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: S3W-19256

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications have been received for rural development contracts for organic production in each of the 11 Scotland Rural Development Programme regions.

The following table shows a breakdown by region of both how many applications for organic production have been submitted to the Rural Priorities scheme, under the Scotland Rural Development Programme and how many of these have been approved. In total, 69 cases have applied of which 61 have been approved.

	Applied	Approved
Argyll	4	3
Ayrshire	0	0
Borders	9	9
Clyde	2	2
Dumfries and Galloway	2	1
Forth	3	2
Grampian	20	15
Highland	10	10
Northern Isles	8	8
Outer Hebrides	0	0
Tayside	11	11
Total	69	61

Question reference: S3W-19330

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-18374 by Richard Lochhead on 9 December 2008, whether it will list the projects that have been awarded funding from the Zero Waste Fund for 2008-09 and how much each project received.

The 2008-09 Zero Waste Fund has been allocated as follows:

Zero Waste Fund 2008-09	Profiled Expenditure (£ million Rounded)
Delivery Bodies
WRAP - Waste and Resources Action Programme	8.81
Envirowise	2.80
SWAG - Scottish Waste Awareness Group	1.87
CRNS - Community Recycling Network for Scotland	0.76
ReMaDe - Recyclate Market Development	0.59
KSB - Keep Scotland Beautiful	0.50
Eco Schools	0.20
KIMO - Fishing for Litter	0.05
ROWAN - Rossshire Waste Action Network	0.03
Local Authority Initiatives
Food Waste Collection Trials	0.60
Former Strategic Waste Fund Awards Accrued to 2008-09 - Recycling and Composting	4.18
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Recovery	0.11
Contaminated Land	3.10
Zero Waste Fund Transfers to Tackle Landfill Diversion	16.74
Central Initiatives
National Recycling Campaign Development	0.25
Zero Waste Think Tank	0.01
Radioactive Waste Programme	0.08
National Waste Plan Review	0.12
Carrier Bag Campaign	0.25
Flycapture Monitoring System	0.03
Climate Change Bill - Waste Provisions	0.01
Waste Data Flow System	0.01
Total (£ million)	41.1

Question reference: S3W-19326

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that local authorities should classify energy recovery from waste as recycling.

The Scottish Government do not believe that energy from waste should be classified as recycling. This view is in line with Article 3 of the revised Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC which defines recycling as meaning:

any recovery operation by which waste materials are reprocessed into products, materials or substances whether for the original or other purposes. It includes the reprocessing of organic material but does not include energy recovery and the reprocessing into materials that are to be used as fuels or for backfilling operations.

Question reference: S3W-19324

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what effect the EU waste framework directive agreed on 20 October 2008 will have on local authorities’ waste management policies.

Local authorities will be obliged to develop waste management policies in accordance with the revised EU Waste Framework Directive. Local authorities will be involved in the development of the new National Waste Plan for Scotland and, within the constraints of that plan and the strategic outcomes agreed with Scottish Government, it will be for local authorities themselves to devise their own policies in accordance with the revised Directive.

Question reference: S3W-19327

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, as a result of the EU waste framework directive of 20 October 2008, local authorities will be required to differentiate between re-use, recycling and recovery, including energy recovery, in developing waste management policies.

The revised EU Waste Framework Directive does attribute different definitions to these terms, so local authorities will need to take account of these definitions when developing their plans for management of waste. However, it should be noted that these definitions are consistent with current Scottish Government policy and delivery of Zero Waste Scotland, so there should be no need to do anything differently.

Question reference: S3W-19323

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what effect the EU waste framework directive agreed on 20 October 2008 will have on national waste management policy.

Question reference: S3W-19325

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to issue guidance to local authorities on the agreements and targets set in the EU waste framework directive of 20 October 2008.

Question reference: S3W-19328

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, as a result of the EU waste framework directive of 20 October 2008, local authorities will be required to report separately on waste that is re-used, recycled or recovered, including energy recovered.

Local authorities currently provide waste data returns to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency that cover waste recycling, composting, other recovery and disposal operations and we would not expect that to change as a result of the revised EU Waste Framework Directive. Re-use activities are not currently reported separately, and the revised Waste Framework Directive provisions do not place any new requirement on member states to do so. Nevertheless, we will consider wider reporting needs and requirements as part of the review of the National Waste Plan.

Question reference: S3W-19251

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hectares of farmland have been used for organic production in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Government do not collect comprehensive information relating to the number of hectares of farmland used for organic production. However, we do hold information on the number hectares which have been entered each year under the Organic Aid Scheme which is shown in the following table.

Hectares Entered Under Organic Aid Scheme*

Year
1999	117,052
2000	50,659
2001	85,193
2002	8,277
2003	1,204
2004	19,497
2005	16,581
2006	76,076
2007	0
2008	0

Note: *The Organic Aid Scheme closed to new applications on 31 March 2006.

Question reference: S3W-19252

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many farmers have entered into organic production in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Government do not collect comprehensive information relating to farmers who have entered organic production. However, we do hold information on the number of farmers who have entered the Organic Aid Scheme each year, as shown in the following table.

Year	Organic Aid Scheme* Entrants
1999	252
2000	136
2001	127
2002	50
2003	14
2004	113
2005	95
2006	148
2007	0
2008	0

Note: *The Organic Aid Scheme closed to new applications on 31 March 2006.