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: S5W-18961

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to ensure that the appropriate infrastructure is in place to allow farmers to recycle farm plastics after 1 January 2019, when they will no longer able to incinerate plastics on-farm.

A list of plastic waste service providers is available on the Zero Waste Scotland website https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/resource-management/farm-plastic-recycling . In addition, detailed advice for farmers is available on the SEPA website at: https://www.sepa.org.uk/regulations/waste/agricultural-waste/burning-on-farm-waste/ .

A transition period until 1 January 2019 has been agreed to allow farmers time to prepare. Initial feedback from providers following the recent announcement has shown a marked increase in interest in recycling services from farmers. SEPA is working closely with NFUS and local authorities to monitor the situation.

Question reference: S5W-18962

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it will introduce to ensure that farmers across Scotland are able to recycle plastic once they are no longer able to incinerate plastics on-farm after 1 January 2019.

A working group was in place from late 2016 until recently to plan the transition towards a position where the ban could be enforced, with membership from NFUS, SEPA, Zero Waste Scotland, Scottish Government and waste plastics collectors and reprocessors.

Through the work of the Group, it has been established that in most areas of the country there are waste collection services available, and that the network will expand further once there is a clear timescale for the ban to be enforced. SEPA is providing full guidance to farmers on what they need to do in any given set of circumstance, (see https://www.sepa.org.uk/regulations/waste/agricultural-waste/burning-on-farm-waste/ ) and will provide assistance where needed.

Question reference: S5O-02430

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it is making of the development of initial and transferable skills to support a net zero emissions economy.

Question reference: S5W-18858

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to ensure that the development of the second national flood risk assessment prioritises community involvement and social justice.

The second National Flood Risk Assessment (NFRA) has been developed by SEPA as part of its duties under the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009. The second NFRA includes the following new key community and social justice components:

Significant improvement of the underlying property dataset, which means more facilities can be robustly assessed.
Outputs from the Scottish Government Mapping of Flood Disadvantage Scotland Research have been incorporated into the assessment.
Expansion of the types of community facilities to consider those which support community cohesion and function, as well as education, emergency response and health.
Incorporation of a community scale element to identify locations where the functionality of a community is compromised by the proportion of properties at risk; this is can be a particular issue in small, rural communities.
Incorporation of community safety by identifying locations where deep and/or fast flowing water may increase the danger of flooding.
Consideration of greater impacts due to a lack of alternative services and long journey times for rural and isolated locations.

Question reference: S5W-18857

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 25 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to consult the public on its development of the second national flood risk assessment.

The second National Flood Risk Assessment (NFRA) has been developed by SEPA as part of its duties under the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009. SEPA ran a three month public consultation on the NFRA from the beginning of May to the end of July 2018.

The consultation covered the proposed Potentially Vulnerable Areas and also an overview of the NFRA and the approach taken by SEPA to its development. An analysis of the 263 responses received as part the consultation can be found on SEPA’s website at https://www.sepa.org.uk/media/375826/frm-in-scotland-pva-2018_consultation-outcome-report.pdf .

Question reference: S5W-18859

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 25 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the announcement in its Programme for Government, how much extra funding will be made available for flood forums, and when the extra funding will be made available.

The Programme for Government commits the Scottish Government to fund the Scottish Flood Forum to raise awareness and increase resilience of communities at risk. The Scottish Government is providing funding to the Forum of £157,000 in 2018-19. This will ensure that the Forum continues to offer free advice about Property Level Protection to householders, businesses and local authorities and delivers grassroots community development support to community groups. Funding for future years will be considered as part of the Scottish Government budget process.

Question reference: S5F-02650

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 September 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 September 2018

To ask the First Minister, in light of the Committee on Climate Change's recent report, what new action the Scottish Government plans to reduce CO2 emissions.

Question reference: S5O-02400

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the Scottish Tourism Alliance and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S5W-18478

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 13 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is considering the introduction of an environmental charge or levy on cans and bottles, alongside the planned deposit return system.

The Scottish Government is currently consulting publicly on the full range of options that could make up a Scottish Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), building upon the detailed analysis work done by Zero Waste Scotland. The consultation closes on 25th September 2018, after which the results will be analysed and published.

We are also currently engaged in considering options relating to the reform of the producer responsibility scheme for packaging, in light of our ambitions for a circular economy and the objectives of the EU Circular Economy Package. This has included developing an understanding of how an environmental fee-based system operates alongside DRS in countries such as Norway.

Question reference: S5W-18048

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 30 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many land management orders have been issued each year under (a) Chapter 3 of the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 and (b) regulations 19 and 21 of the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994 to ensure that appropriate management work is carried out on natura sites and sites of special scientific interest.