Chamber and committees

We are examining options to address the landfill capacity shortfall which has been identified in the recently published waste markets study.

Waste prevention is high on the Scottish Government's priorities and this is why we have introduced an ambitious food waste prevention target to reduce all food waste arising by 33% by 2025. In addition, the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan published in April 2019 calls for coordinated action across all sectors.

Other options to help support progress towards achieving our targets include the Waste Prevention Implementation Fund which is available to small or medium sized enterprises through Zero Waste Scotland. It is recognised that while organisations understand the benefits of waste prevention, they often do not take action, lacking the finance and support to make the necessary changes. The Investment Fund has been designed to help organisations overcome these barriers to undertake a particular project with a focus on raw materials savings, carbon savings and the movement of waste material up the waste hierarchy.

We are committed to developing Scotland’s circular economy, as set out in our strategy document Making Things Last . Taking a more circular approach to the use and reuse of materials and circular business models can help protect the environment, and deliver social and economic benefits to our communities. The Scottish Government will announce its plans for future legislative programmes in due course.

SESplan 2 is an important and complex case requiring detailed and very careful consideration prior to a decision being issued. As that consideration is ongoing, it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.

I have been advised by Scottish Government Officials supporting the review that the information gathering phase of review is complete and the compilation of the review report is in the final stages, however with many organisations still actively involved in finalising the detailed work of this review, it is not yet possible to give an exact date for publication.

Whilst it is not possible to give an exact date for publication, the expectation of the review team is that a submission containing the report will be forwarded to myself and other ministers with portfolio interests within a few weeks, whereupon the process to publication will be initiated. I will keep you updated and write to you when the review is published.

The results of the Climate Challenge Fund review are currently being analysed. We will provide further information in due course.

In all previous years, the Climate Challenge Fund administrator Keep Scotland Beautiful were given an indicative budget for the Climate Challenge Fund. The independent Grants Panel made recommendations within that indicative budget and in every year from 2014 to 2018, all projects recommended for funding by the Panel were funded.

In 2019, the process for agreeing and adopting the Scottish Government budget had not concluded by the time of the panel meeting. This meant that it was not possible to provide an indicative budget to KSB and unlike previous years it was therefore necessary for the panel to rank all projects, with no budgetary cut-off. When budgets were confirmed, there were 43 projects that were deemed to meet the minimum criteria for funding that were not funded.

Continued participation in the work of the European Environment Agency would offer benefits in terms of continued access to long-term data sets, monitoring information and expertise, with benefits for Scottish organisations including our research institutions. At a recent Defra and Devolved Administration Inter-Ministerial Group, I asked the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to confirm the UK Government’s position on UK membership.

The Scottish Government’s Consultation on Environmental Principles and Governance in Scotland, which closes on 11 May 2019, highlights the important role currently played by the European Environment Agency and seeks views on the impact of the loss of engagement with the EU on monitoring, measuring and reporting on environmental outcomes should the UK exit the EU. Following this consultation, we shall continue to develop our policy for future environmental governance in Scotland.

The report of the examination of the proposed SESplan 2 Strategic Development Plan was submitted to Scottish Ministers on 20 July 2018 and was followed in September 2018 by an addendum to the report.

SESplan 2 is an important and complex case requiring very detailed and careful consideration. While Ministers cannot presently confirm a timescale for completion, we will complete handling as soon as possible.

The amount awarded from the Climate Challenge Fund to organisations in each of the last five financial years is set out in the following table: