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-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-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-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-32501

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 Aileen Campbell on 9 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the financial support that it has provided to food redistribution charities in each year since 2013.

The Food Waste Reduction Action Plan (FWRAP) was published in April 2019. It sets out how Scotland can work towards achieving the target and reduce the amount of food waste going to landfill, including building on existing food redistribution activities.

Alongside taking positive action to reduce food waste, the Scottish Government has provided funding to FareShare, a national charity that distributes surplus and donated food from the food industry to community organisations.

Direct funding provided to FareShare is outlined in the following table.

Financial Year	Amount
2014-15	£241,649.00
2015-16	£258,351.00
2016-17	£250,000.00
2017-18	£200,000.00
2018-19	£750,000.00
2019-20	£905,855.65
2020-21	£2,354,932.00
Total	£4,960,787.65

These figures include Scottish Government funding which mitigated against the potential impact of the UK’s exit from the European Union . In 2018-19, FareShare were provided with £500,000 to purchase ambient, chilled and frozen food to support community food initiatives responding to food insecurity, bolstering community resilience to the impacts of a potential No Deal EU Exit. Following extension of the planned date for the UK’s exit from the EU, a further £500,000 of funding was committed during 2019-20.

These figures include funding to increase the capacity of the community food sector and extend FareShare reach to cover the Highlands and Islands in 2019-20. In addition to the figures above, a further £50,000 of direct funding was provided to FareShare’s regional lead organisation in Grampian, Community Food Initiatives North East (CFINE), to ensure they had sufficient warehouse capacity to support this growth.

These figures include £2.1m to support the purchase and distribution of additional food to community food organisations and food hubs as part of the Scottish Government’s response during the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020-21.

Other Funding Streams

In addition to food insecurity funding, we have provided over £1.5 million to FareShare across 2018-21 to provide access to period products to low income families through its network of community organisations and groups. Almost 80,000 people have benefitted from this provision which represents around 25% of women and girls living in relative poverty. The funding is also supporting four Community Development Workers in FareShare’s main centres to break down barriers, and address stigma and embarrassment.

Spend on this work is laid out in the following table.

Financial Year	Amount
2018-19	£405,950
2019-20	£530,097
2020-21	£599,898
Total	£1,535,945

Question reference: S5W-32697

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 9 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the announcement by the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture that "up to £9 million of funding will help with the costs of re-furloughing staff by supporting the 20% salary contribution required by the UK Government" and that "payment mechanisms for additional support on top of grants to support the top up costs of furlough currently met by business are being identified", when it expects to announce details of a payment mechanism to deliver additional support to businesses on top of existing commitments to help them meet their furlough contributions.

Businesses that have already applied for a Closure Grant will be contacted by their local authority directly to add the furlough support to their application. Any closure grant applications received before 5pm on 3 November will be considered to include the application for the furlough support grant. LAs will carry out a retrospective exercise of businesses that have already applied for the Closure Grant to identify those applications containing sufficient information to enable an award to be made and also proactively contact the other businesses (whether a Closure Grant has been awarded or not) to invite an application for the furlough support grant.

Any business that think they may be eligible can contact their local authority to check until 30 November.

Question reference: S5W-32908

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications have been received for each of its COVID-19 Restrictions Funds, broken down by local authority area; how many of these (a) have been approved, (b) have been declined and (c) are awaiting a decision; whether it will update this information on a regular basis and, if so, how often it will provide these updates.

The Scottish Government is working closely with COSLA and all local authorities to deliver the Restrictions Fund, including monitoring arrangements to record the numbers of applications received and payments made. Information for Closure and Hardships Funds which applied for the period 9 October– 2 November is published on the Scottish Government website, and we will ensure this information is updated regularly.

Question reference: S5W-32945

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 9 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the loans issued under the Home Energy Scotland Loan Scheme, (a) how many loans have been issued and (b) what the total value of (i) issued and (ii) repaid loans has been in each year since it launched.

The number of Home Energy Scotland loans issued, the value of those issued and the value of repaid loans, since its launch are:

Number of loans issued by year since launch of scheme

Year	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	Total
Number of loans issued	1173	1679	1352	4204

Value of loans issued by year since launch of scheme

Year	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	Total
Value of loans issued (£)	6,097,161	10,260,054	9,115,584	25,472,799

Total value of loan repayments since launch of scheme

Year	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	Total
Value of loan repayments (£)**	131,711	1,062,408	2,599,869	3,793,988

** Loan repayment periods can vary between 1 year and 12 years. It is policy to offer maximum repayment periods and then give customers choice as to whether to decrease this loan period or not.

Question reference: S5W-32656

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 6 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the COVID-19 Restrictions Fund, which local authorities will administer, will be part of its discretionary fund.

Question reference: S5W-32847

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 6 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32494 by Kate Forbes on 26 October 2020, how many home deliveries of office equipment and supplies have been made to public sector workers through its procurement framework in each month since March 2020.

The number of deliveries of IT equipment and supplies made directly by suppliers to home addresses through our procurement frameworks since March 2020 is shown in the following table. Items include laptop and desktop computers, monitors, and accessories such as keyboards and headsets.

The figures relate to direct deliveries of equipment and supplies to home addresses by framework suppliers and do not include deliveries made by individual public sector organisations.

2020	Number of Home Deliveries
March	155
April	425
May	695
June	1,118
July	900
August	768
September	1,224
October	886
Total	6,171