Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-30938

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the current level of resources directed towards household recycling is sufficient to meet its household recycling targets.

Although SEPA official statistics for 2023 show that Scotland’s household recycling rate increased slightly to 43.5%, we know that there is more to do to accelerate progress to meet our circular economy aims.

The Scottish Government’s Recycling Improvement Fund has now awarded over £63 million to 25 local authorities to increase the quantity and quality of recycling across Scotland and we expect to see those projects deliver significant results locally in the coming years.

We are also in the early stages of the co-design of the new Household Recycling Code of Practice. This will deliver new statutory recycling standards and more consistent and easy to use services for households across Scotland. The co-design will enable national and local government to identify if additional resources are needed to achieve our ambitions to drive up reuse and recycling rates.

Question reference: S6W-30740

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 7 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many fault reports have been submitted by members of the public in relation to the public electric vehicle charging network in each month of the last three years.

We can only provide information relating to the Scottish Government funded ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) public electric vehicle (EV) charging network. The commercial sector does not make their own charge point fault information readily available to third parties.

Overall reliability across the CPS network is typically very good with charge points being available for use 95% to 97% on average each month. Most faults on the CPS network are short-lived in nature and in the majority of cases require no physical intervention. Typically around 90% of faults are resolved within 48 hrs with the ChargePlace Scotland helpdesk remedying most faults remotely.

Please note, ‘faults’ cover many different scenarios and do not necessarily relate to issues that affect the operation of the charging infrastructure itself, for example, it could relate to lighting at the site. Some faults may be reported by more than one member of the public and therefore each recorded fault is not necessarily a unique instance. The following table shows the total number of ‘faults’ logged by members of the public.

CPS have published a Network Performance page on the CPS website Network Performance – Charge Place Scotland which provides a breakdown of ‘fault tickets’ by local authority from November 2022 onwards. Information prior to November 2022 has not been published on the website but is detailed in the following table.

Month	Faults reported by the public
Nov-21	696
Dec-21	734
Jan-22	765
Feb-22	675
Mar-22	795
Apr-22	922
May-22	753
Jun-22	588
Jul-22	550
Aug-22	509
Sep-22	434
Oct-22	556

ChargePlace Scotland notifies the charge point host and the supplier (the private company who sends out engineers to units) of faults. Members of the public can inform CPS of faults (for example, by phoning and advising that a charge point they have tried to use is not operational) but please note that separate data is not kept purely on reports submitted by members of the public.

Weekly data is kept on a tracker beginning 30th October 2022 which had 109 faults for the week.

The monthly figures thereafter are as follows:

DATE	FAULTS
November 2022	433
December 2022	525
January 2023	515
February 2023	425
March 2023	419
April 2023	409
May 2023	391
June 2023	408
July 2023	429
August 2023	318
September 2023	472
October 2023	471
November 2023	634
December 2023	603
January 2024	449
February 2024	366
March 2024	446
April 2024	471
May 2024	381
June 2024	500
July 2024	418
August 2024	534
September 2024	431

The full month of October 2024 has not concluded at the time this response was compiled. However the following weekly figures are available –

05-10-2024	99
12-10-2024	114
19-10-2024	101

Question reference: S6W-30946

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 7 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it has disposed of electric vehicles (EVs) in its fleet, and how much it has (a) spent on new EVs and (b) obtained through the sale or other means of disposal of older EVs, in each year since it purchased its first EV.

All electric vehicles disposed from the fleet have been sold through motor auctions.

We first purchased electric vehicles in 1999 however records are no longer held.

A breakdown of expenditure on new electric vehicles and income received from sale through motor auctions from 2010 are provided in the following table.

Year	Total cost of procurement	Total income from sales
2010-11	£163,121	0
2011-12	0	0
2012-13	£21,367	0
2013-14	£36,281	0
2014-15	£62,467	£3,546
2015-16	£0	0
2016-17	£0	0
2017-18	£0	0
2018-19	£0	£6,298
2019-20	£361,186	0
2020-21	£383,920	£4,298
2021-22	£833,031	0
2022-23	£182,195	£37,720
2023-24	£0	£0
2024-25	£0	£0

Question reference: S6W-30937

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the level of progress in household recycling during 2023.

The Scottish Government welcomes the news that recently released statistics from SEPA show that in 2023 both the amount of household waste generated, and the carbon impact of Scotland’s household waste, were at their lowest levels since records began in 2011.

