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-43721

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 25 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what statutory powers are available to local authorities to tackle habitual fly-tippers.

Fly tipping is a criminal offence in Scotland under Section 33(1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 with maximum penalties on summary conviction of a fine of up to £40,000, or a custodial sentence not exceeding six months or both and on conviction on indictment, a fine or term of imprisonment not exceeding five years or both.

Local Authority enforcement officers may also issue fixed penalty notices(FPN)for fly tipping to persons believed to have fly tipped which provide the opportunity for a person to discharge liability to conviction by payment of a fixed penalty of £500, noting that habitual fly tippers should be reported to the Procurator Fiscal for prosecution. Amendments to section 33A by the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024, once in force, will allow for further increases of the fixed penalty up to a maximum of a level 3 fine(currently £1000) and also for different penalties in different circumstances, for example on a second FPN. Local authorities also have powers under section 59 to require clean-up of fly tipped waste by land occupiers, under certain circumstances.

New powers introduced by the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024 will, when fully implemented, strengthen the legislative foundation for tackling and deterring fly tipping. For example, section 19 will amend the Environment Act 1995 to provide local authority and SEPA officers to search and seize vehicles suspected of being used in relation to specified waste crimes, which may include fly tipping.

Question reference: S6W-43726

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 25 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has provided to local authorities to support their work to address habitual fly-tipping.

No additional direct funding has been provided to local councils for the implementation of the National Litter and Fly tipping Strategy. However, we have funded Keep Scotland Beautiful to deliver targeted interventions working with councils and communities, and SEPA has developed the partnership enforcement model with councils.

The Scottish Government is making available record funding of £15.7 billion for Local Government in 2026-27. The vast majority of funding allocated to councils is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including meeting the requirements set out in the 2018 Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse (CoPLAR).

Question reference: S6W-43717

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 25 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has undertaken a review of the effectiveness of the measures in the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024 to tackle habitual fly-tipping.

The Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024 provides a range of powers to tackle fly tipping in Scotland. These include a number of additional powers which were added to the legislation during the Parliamentary process, which will be implemented in due course.

As the measures within the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024 have not been fully introduced no review of their effectiveness to tackle habitual fly tipping has been undertaken.

Question reference: S6W-43720

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 23 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many fixed penalty fines for fly-tipping were issued in each year from 2019 to 2025.

Question reference: S6W-43722

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 23 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many fixed penalty fines for fly-tipping have been issued by Scotland's national parks since 1 April 2025.

Question reference: S6W-43719

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 23 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions for fly-tipping there were in each year from 2019 to 2025.

Question reference: S6W-43646

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 19 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-43316 by Angus Robertson on 3 February 2026, regarding the safeguard of the collection and support for future conservation projects, whether Historic Environment Scotland is working with the National Heritage Memorial Fund to purchase the entire proprietary pattern archive of Ballantine Castings Ltd from the liquidator.

Question reference: S6O-05548

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 February 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of the finance available for commercial shipbuilding projects at Scottish shipyards, including how the competitiveness of this compares with that of other European nations with commercial shipbuilding industries. R

Question reference: S6W-43555

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 12 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered investing any revenues it collects from the expansion of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme to the maritime sector to support the provision of infrastructure for Onshore Power Supply projects at Scottish ports.

Ports in Scotland are independent statutory bodies – each governed by their own local legislation – and are deemed commercial entities. The relevant port authority is thus responsible for day-to-day commercial decision-making including investments and areas of priority spend and this is not the remit of the Scottish Government. Several Scottish ports have already introduced shore power facilities, including at Port of Aberdeen, Eyemouth, Forth Ports, Fraserburgh and Montrose. Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) are also installing shore power facilities at a number of ports on the lifeline ferry network, including Port Askaig and Kennacraig.

Question reference: S6W-43554

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 12 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered ringfencing any funds raised from the expansion of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme to the maritime sector in order to support maritime decarbonisation projects.

All receipts from the UK ETS across all four nations accrue to the consolidated fund, and contribute toward funding government priorities, such as the net zero transition, where UK Government spending flows through Barnett consequentials.

In Scotland we are already advancing several programmes of work on maritime decarbonisation, including our Vision for Sustainable Aquaculture and work on blue carbon outlined in our draft Climate Change Plan 2026-2040. We are also engaging with Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) on increasing the proportion of our ferries which are low emission to 48% by 2040, as well as increasing the ability of our ferries to utilise low-carbon renewable grid electricity for their energy requirements.