Chamber and committees

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.

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Question reference: S6W-35239

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 11 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its guidance on applying the waste hierarchy, what independent mechanisms oversee the implementation of waste hierarchy in managing waste.

Scottish waste legislation is underpinned by the waste hierarchy and Scottish Government has a range of laws and policies which implement it in managing waste.

The Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 require Scottish households and businesses to present recyclable materials such as glass, metal, plastic, paper, cardboard and food waste separately for collection.

Scotland was the first nation in the UK to introduce a ban on landfilling biodegradable municipal waste which comes into force on 31 December 2025.

The Circular Economy Act and our Circular Economy and Waste Route Map to 2030 set out ambitious plans to deliver priority actions which will help maximise progress towards a circular economy. The plan has 4 strategic aims: to reduce and reuse, maximise recycling, decarbonise disposal and strengthen the circular economy.

A total of £66.6 million has been allocated through the Recycling Improvement fund, to 27 Scottish local authorities for 47 projects to increase the quantity and quality of recycling across Scotland.

These are just some of the measures in place in Scotland which are to helping to drive waste up the hierarchy and away from disposal.

Question reference: S6W-35238

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 11 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its guidance on applying the waste hierarchy, what discussions it has had with (a) SEPA and (b) affected communities regarding new energy-from-waste incineration sites that have already received approval, including what consideration has been made for community (i) consent and (ii) engagement regarding these sites.

There are currently three Energy from Waste (EfW) sites currently in construction and commissioning and SEPA keeps the Scottish Government updated about their development.

With respect to community consent, these facilities require planning consent from the relevant local authority and a permit from SEPA. Both the planning process and SEPA permitting process include formal consultation processes.

For EfW permits, SEPA consults the public twice: firstly at an early stage of the application and again on SEPA’s draft determination and draft decision document. This process has been followed for all EfW permits to date. Some EfW facilities also have regular liaison meetings with their local community and SEPA attends when invited.

Permits plus compliance and monitoring data are published by SEPA on its public register and EfW operators are also required, via the permit, to publish their monitoring data on their own website. There is also a 24 hour pollution hotline which members of the public can use to inform SEPA of any issues associated with an EfW facility.

Question reference: S6W-35240

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 11 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its guidance on applying the waste hierarchy, what targets have been set on the implementation of waste hierarchy in managing waste.

To drive progress towards our circular economy goals, Scotland had a set of waste and recycling targets in place over the past decade running to 2025, and spanning the waste hierarchy.

As our Circular Economy & Waste Route Map set out, while these previous 2025 targets have provided a good platform for progress over the past decade, they are not universally the best indicators to deliver our circular economy, emissions and nature objectives.

By 2027, we will set new statutory circular economy targets, using powers from the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024. These targets will follow the development of a monitoring and indicator framework to allow for more holistic tracking of Scotland's consumption levels and wider measures of circularity, and will take into account the waste hierarchy.

Question reference: S6W-35177

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 11 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much capital budget funding has been provided to the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service in each of the last five financial years.

Question reference: S6W-35181

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 11 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much resource budget funding has been provided to the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service in each of the last five financial years.

Question reference: S6T-02407

Asked by: Audrey Nicoll, MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of joint calls on the UK Government from business leaders in Scotland for the project to be progressed as a priority, whether it will provide an update on what engagement it has had with the UK Government regarding the Acorn carbon capture and storage project and Scotland’s journey to net zero.

Question reference: S6T-02395

Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that people live in safe, warm homes, in light of reports that the number of properties falling below the "tolerable standard" in order to be fit for habitation has increased from an estimated 54,000 in 2018 to 729,000 in 2023.

Question reference: S6F-03906

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2025

To ask the First Minister what steps the Scottish Government is considering to further support Scotland's universities, in light of reports that the University of the West of Scotland reported a multi-million pound deficit in the last financial year, with other universities across Scotland in a similar financial position.

Question reference: S6F-03900

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2025

To ask the First Minister whether he will provide an update on how the Scottish Government is working to improve healthy life expectancy.

Question reference: S6F-03889

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

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