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-30159

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 3 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comments by the then Minister for Climate Action during the stage 3 proceedings for the Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill on 25 June 2024 that the Scottish Government "intend[s] to consider targets for separate waste streams and carbon-based metrics", and that this "approach is based on the Climate Change Committee’s recommendations”, what recommendations the minister was referring to, and where they were made.

Page 161 of the ‘Progress in reducing emissions in Scotland: 2022 Report to Parliament’ by the Climate Change Committee (Progress in reducing emissions in Scotland 2022 Report to Parliament (theccc.org.uk)) contains the following recommendation:

“Legislate the Circular Economy Bill and set targets to reduce waste and improve recycling rates beyond 2025, ensuring these are more ambitious than existing targets. Targets should be set on the basis of separate waste streams (rather than 'All waste') and where possible consider carbon-based metrics”

Question reference: S6W-30359

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 30 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-29916 by Gillian Martin on 30 September 2024, whether it will provide details of the work that (a) it, (b) Zero Waste Scotland and (c) SEPA has carried out on digital waste tracking since 2010, including a breakdown of (i) how much has been spent on and (ii) the staff resource allocations to such projects.

Question reference: S6W-30360

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 30 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what work is being carried out to (a) expand the red-only squirrel areas of Scotland and (b) facilitate grey squirrel control.

Question reference: S6O-03843

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its work to support the introduction of a ban on biodegradable municipal waste going to landfill.

Question reference: S6W-30160

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 2 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its current recycling targets are for (a) all and (b) household waste.

The Scottish Government’s Zero Waste Plan, published in 2010, set out targets to recycle 70% of all waste by 2025 and 60% of household waste by 2020.

Scotland has made significant progress in reducing waste, increasing recycling and decarbonising the waste sector, but there is further work to be done. The overall recycling rate in Scotland of 62.3% in 2022 is at its highest level since records began in 2011. In 2022 the household recycling rate was 43.3%.

The Circular Economy (Scotland) Act, passed unanimously in June 2024, includes our commitment to determine new circular economy targets for Scotland from 2025, to support our work to reduce emissions to tackle the climate emergency.

Question reference: S6W-29996

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 1 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-29523 by Alasdair Allan on 16 September 2024, how it accurately monitors the total installed solar capacity, of all types, approved by local authorities.

The approval, construction and installation of Solar photovoltaic projects over 150kW is monitored through the Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD). Information is provided both as a spreadsheet and as an interactive map which provides the location and capacity of all renewable energy projects within the planning system.

Renewable Energy Planning Database | DESNZ & Barbour ABI (barbour-abi.com)

The electricity capacity and generation provided by all grid-connected renewable projects is monitored through UK Renewables Energy Trends.

Energy Trends: UK renewables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Both these data sources are updated on a quarterly basis and summary data is provided within Scotland's quarterly energy statistics publication.

Quarterly energy statistics Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Details of all small-scale renewable energy installations in the UK are available from the MCS data dashboard

About the MCS Data Dashboard - MCS (mcscertified.com)

Question reference: S6W-29915

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 30 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much new incineration capacity has become operational since June 2022.

Two incineration facilities, both of which already held planning permission at the time of the incineration review, have become operational since June 2022.

These facilities have permitted capacities of 270,000 and 150,000 tonnes per annum but their operational capacity is likely to be less. For example, data available through SEPA’s ‘waste sites and capacity tool’ shows facilities typically operate at less than their permitted capacity.

Question reference: S6W-29916

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 30 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made towards developing an indicative declining cap on residual waste treatment capacity, as outlined in the Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy in Scotland.

To support future planning decisions, we accepted the review’s recommendation to develop an indicative capacity cap. It is important that any indicative cap is as robust as possible and developing such a cap is a significant piece of work.

For that reason, we are undertaking work to improve the quality of data on waste to support the development of an indicative cap. This includes, working with other governments of the UK to implement mandatory Digital Waste Tracking from April 2025, which will provide a step-change in the quality of Scottish waste data, and engaging with partners, including ZWS and SEPA, to draw together key waste composition, carbon and environmental impact data insights.

