Chamber and committees

Hydrogen is not considered the primary approach to decarbonising domestic heat; however, it does still have a role to play where electrification is not the optimal solution.

Our Heat in Buildings Strategy set out the potential for hydrogen to replace natural gas in some parts of the gas grid. Any such role continues to depend on strategic decisions by the UK Government in the coming years.

Hydrogen use for domestic heating is new and needs to be demonstrated before the UK Government makes its decision. The Scottish Government has provided £6.9m grant funding to SGN’s H100 Fife hydrogen for home heating demonstration project, which will contribute to the evidence base on the role hydrogen can play in decarbonising heat using the gas network. This project is expected to come online in Autumn 2025 and will fit up to 300 hydrogen boilers supplied with 100% green hydrogen produced from offshore wind renewable electricity.

The Scottish Government is committed to helping the Scottish hydrogen sector develop and grow to realise an ambition of generating 5GW of green and low-carbon hydrogen by 2030 and 25GW by 2045. Working with our Enterprise Agencies, we are actively engaging with developers to support and encourage hydrogen production projects across Scotland. Given the nascent nature of the sector, and the pace of the developing global hydrogen economy, future production capacity levels are subject to many factors and are challenging to forecast.

The Scottish Government recognise that lowering the production cost of green hydrogen is a key factor in the development of the hydrogen economy in Scotland. We are supportive of innovation and technological advances that could support this aim.

The two Bills have different provisions for deer management. Part 2 of the Land Reform Bill contains provisions for compensation for agricultural damage caused by game, including deer. The Natural Environment Bill has a different purpose, it aims to improve the management of deer.

Table of provisions in the Land reform Bill and the Natural Environment Bill

The National Litter and Flytipping Strategy is a six year plan. According to Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Local Environmental Auditing Monitoring System (LEAMS) data, 92.7% of audited street sites met acceptable litter standards in the most recent survey, a 1.7 percentage point increase from the previous year. LEAMS data by local authority area is available on KSB’s website.

As noted in the response to S6W-38714 on 24 June 2025, flytipping data is held at local authority level.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government recognises the need to continue to address flytipping from commercial sources and has been consistently working with delivery partners under the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy to do so. For example, through SEPA's partnership enforcement activity and digital disruption online actions. Ongoing measures by SEPA to further strengthen how they regulate waste activities will also have an impact.

These activities, alongside cross-agency engagement including through the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce (SOCT) Environmental Waste Crime Working Group and Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime (SPARC), are helping to build collective understanding and partnership working across the sector.

The Scottish Government has assessed the wider costs of fly-tipping in Scotland through the Litter and Flytipping: Scale and Cost report, published in 2023. This estimated that the overall direct cost of litter and flytipping in Scotland was £81.2m. Direct costs to public and private bodies, excluding local councils, was estimated to be £20.5m. The research also contains the cost broken down by a number of sectors, including nature-based attractions (including farmland), food and retail/commercial. Insufficient information was received to assess the costs of flytipping for these sectors.

We recognise the financial pressure on private landowners. In 2023-24, the Private Landowners Grant Fund provided targeted support to prevent fly-tipping, including measures such as fencing, signage and surveillance. This extended into 2024-25 to also cover clean-up activities. We continue to explore other ways to support landowners, including involvement in multi-agency enforcement partnerships and clarification of responsibilities under Section 59 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, as amended by the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024.

The Scottish Government does not hold consolidated national data on the number of flytipping reports or enforcement outcomes. Between 2020 and its closure in March 2023, fewer than 900 reports were received annually via the Dumb Dumpers platform. In comparison, the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy’s Flytipping Baseline Report, published in October 2024, sets out that in 2022–23 between 63,378 and 64,486 flytipping incidents were reported directly to local authority systems, depending on the data source.

Data on the proportion of incidents resulting in enforcement action is not held centrally, as this is a matter for local authorities and other enforcement bodies. Improving national consistency in reporting and enforcement data remains a priority under the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy and the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024.

The National Litter and Flytipping Strategy identifies the need for a new national online reporting system and this remains an ambition. Initial work has been undertaken to consider requirements for future reporting improvements, taking into account learning from previous approaches and the recommendations of the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy Baseline Report, which considered available flytipping data and changes that may be needed in the future.

Work is ongoing through the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy Data Management Group, which includes SEPA and local authorities, to explore options for improving data collection and sharing.

Local authorities are responsible for the provision and accessibility of household waste and recycling services, including civic amenity sites. However, the Scottish Government recognises the particular challenges faced by rural communities and continues to work with COSLA, SEPA and other partners to support fair and practical solutions.

We are making one of the biggest investments in a generation to modernise recycling in Scotland through the £70m Recycling Improvement Fund for local authorities. Over £8.8 million has been allocated to rural communities across all local authorities, including funding for civic amenity sites.

As part of our wider national strategy to tackle flytipping, we are also exploring ways to improve access to legitimate disposal routes and considering how best to support consistency and share good practice.

As set out in the Circular Economy & Waste Route Map and as enabled by the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024, we are reviewing the Household Recycling Charter's supporting Code of Practice. The Code of Practice will be put on a statutory basis to deliver better and more consistent recycling services across all areas of Scotland, including rural areas. This new statutory Code will provide clear guidance for both householders and waste practitioners, ensuring the right choices are the easiest options.

Working closely with local authorities is integral to this review, as their input ensures the practicality and effectiveness of the new Code across diverse communities. Co-design will help address the diversity of needs and local circumstances across Scotland.