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-07109

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the current remuneration is, including any pension or other entitlements, for (a) the (i) chair, (ii) chief executive officer and (iii) chief financial officer and (b) each of the independent directors of Circularity Scotland; whether this will remain the same in each of the next two years; who determines their remuneration, and whether it is subject to ministerial approval.

Question reference: S6W-07121

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the Deposit Return Scheme and the estimates it made of the costs of loss of revenue to retailers caused by the loss of space necessary to accommodate a reverse vending machine (RVM), whether it will state (a) what specific evidence it obtained from Envipco whom it cites as the basis for the figure used of around 0.5 square metres, (b) what discussions it had with representatives of small retailers in connection with the business and regulatory impact assessment (BRIA) of 2019 (paragraph 174) and the Final BRIA of 2021 (paragraph 209), (c) what its response is to reports that many small retailers believe that the space required for the smallest RVM that would permit its location in a shop and its use for its intended purpose, including extraction of recyclate, is 3 square metres of floor space, which is around six times more than what was estimated and (d) what it estimates will be the total annual cost of loss of revenue for retailers that is attributable to the loss of floor space required for RVMs based on the area of (i) 0.5 and (ii) 3 square metres.

The most up to date information available regarding the impact of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme on retailers, including information about the use of Reverse Vending Machines (RVMs) can be found in the amended Final Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA), which was published on 22 December 2021 and can be downloaded from the Scottish Government’s website here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/deposit-return-scheme-scotland-final-business-regulatory-impact-assessment/ .

Question reference: S6W-07125

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the basis is for the assumption that 3,021 reverse vending machines (RVM) will be required for the Deposit Return Scheme, as shown in Table 2 of the business and regulatory impact assessment (BRIA) of 2019 and the Final BRIA of 2021, and how many RVMs Circularity Scotland estimates will be required.

Question reference: S6W-07114

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the Valpak report, Deposit Return Schemes for Drinks Containers, and its findings that a majority of people prefer a kerbside collection scheme to be used for recycling.

Public support for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) is high.

Zero Waste Scotland’s consumer research indicates that 71% of the public support the introduction of DRS.

Kerbside collection remains important since it enables people to recycle non-scheme items. Additionally, DRS will help local authority waste management services to free up capacity to support wider collection services and improve recycling rates on other materials.

Furthermore, DRS will significantly increase the quantity and quality of glass recyclate, creating an aggregated and high-quality feedstock for reprocessing.

We do not believe an enhanced kerbside scheme could deliver the level or rate of improvement that we will see through DRS. Packaging recycling rates have stalled, including for glass, and the current producer responsibility system is not driving improvement.

DRS should deliver an 85% collection rate for glass by the second full year of operation at the latest.

Question reference: S6W-07106

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 21 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the proposals for its Deposit Return Scheme and recyclate collected from retailers that do not use reverse vending machines but instead collect items manually, how retailers will be protected against underpayment; how the system will operate to prevent fraud; whether there will be a further manual check or audit of such items collected, and, if so, by whom, and at what total annual expense.

Retailers are entitled to claim a reasonable handling fee and be reimbursed for the deposit for each processed in-scope container. The Scheme Administrator, Circularity Scotland Ltd (CSL), will provide retailers with appropriate guidance which will aid retailers in identifying such containers and therefore limit the chances of ineligible containers being returned.

As Scheme Administrator, CSL will verify collected containers prior to payment to ensure no ineligible containers have a deposit or handling fee paid.

Under the producer responsibility principle, these costs will be borne by industry.

Question reference: S6W-07090

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether consideration has been given to the potential impact of the proposed Deposit Return Scheme on the wholesale sector, and, in light of the information contained in table 1, page 12, paragraph 46 of the Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland Final Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA), published in December 2021, for what reason it did not consult any wholesale businesses.

We have kept the wholesale sector closely involved in discussions relating to the development and implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), in particular through engagement with the Scottish Wholesale Association (SWA).

As table 1, page 12, paragraph 46 of the amended Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) for DRS makes clear, the SWA was consulted as part of the policy-development process that led to the amended BRIA.

Question reference: S6W-07103

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity has met with the British Glass Federation in relation to the Deposit Return Scheme.

Question reference: S6W-07099

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that waste captured by the Deposit Return Scheme could be processed outside Scotland, whether it has fully considered the additional carbon impact of transporting the 560 million glass containers that are estimated by Zero Waste Scotland to be in scope of the scheme.

Question reference: S6W-07091

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the impact of the proposed Deposit Return Scheme on producers in Scotland, how many producers it estimates are operating in Scotland, and of those, how many it consulted directly.

We estimate that 4,100 businesses will qualify as producers for the purposes of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).

We have extensively consulted the drinks producer sector during the development and implementation of our DRS. Our Implementation Advisory Group included a range of representatives of the sector, and drinks producers, like any stakeholder, were consulted through the two consultations on DRS that ran from June-September 2018 and September-December 2019.

Question reference: S6W-07101

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what efforts it has made to increase the proportion of glass that has been fully recycled and processed in Scotland, and what effect the implementation of the Deposit Return Scheme will have on these efforts.