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-32947

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 11 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the funding awarded through the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP) since 2015, and what the (a) outcomes have been and (b) current status is of each funded project.

Question reference: S5W-32197

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 11 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of food waste reduction measures identified by Zero Waste Scotland through stakeholder workshops as part of the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan, and which of these measures are yet to be implemented.

The measures identified and committed to under the four action areas of the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan represent the outcome of the stakeholder workshops delivered by Zero Waste Scotland. The environmental and economic benefits of food waste prevention remain as important as ever as we deal with, and recover from, COVID-19 and a full review of progress against the commitments in the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan will be published in 2021.

Question reference: S5W-32344

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what support it has given to the NHS national action plan to reduce food waste; which facilities the plan applies to, and what reduction in food waste it has achieved so far.

Food waste reduction is now a standing agenda item for the NHS Waste Management Steering Group and the Catering Services Experts Group. Both groups are working with Zero Waste Scotland to develop a food waste reduction strategy for NHS Scotland and a national action plan. The outputs from previously held workshops are being used, along with findings from pilot studies in key regional boards, to develop the national action plan and subsequent regional board plans. The plan will apply to all facilities within each board with focus on acute settings in the first instance, where food waste is most prevalent.

Question reference: S5W-32339

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the (a) costs and (b) outcomes of (i) advertising and (ii) outreach campaigns that it has run to promote food waste reduction in each year since 2013.

Table 1 shows Scottish Government advertising spend for campaigns that have promoted food waste reduction since 2013-14. This includes spend on Scottish Government’s national campaign, ‘Food Waste Gone Bad’ which aims to promote food waste recycling. The Scottish Government 2018-19 ‘Food Waste Gone Bad’ campaign has most recently been evaluated. This campaign generated awareness of 47% and most notably, 76% of people who saw the campaign took action as a result, with a corresponding increase of 4 percentage points in the proportion of the target audience recycling food waste at ‘every opportunity’.

Table 1. Scottish Government food waste advertising spend
Year	Campaign	Advertising spend
2013-14	Eat In Season	£79,903.03
2013-14	Food Waste	£573,102.70
2014-15	Food Provenance	£80,049.11
2015-16	Greener Scotland	£53,042.18
2016-17	Greener Scotland	£103,742.55
2017-18	Greener Scotland	£88,893.75
2018-19	Greener Scotland	£217,737.81
2018-19	Food waste	£303,516.65
2019-20	Food waste	£53,042.18

A breakdown of Zero Waste Scotland’s spend on advertising and outreach activities to promote food waste reduction for 2019-20 and during 2020-21 (to date) and the outcomes of these are set out in Table 2.

Table 2. Zero Waste Scotland advertising spend and outcomes
Year	Advertising spend	Outreach spend	Pieces of PR coverage	Increase in social media following	Training delivered on 'Love Food Hate Waste'
2019-20	£193,000	£76,000	437	17,000	1269 individuals
2020-21 (to date)	£105,000	£20,000	137	13,000	166 individuals

Question reference: S5W-32338

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on developing tools to measure food waste generated by the (a) hospitality and catering, (b) wholesale and retail, (c) education and (d) healthcare sector, and whether it will provide a breakdown of the amount of food waste generated by each sector in each year since 2013.

In terms of measurement, we refer to response S5W-32336, on 10 November 2020, S5W-32200 on 30 October 2020, and S5W-32198 on 30 October 2020, which highlight that annual data is not currently collected or held centrally for the categories identified in this question; however, actions to develop monitoring and reporting infrastructure, together with improvement in measurement methodologies, will support an enhanced capacity for food waste and surplus measurement and reporting going forward.A full review of the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan progress is scheduled for 2021.

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

Question reference: S5W-32336

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what reduction in food waste there has been in (a) schools and (b) hospitals in each year since 2013.

As outlined under the response to S5W-32198 on 30 October 2020, we currently do not hold food waste data at a sector-specific level, and it is therefore not possible to determine accurate national estimates of food waste specifically for schools or hospitals at this time. The developing actions and infrastructure described in the response to question S5W-32200 on 30 October 2020, together with improvement in measurement methodologies, will support an enhanced capacity for food waste measurement and reporting going forward.

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

Question reference: S5W-32342

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many collaborations between businesses that generate food waste and those that can utilise food waste as a resource it has facilitated since 2013.

Since 2016, nine projects have been formally supported, through Zero Waste Scotland’s Circular Economy Investment Fund, that utilise food and drink waste or by-products. Since 2016, Zero Waste Scotland’s Circular Economy Business Support Service has supported 15 SMEs in the pursuit of turning food waste or food by-product into secondary products. Additionally, support has been provided to targeted sectors under Zero Waste Scotland’s Food and Drink Advice and Support Service through the provision of food waste audits. Food waste audits have been provided to 30 bakeries and 10 breweries, identifying the opportunity to provide waste bread to breweries as a malt replacement in brewing amongst other waste prevention measures, including redistribution opportunities.

Question reference: S5W-32341

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its consideration of the rural exemption for food waste.

Question reference: S5W-32552

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 10 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives of (a) community and (b) national football authorities.

Question reference: S5W-32434

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 09 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-31929 by Roseanna Cunningham on 2 October 2020, how many remanufactured products made in Scotland have been recognised as comparable or equivalent to new products by the EU, standards and certification organisations and others since 2016, and how many of those were achieved through it or its agencies lobbying and/or influencing through other means.

This information is not held centrally. The Scottish Institute for Remanufacture (SIR) has enabled 23 companies to deploy new manufacturing technologies and processes into their businesses in Scotland. The SIR and the University of Strathclyde have also worked with standard setting bodies to develop remanufacturing standards, influenced the creation of the European Remanufacturing Council, and had involvement with product specific steering committees.