Chamber and committees

Details of transfrontier shipments of waste are not published or held by Scottish Government, but are held by SEPA.

Information on exports to other UK countries is not available for the years requested.

Due to the cyber attack suffered by SEPA in 2020, data for that year is unavailable. The 2021 data is expected to be available from 28 March 2023, following publication of official statistics on Waste from All Sources. SEPA does not yet have a complete dataset for 2022, as returns are still being processed.

SEPA’s Waste from All Sources Discover Tool is available here: Waste (from all sources) (sepa.org.uk)

The Scottish Government has been following the process for excluding the deposit return scheme regulations from the Internal Market Act 2020 and we expect a decision from the UK Government as soon as possible.

NatureScot has a range of legislative powers available to them under the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996. A summary of how NatureScot has used those powers since 2017 has been provided in the following table:

Previous requests under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 have provided information on the costs associated with the creation of the Deposit Return Scheme in Scotland and are published on the Scottish Government website. As of 18 May 2022 it cost the Scottish Government £182,722 to set up DRS including costs associated with preparing legislation, consulting, evaluation, and independent reviews and assurance. The Scottish Government is open to further requests for information under both FOISA (2002) and EIR (2004).

Previous requests under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 have provided information on the costs associated with the creation of the Deposit Return Scheme in Scotland and are published on the Scottish Government website. As of 18 May 2022 it cost the Scottish Government £182,722 to set up DRS including costs associated with preparing legislation, consulting, evaluation, and independent reviews and assurance. The Scottish Government is open to further requests for information under both FOISA (2002) and EIR (2004).

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, I have asked Douglas Millican, Chief Executive, to respond. His response is as follows:

Scottish Water completed an exercise with the James Hutton Institute in 2021-22 to understand the current carbon capture on its landholdings and to baseline performance. This has enabled Scottish Water to identify areas where it can improve carbon performance. Scottish Water is planning to survey and restore all circa 4400Ha of poor condition peatland on its land that were identified in the baseline exercise. In addition, it is working with other landowners to identify peatland for restoration where the poor condition peat has an impact on raw water quality. This programme of work has been underway for several years with a focus on water quality, and now has added benefit of carbon reduction.

In parallel, Scottish Water has been reviewing all of its landholdings for their potential for woodland creation. In 2021-22 they created 100ha of new woodland and are developing several schemes to increase this. In developing the plans for each site, Scottish Water engages with its tenant farmers to ensure that the plans integrate with the needs of the tenant. Scottish Water’s largest land holding is the Loch Katrine estate, where over the last two years it has been working in partnership with Forestry and Land Scotland to develop a 10 year land management plan. This was submitted to Scottish Forestry for approval in February 2023. The draft plan proposes the creation of some 4600Ha of new woodland. This landscape scale plan has involved close working with communities and stakeholders such as the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority.

We commissioned EY to undertake a substantial piece of analytical work, this has now been published and is available to view here – Energy System and Just Transition Analysis

Early outputs informed the ESJTP to help us better understand the implications of the transition to net zero on the energy system, including oil and gas, and to help us plan for a just transition across the sector.

This research will help us determine how the sector can help deliver our net zero targets, and how meeting our own energy needs can help build a new low-emission energy industry.

NHS National Procurement in partnership with the Health Boards are responsible for the provision of medicine homecare services and have met with affected providers on a weekly basis over a 12 month period to address services provision and monitor return to good service levels.

When service problems arise, through performance management arrangements linked to service level agreement and contracts, there is work with providers to agree an action plan and then closely monitoring delivery of performance improvements against that plan until service levels return to agreed standards.

Circularity Scotland, as the scheme administrator for DRS, represents and provides services to its members including drinks producers, importers, wholesalers and retailers. Scottish Ministers, Scottish Government officials and Circularity Scotland regularly meet with stakeholders including representatives of small producers and that package of support was in direct response to concerns they have raised.

Sewer networks are dynamic and non-compliance can be short-lived. At the time of writing SEPA is not aware of any current, ongoing non-compliance with sewer network licences.

The inspection of sewer networks by SEPA can be the result of both planned work and in response to a notification of an issue by a member of the public or by Scottish Water. These inspections are normally targeted to specific areas, such as a pumping station and overflows in the local area which are in themselves part of a much larger sewer network.

SEPA investigations from June 2021 to date found 78 incidences of networks being non-compliant with their licence conditions. Reasons for non-compliance included:

Blockage of downstream sewer,

Sewage debris visible as a result of a discharge,

Significant visible impact on receiving waters due to the presence of oil or grease,

Significant deposition of sewage solids.

Scottish Water investigate reports of non-compliance, which can involve CCTV surveys, and undertake work to rectify issues identified such as clearing of tree roots, fats oils and grease, identifying and deterring illegal disposal of wastes and cross connections, and clearing watercourses and the surrounding areas.

Between 2010 and 2021, SEPA required Scottish Water to improve 279 sewer overflows and 104 wastewater treatment works, which were causing significant pollution. As a result, water quality is now at its highest level to date, with 87% of Scotland’s waters having good or better water quality.

Scottish Water’s route map for improving urban waters sets out actions required by Scottish Water, as well as significant work needed with other partners, to deliver long term improvements. The route map signals Scottish Water’s prioritised investment programme in this area.

In Scotland, the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) appraises the clinical and cost-effectiveness of newly-licensed medicines. Following a full submission from the submitting company, Merck Sharp & Dohme Ltd, the SMC published “accepted for restricted use” advice for Health Boards on the routine use of Keytruda ® for the treatment of persistent, recurrent, or secondary cervical cancer in NHS Scotland on 13 February 2023.

The decision to prescribe a medicine for an individual, and which medicine to prescribe, is entirely for the clinician in charge of an individual’s care, having taken into account their clinical condition, safety considerations and any relevant clinical guidance.