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: S5W-34063

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 23 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32908 by Fiona Hyslop on 9 November 2020, whether it will provide an update on the COVID-19 Restrictions Fund, including details of how many applications have been received for each of the funds, broken down by local authority area, and how many of these (a) have been approved, (b) have been declined and (c) are awaiting a decision.

Question reference: S5W-34079

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 December 2020
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 22 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32571 by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 November 2020, in light of the Zero Waste Scotland report, The climate change impacts of burning municipal waste in Scotland, whether SEPA is in discussions with energy from waste (EfW) plant operators regarding collecting detailed data in the future and, if so, what (a) the status is of these discussions and (b) information has been requested.

SEPA already collects a range of data from Energy from Waste operators including on waste throughput, energy production and stack emissions. SEPA has not requested any additional data in light of the Zero Waste Scotland report.

We will continue to work with Energy from Waste operators and developers to consider opportunities to further improve the efficiency of plants, and we have recently held initial discussions with SEPA and representatives from across the waste industry.

Question reference: S5W-33996

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 18 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what effect the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the number of pets and other animals being abandoned.

Question reference: S5W-33606

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government for how many fixed penalty notices for fly-tipping have been issued by the police in each year since 2014, also broken down by the number paid.

Question reference: S5W-33607

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) litter control areas and (b) street litter control notices have been introduced in each year since 2014.

Question reference: S5W-33604

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 November 2020
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what litter reduction campaigns and projects it has supported since 2014, also broken down by how much funding it has provided to each.

Scottish Government has given over £1.5 million supporting litter and flytipping reduction campaigns and projects across Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-32510 on 13 November 2020, which outlines behaviour change marketing campaigns supported by Scottish Government since 2014. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx '

Scottish Government has also supported the following campaign and projects:

£4,000 to the Reusable Masks campaign which launched in 2020.
£4,000 to the Upstream Battle campaign, which launched in 2018.
£650,000 to the Clean Up Scotland campaign/project which ran between 2013 and 2016.
£120,000 Contextual Messaging Toolkits to provide communications materials for anyone to use based on behavioural insights research

The Scottish Government has also provided £113,000 to support organisations to develop litter action plans since 2014.

Question reference: S5W-33603

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how often it has engaged with (a) each local authority and (b) other statutory bodies since 2014 to better understand the impact of anti-litter enforcement practices.

The Scottish Government has been, and continues to be, committed to engaging with local authorities and other key partners on the issue of litter. An enforcement sub-group of the Litter Managers Network has been set up to focus on enforcement and to discuss successes and areas that may need to be changed moving forward. This group is attended by Scottish Government, local authorities and stakeholders across the enforcement chain.

Question reference: S5W-33605

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what baselines have been established to monitor and track the litter reduction interventions set out in its strategy, Towards a litter-free Scotland: a strategic approach to higher quality local environments.

Local Environment Audit and Management System (LEAMS) has been used since 2003 to collect data on local environmental quality. This data is collected by Local Authorities and administered by Keep Scotland Beautiful.

Zero Waste Scotland is working with Keep Scotland Beautiful, Association for Public Service Excellence, Local Authorities, the Improvement Service and SOLACE to implement a new Litter Monitoring System that will collect more granular information to contribute to the national picture of litter in Scotland and help to inform targeted responses.

Question reference: S5W-33499

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 9 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what modelling it has carried out on the potential impact of a second independence referendum on the expected outcomes of Scotland’s Inward Investment Plan: Shaping Scotland’s Economy, and whether it will publish the findings of this.

On 18 March 2020, the Scottish Government announced that because of the Covid-19 crisis, the Scottish Government had paused work on preparing for an independence referendum this year.

However, the member will be interested to know that previous modelling by the Scottish Government, The Treasury, the OECD and other organisations all show substantial productivity losses from reduced foreign direct investment expected because of Brexit.

In addition the Scottish Government publication, Scotland’s Place in Europe: People, Jobs and Investment, noted that “There is strong evidence that EU membership has been associated with increased flows of FDI.”

This makes it all the more reckless that in the middle of a pandemic and economic recession the UK Government has refused to extend the Brexit transition period.

Question reference: S5W-33712

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the British Business Bank having a published rate of return that the UK Government has set, whether it will set a rate of return for the Scottish National Investment Bank.

The Scottish National Investment Bank will operate commercially and seek a commercial return on its investments. How that is determined will vary depending on the circumstances of the investment the Bank is considering. The Bank will now be growing its investment portfolio and the Scottish Government will set a target rate of return once the Bank has a sufficient investment portfolio against which to measure its performance in this way.

As the UK’s first mission oriented Bank the Scottish Government expects to see the Bank deliver social, economic and environmental returns as well as financial returns in the investments that it makes.