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-19046

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 26 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it (a) has met and (b) plans to meet with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service regarding its consultation on a National Litter and Flytipping Strategy.

During the consultation process for the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy, the Scottish Government engaged a wide range of organisations and has been carefully considering consultation responses, of which there were 978. The majority of proposals received a high level of support, one of which is to conduct an evidence review of barriers to enforcement of litter and flytipping offences. The Scottish Government has commenced this research and has ensured that the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is engaged in this research project. The research findings will be published later this year.

Question reference: S6W-19042

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 26 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding is allocated to preventing fly tipping and littering for the financial year 2022-23.

The Scottish Government is taking forward a range of measures that contribute to tackling litter and flytipping as part of our wider efforts to tackle Scotland’s throwaway culture. In 2022-23 this included ongoing investment in local authority recycling infrastructure and banning some of the most problematic single-use plastic products.

Within this wider context, the Scottish Government allocated approximately £265,000 to prevent fly tipping and littering for the financial year 2022-23. This includes:

	£k
National Litter and Fly tipping Strategy consultation analysis and publication	51
On-going litter and flytipping prevention work, funded via Zero Waste Scotland core grant	131
Staff costs	83
TOTAL	265

Question reference: S6W-19045

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 26 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it (a) has met and (b) plans to meet with Police Scotland regarding its consultation on a National Litter and Flytipping Strategy.

During the consultation process for the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy, the Scottish Government convened the inaugural meeting of the Flytipping Forum, of which Police Scotland is a member and the purpose of which is to support co-ordinated action to tackle flytipping.

The National Litter and Flytipping Strategy has been co-designed in partnership with Zero Waste Scotland, Keep Scotland Beautiful and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. Furthermore, during the development of the Strategy, the Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime, chaired by Police Scotland, has been regularly engaged on the strategy’s progress and provided the opportunity to feedback on consultation proposals.

The Strategy will soon be published, following on from which the Flytipping Forum will be convened to discuss the strategy’s content and priority actions.

Question reference: S6T-01459

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding any implications for its Deposit Return Scheme, when it and its agencies were informed of Circularity Scotland's financial position, including the company's reported need to send staff home.

Question reference: S6W-18458

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 16 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what projections it has made on recycling rates for (a) glass and (b) plastic following the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme.

Question reference: S6W-18535

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address the growing needs for dentistry and GP services in Lothian, in light of data showing that, for example, the population of East Lothian has increased by 21.5% compared to Scotland’s average of 8.2% between 2001 and 2021.

Health and Social Care Partnerships are responsible for planning for the health and social care needs of their residents.

Funding for general medical services is based on population level data about registered patients and practice shares are continuously adjusted to reflect the movement of patients.

Scottish Government continually reviews in conjunction with all Boards, including NHS Lothian, areas for inclusion within the Scottish Dental Access Initiative. This provides funding to dentists who wish to establish a new practice, or extend an existing practice in areas where access to dental services is challenging.

Scottish Government will continue to liaise with NHS Lothian and local Health and Social Care Partnerships to understand all their service-related infrastructure plans and priorities.

Question reference: S6W-18724

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-17484 by Lorna Slater on 11 May 2023, what plans it has to publish the notes and actions of the meeting held on 20 April 2023.

Question reference: S6W-18725

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-17484 by Lorna Slater on 11 May 2023, for what reason it made no such publications during May 2023.

Question reference: S6W-18515

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there was a six-month delay between the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs agreeing a narrow exclusion to the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 for single-use plastics regulations, in March 2022, and the Scottish Government engaging in cross-administration discussions to secure a separate Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) exclusion under the Resources and Waste Common Framework, as detailed in its publication, Timeline and process for securing an Internal Market Act exclusion for DRS, published on 13 February 2023.

As set out in the Scottish Government publication of 28 February 2023 on “Timeline and process for securing an Internal Market Act exclusion for DRS”, in July 2021 the Scottish Government proposed a broad exclusion from the Internal Market Act under the Resources and Waste Common Framework which would have covered future policy such as DRS. The UK Government’s decision to agree only a narrow exclusion for single-use plastics resulted in the need for Scottish Government to again follow the agreed and published process in preparing a separate proposal for an exclusion for DRS. UK Government advised that cross-administration discussion should follow official level agreement on the interim Resources and Waste Common Framework – which was agreed in September 2022 - and clarity on UK Government Ministers following the 2022 Conservative Party leadership contest. Cross-administration discussions under the Common Framework began as soon as practicable thereafter.

Question reference: S6W-18462

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of the Deposit Return Scheme on recycling rates for (a) glass and (b) plastic.

The Scottish Government has undertaken extensive analysis of the impact of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme on recycling rates of both glass and plastic.

Scotland’s DRS will target a recycling rate of 90% of scheme articles by the third year of DRS being operational for both plastic and glass. Current recycling rates are around 50% for PET plastic and 63% for glass.

We expect to collect an extra 14,500 tonnes per year of plastic resulting in a CO2eq saving of 31,000 tonnes of carbon when the scheme launches. The UK Government’s intervention through the Internal Market Act Exclusion will delay these benefits by at least 19 months.