- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority of (a) direct Scottish Government funding from the Nature Restoration Fund, (b) all project applications made to the Fund, (c) the projects that received money from the Fund and (d) the value of each award.
Answer
The Nature Restoration Fund is subdivided into two main strands, each of which is further sub-divided, as follows:
1. The competitive strand, which is subdivided into:
- Projects less than £250k lasting 1-2 years;
- Projects greater than £250k lasting 2-4 years.
2. The Edinburgh Process strand:
- Direct allocations to Local Authorities and the National Parks;
- A competitive top-up fund open to Local Authorities only.
Due to the voluminous nature of the data, a spreadsheet containing the requested information has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number: 63496). Applications for the second part of the Edinburgh Process strand are currently being assessed.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many contractors have worked and (b) what the expenditure has been on contractors, in its Cladding Remediation Unit in each of the last 12 months.
Answer
(a) there have been a total of 4 contract workers in the past 12 months.
(b) see the following table
Month | Date | Costs (inc VAT) | Number of Contractors |
1 | Jul-21 | £ 6,659.39 | 1 |
2 | Aug-21 | £ 4,324.85 | 1 |
3 | Sep-21 | £ 8,710.49 | 1 |
4 | Oct-21 | £ 1,028.20 | 1 |
5 | Nov-21 | £ - | 0 |
6 | Dec-21 | £ - | 0 |
7 | Jan-22 | £ - | 0 |
8 | Feb-22 | £ - | 0 |
9 | Mar-22 | £ - | 0 |
10 | Apr-22 | £ 16,098.00 | 3 |
11 | May-22 | £ 33,333.96 | 3 |
12 | Jun-22 | £ 23,365.20 | 3 |
| | Total | £ 93,520.09 | |
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what the average day rate is of the contractors in its Cladding Remediation Unit.
Answer
For the year 2022 to date the average day rate is £505.03 (inclusive of VAT).
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many times Circularity Scotland has met with Zero Waste Scotland in order to ensure that all of Zero Waste Scotland’s knowledge and understanding on the circular economy is being used in support of Circularity Scotland's work.
Answer
Circularity Scotland Ltd as Scheme Administrator meets frequently with Zero Waste Scotland as part of their ongoing work to implement our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), including through the DRS System-Wide Assurance Group which is responsible for assessing system-wide readiness, as well as the monitoring and addressing of risks to delivery for Scotland’s DRS.
- Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, 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, in light of the report Stop, Sort, Burn, Bury? Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy in Scotland, whether it will be reporting emissions from incineration separately from other energy-related emissions.
Answer
Official statistics on Scottish greenhouse gas emissions are published annually and used to monitor progress towards Scotland’s statutory emissions reduction targets. These statistics are based on a disaggregation of the UK Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory, which is overseen by the UK Government Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and compiled in line with international scientific guidance.
Currently, the UK Inventory does not allow for the isolation of data for emissions from waste incineration plants as opposed to other energy sector emissions. Decisions around the UK Inventory are a matter for BEIS and are informed by the UK National Inventory Steering Committee, which includes representation from Scottish Government officials.
As we outlined in our response to the independent review, we accept this recommendation and so we will work with BEIS and the UK National Inventory Steering Committee to explore the potential to break down our GHG inventory reporting to provide a separate Energy from Waste source within our future publications.
- Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, 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, in light of the report Stop, Sort, Burn, Bury? Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy in Scotland, how many incinerators are currently (a) operational, (b) under construction, (c) have planning permission in place, and (d) seeking planning permission, broken down by how many deliver combined heat and power.
Answer
Information on operational and planned incineration facilities, including their status, is set out in Tables 1 and 2 in Stop, Sort, Burn Bury? Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy in Scotland , which was published on 10 May 2022. This can be found here: Stop, Sort, Burn, Bury - incineration in the waste hierarchy: independent review - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Currently, all operational facilities in Scotland export electricity only, with the exception of the Lerwick facility, which exports heat only. All plants currently exporting electricity only are combined heat and power (CHP) ready and all new plants must be built heat and power ready.
Our £300 million Heat Network Fund, launched in February 2022, is one of a number of ways of helping local authorities and private companies make use of existing waste heat through heat networks wherever possible. We currently support heat network projects in Aberdeen and Midlothian that will use heat from Energy from Waste.
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Clare Haughey on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that children have adequate access to food throughout the school holidays.
Answer
Tackling poverty and inequality is a key priority for this government. We know that holiday periods can present challenges for families, which is why we have provided local authorities with £21.75 million of funding for alternative holiday food provision for families eligible for free school meals. This support is available to those families on the basis of low income, regardless of the age of their children and is being provided directly to families in the form of vouchers or cash payments. In addition to this, we have invested a further £10 million into a targeted summer holiday programme for 2022, designed to reach those school age children and their families who can benefit most from access to free holiday childcare, activities and nutritious food.
- 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 how much residual waste it anticipates exporting to
England in each year from 2025 onwards.
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.
The review noted that export is a feasible short-term option for the treatment of residual waste in order to bridge the expected capacity gap. Scottish Government will continue to work with local authorities and commercial operators to ensure they have solutions in place to manage their residual waste in 2025 and beyond, 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: Wednesday, 29 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the root causes behind the reported lack of significant progress in increasing Scotland’s household recycling rate relative to 2011, and, if no such breakdown exists, whether it will provide details of the steps that it is taking to conduct such an assessment.
Answer
On 30 May 2022 we published our consultation on Delivering Scotland’s circular economy – a Route Map to 2025 and beyond. The Route Map sets out system-wide interventions to help deliver Scotland’s transition to a zero waste and circular economy, significantly increase reuse and recycling rates, and modernise and improve waste and recycling services. The consultation is available here: Delivering Scotland’s circular economy: A Route Map to 2025 and beyond - Scottish Government - Citizen Space .
The accompanying technical annex summarises available evidence on factors driving the current national recycling performance, and the rationale for proposed Route Map actions. Key factors include infrastructure modernisation, specific geographical challenges contributing to local performance rate variation, technical or economic options for reuse or recycling of products, and the incentives and guidance in place to support recycling participation across our economy and society.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-08785 by Lorna Slater on 10 June 2022, whether it will provide a breakdown of all of the individual meetings that it has had with small brewers to discuss its Deposit Return Scheme since 21 July 2021.
Answer
Since July 2021 we have met representatives of small brewers on the following occasions: 5 August 2021, 7 September 2021, and 28 October 2021. This is in addition to small brewers’ representatives participating in wider Scottish Government engagement such as the DRS System-Wide Assurance Group.
