- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what representations it has made to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regarding the potential impact on Scotland of HSE's consideration of the application to re-licence the use of Asulox for the purposes of bracken control.
Answer
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as the independent regulator for pesticides receive and assess Emergency Authorisation requests. HSE then provide the Scottish Government with a full assessment and scientific advice. Where necessary they will provide additional information as requested by the Scottish Government.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) budget and (b) outturn has been for the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) in each year since 2016.
Answer
The Scottish Government budget and outturn for the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) in each year since 2016 is in the following table:
| | SG Budget First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) | Budget Outturn |
2016-17 | Information not held | 995,376 |
2017-18 | 1,796,000 | 1762411 |
2018-19 | 4,333,000 | 3,147,000 |
2019-20 | 3,494,000 | 4,219,000 |
2020-21 | 3,494,000 | 3,694,000 |
2021-22 | 3,494,000 | 3,848,000 |
These figures are for the Scottish Government budget which part funds the costs of the First Tier Tribunal Housing and Property Chamber.
The First Tier Tribunal is an independent judicial body. As such, information on operational costs are held by the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with employers in the (a) public sector, (b) private sector, (c) third/ charity sector regarding policies and support for people who are eligible to attend cervical screening appointments to do so.
Answer
The Scottish Government expects all employers to take a fair and flexible approach that supports workers to attend all necessary medical appointments. For this reason, we do not engage with employers specifically around policies relating to cervical screening attendance. However, through our own direct marketing campaigns and support for third sector organisations, we continually work to ensure that the benefits of cervical screening are communicated to and understood by a wide range of audiences across Scotland.
We also remain committed to continuing to understand the barriers that discourage individuals from taking up their screening invitations, and to taking targeted action to overcome them.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage women under the age of 40 to attend their cervical screening appointments.
Answer
The Scottish Government encourages all eligible individuals between the ages of 25 and 64 to take up their cervical screening invitations.
A key priority for the Scottish Government is to reduce inequalities in access to and uptake of screening programmes, taking into account the available evidence of screening inequalities based on age as well as deprivation, ethnicity and gender.
That is why the Scottish Government is investing over £2m over 2021-22 and 2022-23 to build a programme of evidence-based, sustainable and scalable projects that tackle inequalities in a systemic way. It also recognises that the pandemic is likely to have exacerbated screening inequalities.
The Scottish Government has also awarded £456,000 to Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust in support of cervical awareness campaign work which is being used to tackle key issues around access and uptake. This work has included the Cervical Screening Awareness Week which ran in June, and for a longer-term Cervical Cancer Screening and Prevention Awareness project. The project will raise awareness of cervical cancer screening and prevention in Scotland for the period 2022-2024 through Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust expanding operations in Scotland to develop and share best practice in raising awareness of cervical cancer screening and prevention.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has been made of the barriers which currently exist for eligible people to access the cervical screening programme.
Answer
Work to understand and tackle barriers to cervical screening is on-going. Public Health Scotland (PHS) has published Cervical Screening Toolkit (healthscotland.scot) , which aims to address falling attendance rates and increase understanding of cervical cancer and the benefits of cervical screening. The information aims to help professionals to better understand the barriers to attendance (especially with vulnerable groups) and to use tried and tested methods to increase attendance.
Scottish Government officials continue to engage with key stakeholders, including PHS and the National Screening Oversight (NSO) on the most effective method of implementing interventions. The £2 million screening inequalities funding that we are investing over 2021-22 and 2022-23 is supporting that wide ranging work nationally, including through a dedicated screening inequalities resource within NSO, and local funding across all Health Boards.
Additionally, we are funding Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust with £456,000 for cervical campaign work across Scotland to raise cervical screening awareness, and that includes targeted engagement with groups where attendance has been found to be lower. That follows on from a report we commissioned from Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust which looked at barriers to cervical screening: https://www.jostrust.org.uk/sites/default/files/report_on_scottish_cervical_screening_survey_-_final.pdf.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates meeting Scotland’s capacity gap
on residual waste management resulting from the 2025 landfill ban, as
identified in the independent review of the role of incineration in the waste hierarchy.
Answer
The recent independent review of the role of incineration found that while there may be a temporary under-capacity of residual waste treatment in Scotland in 2025, when the ban on landfilling biodegradable municipal waste comes into force, there is a risk of long-term overcapacity beginning from 2026 or 2027, if all or most of the incineration capacity in the pipeline is built.
We are working closely with local authorities to support those that do not currently have solutions to the forthcoming ban on landfilling biodegradable municipal waste in 2025. The support includes facilitating collaborative procurement and providing technical, procurement and legal support for local authorities.
- Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether any changes in primary legislation in relation to the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 are being considered.
Answer
As part of the national conversation about our National Parks, we are considering the roles and functions National Park Authorities should have to help them continue delivering the aims set out in the 2000 Act, but also to play a key role in addressing the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change. We will consider consultation responses carefully, including any which propose changes to primary legislation.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many specialist food and drink retailers producing hampers, parcels and gift sets it has engaged with on its deposit return scheme, broken down by how many have responded to its contacts.
Answer
The Scottish Government has engaged with a wide range of drinks businesses throughout the policy development and implementation stages for our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), including through two stages of consultation (running from 25 June 2018 – 25 September 2018 and 10 September 2019 – 10 December 2019) which any business could participate in. We have not carried out any engagement relating to DRS specifically directed at retailers selling hampers, parcels, or gift sets, but many such retailers would have been captured by this wider engagement.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, when the 2025 landfill ban comes into force in
Scotland, whether residual waste will be exported to England to meet the
capacity gap identified in the independent review of the role of incineration
in the waste hierarchy and, if this is the case, whether it has identified
which facilities in England this waste will go to, and, if it has, whether it
will provide details of (a) the facilities involved and (b) how they will
manage the exported waste.
Answer
The recent independent review of the role of incineration found that while there may be temporary under-capacity of residual waste treatment in Scotland in 2025, when the ban on landfilling biodegradable municipal waste comes into force, there is a risk of long-term overcapacity beginning from 2026 or 2027, if all or most of the incineration capacity in the pipeline is built.
The review noted that export is one of the short-term options for the treatment of residual waste in order to bridge the expected capacity gap. However, we will continue to work closely with local authorities and commercial operators to support those that do not currently have solutions to treat their residual waste ahead of the forthcoming ban on landfilling biodegradable municipal waste in 2025, taking account of the recommendations of the independent review and ongoing assessment of residual waste requirements and available capacity.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether Zero Waste Scotland will continue to be funded entirely from public funds.
Answer
Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS), as well as other partners, is supporting the Scottish Government to realise ambitions for a Circular Economy in Scotland which is critical to tackling the climate and nature crises. In this regard, ZWS is an important delivery partner for the Scottish Government, providing expertise on Circular Economy policy, programmes and research which help to fulfil commitments set out in the Bute House Agreement and the Programme for Government 21-22. The Scottish Government will continue to fund ZWS and other partners that are able to provide the required specialist expertise to progress the Circular Economy agenda.
