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-32963

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what pilot schemes have been introduced to address accidental/wind-blown litter in each year since 2014.

Question reference: S5W-32959

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the pilot action to address littering and fly-tipping in remote rural locations, as set out in Zero Waste: Towards a Litter-free Scotland: A Strategic Approach To Higher Quality Local Environments.

A number of relevant projects in remote areas have been funded through the following funds:

Litter and Flytipping Community Action Fund 2014-2015
Flytipping Small Grants Scheme 2011-2013
Recycle on The Go Infrastructure Fund

In addition, Zero Waste Scotland are the lead for flytipping on the Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime, which includes inputting to regional partnerships against rural crime (PARCs) that focus on flytipping prevention.

Question reference: S5W-32958

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with (a) businesses, (b) land managers and (c) third sector groups since 2014 to improve the monitoring and reporting of littering, and what subsequent improved data capture has been recorded.

The Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse (Scotland) was revised and published in 2018. Through Zero Waste Scotland, over 60 engagement sessions were held with local authorities and other duty holders, and these included material on the importance of monitoring and evaluation.

Zero Waste Scotland has developed a new litter monitoring methodology and software solution that aligns with the revised Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse (Scotland) 2018. This will provide granular information on litter categories as well as including flytipping reporting functionality previously used in FlyMapper. This is undergoing final testing and will be implemented soon for duty holders and other land managers. Functionality will include spatial data to help inform the development of targeted interventions.

We have also supported the Upstream Battle Campaign led by Keep Scotland Beautiful which is developingf a citizen-based monitoring approach.

Question reference: S5W-32960

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many Recycle on the Go facilities have been installed in each local authority area, also broken down by how much waste these have captured.

Question reference: S5W-32941

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Monday, 02 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what targeted support it will provide to local authority areas that showed a negative change in recycling rates between 2018 and 2019.

In the Programme for Government 2020-21 we announced the establishment of a £70 recycling fund to improve local authority collection infrastructure, along with the development of a route map to achieving our 2025 recycling targets. We will work in partnership with COSLA and local authorities to develop and deliver the fund to ensure it supports further improvements in local recycling rates.

Alongside Zero Waste Scotland, we will provide a range of other support to local authorities to ensure high quality recycling, including evaluating the Household Recycling Charter, evaluating its supporting Code of Practice and supporting effective communications with householders.

Question reference: S5W-32506

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 13 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) it and (b) its agencies have spent on tackling litter in each of the last five years.

Responsibility for dealing with litter primarily rests with local councils as part of their role in delivering waste services.

Zero Waste Scotland have spent the following amount of money on tackling litter from 2015 to 2020:

Year	Spend on tackling litter
2019-20	£92,397
2018-19	£119,081
2017-18	£379,465
2016-17	£480,786
2015-16	£658,647

The Scottish Government and Crown Estates Scotland have funded Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB), for their ‘Upstream Battle’ marine litter campaign. The details are as follows:

	Financial Year	Funding
Scottish Government	2018-2019	£30,000
Crown Estates Scotland	2018-2019	£25,000
Crown Estates Scotland	2020-2021	£20,000

The Scottish Government does not separately account for staff time dedicated to work on tackling litter.

Question reference: S5W-32502

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 13 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans to develop advice and support services for community food redistribution projects; what services have been developed; where they have been deployed, and which projects have benefited from them.

Zero Waste Scotland has carried out a mapping of the redistribution landscape in Scotland, including analysis of the challenges and barriers facing redistribution activities and engagement with stakeholders on the potential solutions and support needs.

We also remain committed to consulting on the Scottish Government’s proposals for an obligation for food retail sites over a certain size to ensure that they redistribute edible products in due course that will inform the development and scope of what an advice and support service for community redistribution projects could deliver and how.

Question reference: S5W-32910

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32549 by Michael Matheson on 29 October 2020, whether it will provide the information requested regarding what date it last met representatives of the aviation industry.

Question reference: S5W-32496

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 13 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how business advice and support services to identify and demonstrate the value of food waste to the hospitality sector have been expanded since 2019.

Requests for assessments under the Food Waste Reduction Business Support Service have significantly reduced compared to the previous year due to the impact of COVID-19.

However next year we hope to increase the support to the hospitality sector, increasing opportunities for staff training and providing more bespoke support in measuring and monitoring of waste, supporting behaviour change. The advice and support service will offer support to non-SMEs, whereas in previous years support was SME-focused.

Question reference: S5W-32507

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 13 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has carried of the (a) frequency and (b) quantity of litter in each year since 2014.

The Local Environmental Audit and Management System (LEAMS) methodology is currently used to assess litter levels on annual basis, this is used by local authorities and validated by Keep Scotland Beautiful. Results are published annually in the Local Government Benchmarking Framework Report .

A new monitoring system is being developed by Zero Waste Scotland and various partners on behalf of Scottish Government that will provide a spatial tool for monitoring litter and flytipping levels in Scotland.