used Electric Vehicle Loan scheme.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14969 on 21 March 2023. 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
- Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 March 2023
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 21 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether it is appropriate for the chief executive of Circularity Scotland to be paid a reported annual salary of £300,000.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 21 March 2023
- Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 20 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission’s Final Report of the Exotic Pet Working Group, including its recommendations to (a) introduce a "positive list" of species that are legally permitted to be kept as pets and (b) ban the importation of wild-caught animals for the pet trade.
Answer
I very much appreciated the report on exotic pets by the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission and have noted their recommendations. Consideration of exotic pets is only one part of a large body of ongoing work to improve the lives of Scotland's pets. The report by SAWC on exotic pets will be very helpful in future consideration of what action may be needed on this matter.
- Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on administering the Low Emission Zone Retrofit Fund.
Answer
The Scottish Government is providing £11.6 million in grant funding to Energy Saving Trust (EST), an independent organisation working to administer the Scottish LEZ Support fund.
The LEZ Support Fund for households is a part of this LEZ Support Fund, and does not have separate admin costs. The following table therefore represents the whole LEZ Support Fund, this similarly applies to PQ S6W-14965 and PQ S6W-14963.
The administrative costs (which include EST staffing costs) are set out below alongside the value of funds that EST are distributing and the outputs achieved.
Financial year | Administration cost | Funding being delivered through EST | Output |
2020-21 | £381,000 | £1,759,738 | LEZ Support fund provides grants to households and businesses based near LEZs to dispose of non-LEZ compliant vehicles, and to adopt alternative modes of transport. This fund also provides grants to support businesses such as taxi operators to retrofit their existing vehicles to Euro 6 standard. |
2021-22 | £334,277 | £3,706,925 | LEZ Support fund provides grants to households and businesses based near LEZs to dispose of non-LEZ compliant vehicles, and to adopt alternative modes of transport. This fund also provides grants to support businesses such as taxi operators to retrofit their existing vehicles to Euro 6 standard. |
2022-23 (year to date) | £471,892 | £4,695,326 | LEZ Support fund provides grants to households and businesses based near LEZs to dispose of non-LEZ compliant vehicles, and to adopt alternative modes of transport. This fund also provides grants to support businesses such as taxi operators to retrofit their existing vehicles to Euro 6 standard. |