The small increase in the household recycling rate of 0.15% to 43.5% in 2023 shows there is work to do to increase recycling and to support our sustainable resource and climate goals. This is why our Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024 and draft Circular Economy and Waste Route Map set out numerous measures to increase Scotland's reuse and recycling rates.

Question reference: S6W-30741

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 7 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the proportion of zero-emissions vehicles in (a) its own fleet, (b) each of its agencies' fleets and (c) the public sector fleet as a whole has been in each of the last five years.

A breakdown of the Scottish Government fleet (including pool, Government Car Service and Transport Scotland) over the last 5 years is provided in the following table.

Year	Zero Emission %
2020-21	13%
2021-22	27%
2022-23	27%
2023-24	27%
2024-25 (1)	27%

Notes

1.Data range 01 April to 22 October 2024.

Transport Scotland holds information on the composition of the public sector fleet based on responses to surveys of vehicle type in 2020, 2022 and 2023, this information is summarised in the following table for Scottish Government agencies. Transport Scotland does not hold information for each of the last 5 years.

Executive Agencies	2020 Zero Emission %	2022 Zero Emission %	2023 Zero Emission %
Accountancy in Bankruptcy	No Fleet	No Fleet	No Fleet
Disclosure Scotland	No Data Held	No Fleet	No Fleet
Education Scotland	No Fleet	No Fleet	No Fleet
Forestry and Land Scotland	No Data Held	4%	15%
Scottish Forestry	0.14%	8%	17%
Scottish Pensions Agency	No Fleet	No Fleet	No Fleet
Scottish Prison Service	4%	2%	3%
Social Security Scotland	0%	50%	75%
Student Awards Agency for Scotland	No Data Held	Data Not Held	No Fleet

Data collected by Transport Scotland in 2020,2022 and 2023 indicates that there are around 30,000 vehicles in the public sector fleet, the following table shows the % of zero emission vehicles in the fleet in each of the years that data was collected.

Public Sector Fleet	% Vehicles that are Zero Emission
2020	5%
2022	12%
2023	17%

Question reference: S6O-03966

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what it anticipates the benefits to Scotland will be of a fully circular waste management system.

Question reference: S6W-30936

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 5 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers the increase in tonnage of waste incinerated, outlined in the 2023 household waste statistics, to be a positive or negative market signal for prevention and reuse efforts.

Scotland was the first UK nation to introduce a ban on landfilling biodegradable municipal waste, which comes into force on 31 December 2025.

The increase in waste incinerated reflects preparations for the upcoming ban which have already supported a decrease in the total amount of waste going to landfill in Scotland by half over the past decade.

As we continue to increase our reuse and recycling rates, we will produce even less waste, however we will still need an appropriate way to manage our unavoidable and unrecyclable waste – and continue to reduce the amount going to landfill. The development of the Waste Route Map with partners now the Circular Economy Act is in place will be critical in accelerating action in this area.

Question reference: S6W-30742

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 4 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the WWF publication, 2024 Living Planet Report.

The findings of the WWF Living Planet Report provide further evidence, if any were needed, that the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss represent the existential threat of our times. We know we must take urgent action to address them now.

Scotland’s Strategic Framework for Biodiversity sets out our ambition to be nature-positive, halting biodiversity loss by 2030 and making significant progress to restoring nature by 2045. The Strategic Framework will drive a step change to accelerate the pace and scale of our efforts. It includes: the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy, the first six yearly Delivery Plan, and a framework for statutory nature restoration targets to be established through the Natural Environment Bill.

The Bill will also include provisions to:

Reform deer management in Scotland
Modernise the aims and powers of National Park Authorities
Provide powers to allow for future amendments to Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) legislation and the 1994 Habitats Regulations to support delivery of our net zero and biodiversity goals.

Question reference: S6W-30737

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 4 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an overview of the public electric vehicle charging network, including what the (a) number of installed chargers, (b) potential uptime, (c) recorded downtime and (d) proportion of uptime and downtime served to the public has been in each month of the last three years.

We can only provide information relating to the Scottish Government funded ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) public electric vehicle (EV) charging network. The commercial sector does not make their own charge point fault information readily available to third parties.

The following tables provides a monthly breakdown of the total number of charge points on the CPS network by month and the recorded uptime and downtime across the entire CPS network as served to the public for the last three years

CPS have published a Network Performance page on the CPS website which provides a breakdown by local authority from November 2021. This will continuously be updated with ready access to detailed information on the performance of the public charging network. Prior to November 2021 this information was not collated by the Scottish Government.