Together, these initiatives will provide invaluable data to support the accurate forecasting of Scotland’s waste infrastructure needs and the development of an indicative cap. Further information on these developments can be found here:

Digital Waste Tracking Consultation Response.

Outcome of the Household Waste Composition Analysis.

Our draft Circular Economy and Waste Route Map, published 18 January 2024, set out further detail and associated timescales on the steps we will take to minimise the environmental and climate impacts of waste, including the development of an indicative capacity cap.

Question reference: S6W-29997

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 27 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-29352 by Gillian Martin on 17 September 2024, what approaches have been made to (a) academia and (b) the private sector to explore the potential for new recovery solutions.

Scottish Water engages extensively with academia and the private sector to explore the potential for new recovery solutions. As examples Scottish Water is:

1.Working in partnership with the Hydro Nation Chair and Glasgow Caledonian University to investigate advanced technologies for energy recovery solutions from wastewater.

2.Currently designing a resource recovery factory in Alloa with links to the Hydro Nation Chair, Glasgow Caledonian University, the James Hutton Institute and Forth Valley College.

3.Working with the private sector on the trial of ammonia recovery at Cumnock Wastewater Treatment Works, exploration into the use of recovered ammonia as a fertiliser and, phosphorous recovery.

Question reference: S6W-29998

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 27 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the area of (a) prime and (b) other agriculture land that is currently used for renewable energy projects, also broken down by the type of renewable energy project.

The Scottish Government does not hold any data on the area of renewable energy projects, as described.

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero publishes a quarterly Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD)[1] that lists renewable energy projects at the following stages: inception, planning, construction, operation, and decommissioning. This dataset is limited geographically, in that it provides a single grid reference point for a site. And while it does provide significant data on the planning, commissioning and construction of the site, it provides no information on the area covered - as indicated in this interactive map[2].

Prime land for agriculture is defined by the James Hutton Institute’s Land Capability for Agriculture (LCA) measure[3]. LCA 1 to 3.1 is considered ‘prime’ land suitable for arable production. LCA 3.2 to 7 ranges from land considered suitable for mixed agriculture through to land suitable for various types of grazing.

It is possible to plot renewable energy project sites in relation to land capability for agriculture, but such analysis only gives the number of sites registered on prime agricultural and other agricultural land, not the specific locations of the infrastructure and the areas involved. The Scottish Government has explored this for ground mount solar and onshore wind using 2022 data. For operational onshore wind and ground mount solar the number of sites on different types of land and their generation capacity is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Onshore Wind and Ground Mount Solar by Land Type, 2022 1

Quality	Technology	Sites	Capacity (MW)
Prime Land	Ground Mount Solar Photovoltaics	7	37
Prime Land	Wind Onshore	14	35
Other Land	Ground Mount Solar Photovoltaics	36	213
Other Land	Wind Onshore	281	8206
All		338	8491

Note: The definition of Prime and Other land is based on the suitability of land to support different types of agricultural production. It is not necessary that this land is or was utilised for agricultural production prior to the construction of renewable energy sites.

Of a total of 338 sites recorded with onshore wind or ground mount solar photovoltaics in 2022, 21 were registered on prime agricultural land. These accounted for 72 megawatts of a total of 8491 megawatts of capacity.

It is worth noting that until 2021 the minimum threshold for installed capacity in the DESNZ database was 1MW, at which point it was lowered to 150kW. This means that projects below 1MW that were going through planning system before 2021 may not be represented in the REPD. The DESNZ report on renewable electricity capacity and generation in Scotland shows a capacity of 9022 MW for onshore wind in 2022, indicating an underrepresentation[4]. This comparison is not possible with solar photovoltaics as there is no split between ground mount and roof installations in the other dataset.

[1]Renewable Energy Planning Database: quarterly extract - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

[2]Renewable Energy Planning Database | DESNZ & Barbour ABI (barbour-abi.com)

[3]Land Capability for Agriculture (LCA) - James Hutton Institute

[4]Energy Trends: UK renewables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)