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: S4W-17722

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 12 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-17088 by Richard Lochhead on 26 September 2013, whether it will provide the locations of the 230 farms that received sewage sludge in 2012.

Question reference: S4W-17166

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 26 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what support is available for private waste management companies that will need to make changes to their equipment in order to comply with the zero-waste regulations that will be introduced in 2014.

Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) ran a capital grant programme earlier this year, and in 2012-13, for waste management companies operating a collection service to the commercial and industrial sectors. Total funding available under this programme over the two years is £1.75 million.

The capital funding was open to private and the third sector waste management operators as well as local authority trade waste services. Funding was available for collections infrastructure that sought to capture paper, cardboard, plastics, glass, metals and food waste from the commercial and industrial sector.

This year available funding of £750,000 has been allocated to nine recipients, with final contracts due to be signed this week. On-going business development support is also available from ZWS, although this does not include capital support.

Question reference: S4W-17090

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 26 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) restrictions and (b) criteria apply when a licence is granted for the spreading of human sewage sludge on agricultural land.

Question reference: S4W-17088

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 26 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many licences for the spreading of human sewage sludge on agricultural land have been issued in the last 18 months and for what locations.

Sewage sludge can be used as soil fertiliser and also for ecological benefit on both agricultural land and on land being restored. The use of sewage sludge on farmland is controlled by the Sludge (Use in Agriculture) Regulations 1989 which control the build-up of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in soil and restrict the planting, grazing and harvesting of certain crops following the application of sludge. The statutory controls on the application must be complied with and failure to do so could result in a cross compliance penalty on individual land managers. The Safe Sludge Matrix, developed by Water UK, water and sewerage operators across the UK and also the British Retail Consortium in 1998 resulted in the phasing out of the use of untreated sludge in agriculture. This matrix is still in force and goes beyond the statutory cropping and grazing restrictions of the Department of Environment Code of Practice published in 1996.

Sludge producers, like Scottish Water, are required to analyse field soils and sewage sludge prior to application and maintain detailed records when used in agriculture. There are specific annual limits which cannot be exceeded; limits for individual applications rates to farm land is based on PTE levels and soil pH, thus the tonnage of sewage sludge applied per hectare can range from around 20 to 50 tonnes depending on PTE levels in the soil after application. These records are made available annually to the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), who are the regulatory authority. SEPA also carries out soil monitoring on a number of sites where sewage sludge has been applied.

Furthermore, the application of sewage sludge to farmland should also follow the Scottish Government's Code of Good Practice for the Prevention of Environmental Pollution From Agricultural Activity (The PEPFAA Code) for the protection of water, soil and air. This document identifies good practices of applying sludge to land, and also summarises the Sludge Regulations and the Safe Sludge Matrix requirements, and is available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/37428/0014235.pdf.

Treated sewage sludge is currently applied to both grass and arable land and, based on the Sludge Register for 2012, a total of 230 farms received sewage sludge in Scotland during that year.

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

Question reference: S4W-17089

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 26 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether a maximum limit applies to the amount of human sewage sludge that can be spread per hectare of agricultural land under licence per (a) application and (b) annum and, if so, how this is monitored.

Question reference: S4O-02469

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 September 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to ensure that draff remains available to the agriculture industry as a source of protein.

Question reference: S4W-15834

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 June 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 28 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government when the findings of the research it commissioned from the University of Glasgow into the incidence of tail injuries in working dogs will be published.

The research commissioned from the University of Glasgow in 2011 has now been completed. Drafts of the two papers intended for submission are currently being considered by the project steering group, which includes representatives from the Scottish Gamekeepers Association and the British Association for Shooting and Conservation. It is expected that the papers will be submitted for publication by the researchers in the near future.

Question reference: S4O-02257

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 June 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to promote the uptake of the Open Market Shared Equity Scheme in rural areas.

Question reference: S4W-14597

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 8 May 2013

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) issued Schedule 1 licences under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 as follows:

2010 - 587 Schedule 1 licences (485 licences and 102 subsequent amendments).

2011 - 548 Schedule 1 licences (487 Licences and 65 subsequent amendments).

2012 - 639 Schedule 1 licences (518 Licences and 121 subsequent amendments).

The licences are for purposes including ringing birds, visiting nests and monitoring to gather data on breeding performance as well as for photography and surveys to inform potential developments (e.g. windfarms).

Licences are issued to individuals rather than organisations. However, these licences include those issued to staff from SNH, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Forestry Commission as well as members of Raptor Study Groups and numerous Environmental Consultancies.

Question reference: S4W-14407

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to abattoirs to ensure their continued operation.

Support for new and existing abattoirs and other meat processing plants is potentially available through the Food Processing, Marketing and Co-operation Grant Scheme. Projects have to be financially viable and are assessed against criteria established to ensure deliverability and value for money. Funding for existing abattoirs is targeted at upgrading or expansion of facilities and cannot be provided to cover on-going operational costs.