Please note that the new CPS contractor took over responsibility of the contract from the end of July 2021, therefore the figures provided are from the first full month of delivery.

2021	21-Aug	21-Sep	21-Oct	21-Nov	21-Dec
Number of Units	1760	2065	2101	2126	2148
Potential Uptime(minutes)	78,566,400	89,208,000	90,763,200	91,843,200	95,886,720
Logged Downtime per fault tickets( minutes)	16,368,360	5,894,580	3,418,500	5,877,720	3,995,340
% Downtime	20.83%	6.61%	3.77%	6.40%	4.17%
% Uptime	79.17%	93.39%	96.23%	93.60%	95.83%

2022	January	February	March	April	May
Number of Units	2168	2216	2227	2249	2268
Potential Uptime(minutes)	96,779,520	89,349,120	99,413,280	97,157,800	101,243,520
Logged Downtime per fault tickets( minutes)	5,271,720	3,869,460	3,276,960	5,361,522	4,286,700
% Downtime	5.45%	4.33%	3.20%	5.50%	4.20%
% Uptime	94.55%	95.67%	96.80%	94.50%	95.80%

2022	June	July	August	September	October
Number of Units	2284	2319	2363	2389	2388
Potential Uptime(minutes)	98,668,800	103,520,160	105,484,320	103,204,800	106,600,320
Logged Downtime per fault tickets( minutes)	5,422,800	3,049,860	4,816,200	1,910,400	2,131,020
% Downtime	5.50%	2.95%	4.50%	1.85%	2.00%
% Uptime	94.50%	97.05%	95.50%	98.15%	98.00%

2022	November	December
Number of Units	2413	2448
Potential Uptime(minutes)	104,241,600	109,278,720
Logged Downtime per fault tickets( minutes)	3,648,456	4,261,870
% Downtime	3.50%	3.90%
% Uptime	96.50%	96.10%

2023	January	February	March	April	May
Number of Units	2459	2475	2493	2518	2512
Potential Uptime(minutes)	109,769,760	99,792,000	111,287,520	108,777,600	112,135,680
Logged Downtime per fault tickets( minutes)	3,512,632	3,293,136	3,338,626	3,263,328	3,139,799
% Downtime	3.20%	3.30%	3.00%	3.00%	2.80%
% Uptime	96.80%	96.70%	97.00%	97.00%	97.20%

2023	June	July	August	September	October
Number of Units	2531	2569	2574	2599	2618
Potential Uptime(minutes)	109,339,200	114,680,160	114,903,360	112,276,800	116,867,520
Logged Downtime per fault tickets( minutes)	2,952,158	2,752,324	2,757,681	2,694,643	2,687,953
% Downtime	2.70%	2.40%	2.40%	2.40%	2.30%
% Uptime	97.30%	97.60%	97.60%	97.60%	97.70%

2023	November	December
Number of Units	2648	2682
Potential Uptime(minutes)	114,393,600	119,724,480
Logged Downtime per fault tickets( minutes)	2,516,659	2,753,663
% Downtime	2.20%	2.30%
% Uptime	97.80%	97.70%

2024	January	February	March	April	May
Number of Units	2705	2760	2779	2795	2845
Potential Uptime(minutes)	120,751,200	111,283,200	124,054,560	120,744,000	127,000,800
Logged Downtime per fault tickets( minutes)	2,898,029	2,336,947	2,729,200	2,656,368	2,667,017
% Downtime	2.40%	2.10%	2.20%	2.20%	2.10%
% Uptime	97.60%	97.90%	97.80%	97.80%	97.90%

2024	June	July
Number of Units	2871	2885
Potential Uptime(minutes)	124,027,200	128,786,400
Logged Downtime per fault tickets( minutes)	2,852,626	2,962,087
% Downtime	2.30%	2.30%
% Uptime	97.70%	97.70%
	2871	2885

Question reference: S6W-30783

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 31 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02414 by Lorna Slater on 8 September 2021, whether Zero Waste Scotland was one of the agencies that worked on the multi-agency project that resulted in the electronic duty of care (edoc) system, and, if this is the case, for what reason no details of this were included in the answer to question S6W-30359 by Gillian Martin on 16 October 2024.

The reply to the 2024 PQ S6W-30359 was interpreted as seeking cost information for the Digital Waste Tracking project. The Electronic Duty of Care (edoc) system was a wholly separate project to the ongoing “Digital Waste Tracking” project. As such, edoc was not referred to in the response to PQ S6W-30359 on 16 October 2024.

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

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