Chamber and committees

The UK Government’s decision to remove glass from its own scheme and refusal to agree a full Internal Market Act exclusion for Scotland’s own scheme meant we were left with no choice but to delay our scheme last year.

Scotland’s scheme would have been operational in 2024 and would already be improving our recycling rates, however, the Internal Market Act prevented us from moving forward with a deposit return scheme as intended.

Urgent action is needed from the UK Government to repeal the Internal Market Act and restore the full powers of devolved Parliaments.

Until then, the UK scheme remains the only practical option available to Scotland. The Scottish Government is committed to seeing it delivered by October 2027 and will continue to work to that end. We opened applications for a DRS scheme administrator alongside England and Northern Ireland at the start of December.

The Scottish Government welcomes the insights provided by The Circularity Gap Report: Textiles published by Circle Economy. The report highlights critical challenges and opportunities in transitioning towards a circular economy within the textiles sector.

The findings of the report align with the Scottish Government’s proposals set out in the draft circular economy and waste route map to 2030, to tackle textile waste, reduce resource consumption, and encourage sustainable production and consumption practices. The final Route Map will be confirmed in due course.

The Scottish Government will engage with stakeholders across the textiles supply chain to develop policies and actions that reflect the urgency highlighted by this report. We recognise the need for a strategic approach to textiles across the waste hierarchy, from production and consumption, through to recycling and end of life management.

The Scottish Government continues to engage with stakeholders across the textiles supply chain to develop policies and actions that reflect the urgency highlighted by this report.

We will carefully review the recommendations of the Circularity Gap Report: Textiles and consider its findings as part of our ongoing efforts to deliver a net-zero and circular economy for Scotland.

The Scottish Government recognises the essential role that heritage has in shaping Scotland's identity, and the importance of protecting and caring for it in a sustainable way so current and future generations can enjoy and benefit from it.

Tartan is inextricably connected with Scotland, its history and its culture. With Tartan Day being a chance for people around the world to mark their connections to Scotland.

The Scottish Government is grateful for the work of Prickly Thistle in maintaining and innovating the craft of tartan weaving in the Highlands.

The availability and affordability of rare earth materials are critical to supporting our transition to a net zero economy.

The Scottish Government recently published the Green Industrial Strategy, which focuses on seizing the economic opportunities of the global transition to net zero. The strategy commits to exploring how to support supply chain resilience through recycling, reuse and remanufacturing of components and materials, including rare earth materials.

The Scottish Government annual surveys continue to gather data, in order to support future assessments on microplastics in surface water. Although there is currently no internationally agreed baseline for microplastics in surface water, as referenced in S6W-24509, all our marine litter data contributes to regional monitoring across the North East Atlantic, through OSPAR (the Oslo-Paris Convention), and would contribute to any baseline developed in the future.

Further to the answers to questions S6W-01058 on 13 July 2021, S6W-23231 on 16 January 2024, S6W-23886 12 January 2024, S6W-23887 on 9 January 2024, S6W-24462 on 16 January 2024, and S6W-24509 on 23 January 2024, our microplastics monitoring programme began in the winter of 2013, and has continued to undertake annual surveys since that time.

Data from this monitoring programme enabled the initial assessment for microplastics in surface water to be conducted. This was published in Scotland’s Marine Assessment 2020, which can be viewed at Microplastics in surface water | Scotland's Marine Assessment 2020.

Data from the most recently completed collection season, 2023-24, has been published, alongside data from all previous years in this series. This can be viewed at Dataset for Sources, sinks and hazards of micro-plastics in Scotland’s seas 2013-present | Marine Scotland Data Publications. The current data collection season runs from November 2024 to the end of January 2025.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government has continued to support local authorities to decarbonise fleets and since 2014 we have now provided over £41 million to fund leasing and purchase of ultra-low and zero emission vehicles and installation of associated infrastructure.

Since 2021-22, support for local authority fleet decarbonisation has focused on the installation of fleet EV charging infrastructure to enable further fleet decarbonisation, rather than the purchase or lease of zero emission vehicles. Local authorities are provided funding by means of a block grant, each local authority allocates part of this grant to manage, operate and decarbonise its fleet. Figures for funding support in addition to the block grant for each local authority in each year following 2021-22 are set out in the following table.

In 2024-25 no additional funding has been provided to local authorities. We continue to work with public bodies to decarbonise the public sector fleet and we are working with the public sector to develop a Fleet Decarbonisation Action Plan that reflects the current fiscal operational environment, and the scale of emission reduction required.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) produces Claimant Count estimates at Local Authority and Ward level, and model-based unemployment at Local Authority level based on the Annual Population Survey and Claimant Count.

The claimant count rate for Dundee City local authority and 2021 electoral wards within Dundee City are shown in Table 1 for June 2021 to June 2024.

The model based unemployment rate for Dundee City local authority are shown in Table 2 for July 2021 to June 2022 through to July 2023 to June 2024. The ONS model based estimates of unemployment are the official source for unemployment rates by local authority. Unemployment rates by electoral ward are not available from this source.

Table 1: Claimants as a proportion of residents aged 16-64 years

The following table provides the number of recorded injury road collisions where a police officer attended the scene and ‘poor or defective road surface’ was recorded as a contributory factor.

As this is recorded as a single contributory factor, it is not possible to distinguish between collisions involving defective road surfaces and collisions involving poor road surfaces.

In 2025, the Scottish Government will distribute a portion of West of Scotland cod based on an application process which will place environmental considerations at its heart. This seeks to incentivise the use of selective fishing gear and fishing techniques or vessels with a reduced impact on the environment.

This approach is distinct from the process in England. Scottish Government officials regularly meet to discuss fisheries management matters with officials from all UK and devolved administrations, and officials have been in dialogue with Defra to learn from their experiences in launching and administering the Quota Application Mechanism pilot.

Since exiting the EU, the Scottish Government has set aside additional quota for use by our 10 metre and under sector (predominantly inshore vessels that make up the vast majority of the Scottish fishing fleet). These vessels are associated with fishing methods that are more selective and typically fish with methods that have less impact on the seabed.

In 2025, the Scottish Government will distribute a portion of West of Scotland cod based on an application process which will place environmental considerations at its heart. This seeks to incentivise the use of selective fishing gear and fishing techniques or vessels with a reduced impact on the environment.