Chamber and committees

Household soft plastics are not routinely recycled by Scottish Local Authorities. Data is not collected specifically on soft plastics, but Zero Waste Scotland extrapolate from SEPA annual estimates of the amount of plastic waste generated in Scotland and managed in / out with Scotland in the Waste From All Sources report: Waste (from all sources). It is not possible to break this analysis down into sub-types of plastic waste.

MV Glen Sannox was transferred to CMAL on 20 November 2024.

The Scottish Government welcomes this report and will fully consider the Action Against Stalking report recommendations and will work in partnership to consider current policy and how recommendations may be taken forward.

The Scottish Government is committed to an evidence-based approach to the energy transition. In support of our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, we commissioned and published (in March 2023) a programme of independent analysis on Scotland’s energy requirements during the transition to net zero – including the role of North Sea oil and gas. This analysis includes sections on the economic footprint of Scotland’s offshore oil and gas sector, including its regional distribution. The published reports can be found here: Publication of the outputs from a programme of work to better understand our energy requirements as we transition to net zero - Energy system and Just Transition: independent analysis - gov.scot

The National Energy System Operator (NESO)’s Beyond 2030 report (published in March 2024, available here: Beyond 2030 | National Energy System Operator) itself states: “Independent analysis commissioned by us as the Electricity System Operator (ESO) suggests that by 2035, the recommendations in this report could add up to £15 billion to the UK economy and support an average of 20,000 jobs each year. A third of these benefits (£5.2 billion to 2035 and over 6,000 jobs per year) are likely to be in Scotland”

During the build phase of MV Glen Sannox, certain specifications required amendment to ensure compliance with updated regulatory standards issued by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). This is standard practice within the shipbuilding industry, where ongoing engagement with the MCA is essential to ensure that vessels meet all necessary safety and operational requirements.

The eight schemes highlighted in answer S6W-30798 on 7 November 2024 as withdrawn from the cycle one flood protection scheme funding programme, and the one scheme highlighted as no longer required, were not included in the list of 16 schemes complete at that time.

18 schemes are now complete.

SEPA is presently awaiting the incident report following the fire at the Blairlinn industrial estate in Cumbernauld.

Therefore, at this time, it would not be appropriate to commit to a review of fire safety procedures at waste management facilities.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency monitors the water quality of Scotland’s rivers and designated bathing beaches and publishes its classification results annually.

87% of Scotland’s entire water environment is assessed by SEPA as having a high or good classification for water quality, up from 82% in 2014, and for rivers the figure is 85%.

SEPA’s most recent Bathing Waters classification shows that 97% of Scotland’s bathing waters currently achieve the bathing water quality standards with 87% being rated good or excellent, up from 84% in 2023.

Scotland is renowned worldwide for the quality of our rivers, lochs and seas, supporting our tourism economy with our natural environment attracting millions of visitors every year with a total of 109 million tourism visits to Scotland in 2023.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

Scottish Water has already published this data at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/Your-Home/Your-Waste-Water/Overflows/Live-Overflow-Map.

Currently, data from around 1,100 overflow monitor locations is included on the overflow map. As additional monitors are installed and data from these is checked, more monitor locations are added to the overflow map.

The delivery of split payments to joint Universal Credit households is reliant on the ability of the DWP to adapt the UC system to facilitate the policy. The Scottish Government continues to work with the DWP to consider the steps required to deliver the policy.