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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-17947

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 24 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the use of camera technology to tackle littering and fly-tipping.

Our 2022 consultation on a new National Litter and Flytipping Strategy included proposals to explore the role of technology to obtain better data, deter litter and flytipping and aid enforcement of offences. ‘Littercam’ technology is currently being trialled on part of the trunk road network in a targeted scheme for the purpose of monitoring litter levels. The final National Litter and Flytipping Strategy will be published this year.

Question reference: S6O-02264

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to expand community-owned energy.

Question reference: S6O-02148

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there has been a delay in announcing the projects that will form phase 3 of the Learning Estate Investment Programme.

Question reference: S6O-02122

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 April 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recent report by Independent Age, which states that one in seven people in Scotland over the State Pension age live in poverty.

Question reference: S6W-15918

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 March 2023
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.

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.

Question reference: S6W-15917

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 27 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the last date is that producers will be able to register with the Deposit Return Scheme and be able to trade their products in Scotland from the proposed launch date of 16 August 2023.

Producers who want to sell scheme articles to consumers in Scotland on or after 16 August 2023 must be registered with SEPA.

The DRS scheme administrator, Circularity Scotland Ltd (CSL) estimates that the registration process takes approximately six weeks to complete. This is similar to schemes operating elsewhere in Europe.

If producers have questions about registration, or other DRS-related matters, they should contact CSL as soon as possible.

Question reference: S6W-15919

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2023
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.

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.

Question reference: S6W-15921

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2023
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.

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.

Question reference: S6W-14967

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
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.

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.

Question reference: S6W-14955

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
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.

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.