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: S6W-41634

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what international best practice it examined in drawing up the Draft Circular Economy Strategy for Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-41633

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to set (a) a timeline and (b) mandatory quotas for circular economy procurement by public bodies.

Question reference: S6W-41632

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it will define and measure “embedding circularity” in public sector procurement processes, as outlined in the Draft Circular Economy Strategy for Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-41638

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what specific data the Circular Jobs Tracker, which is discussed in the Draft Circular Economy Strategy for Scotland, will collect; whether this will be made publicly available, and how frequently it will be updated.

Question reference: S6W-41639

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has conducted on the potential impact to charity and second-hand shops of introducing a kerbside textiles collection service, as discussed in the Draft Circular Economy Strategy for Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-41635

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it defines “circular skills”, and what specific competencies will be prioritised in the education and skills reform programme, as discussed in the Draft Circular Economy Strategy for Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-05096

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 October 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it monitors the change of use of agricultural land classified as grade 3 or above, including for infrastructure projects.

Question reference: S6W-41155

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce the health impacts of plastic pollution in Scotland.

Whilst there is currently no universal agreement on the health impacts or thresholds to measure safety levels of plastic in the environment, we are committed to reducing plastic pollution and tackling its contribution to litter through measures as outlined in response to PQ S6W-41153 on 27 October 2025.

Littering of any kind, including plastic items, is a criminal offence in Scotland. Local authorities are responsible for enforcing the legislation which is designed to deter littering and support cleaner, greener communities across Scotland.

We continue to monitor developments and advice from the World Health Organisation on emerging evidence in relation to plastic pollution and the potential health impacts.

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.

Question reference: S6W-41153

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what research it has conducted to understand the health impacts of plastic pollution in Scotland.

We recognise there could be public concerns relating to the potential health impacts of plastic pollution. We continue to closely monitor the developments and advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO) on emerging evidence in relation to plastic pollution. However, we have currently not commissioned any research on this topic.

We are committed to reducing plastic pollution in general and have introduced the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021, which bans certain problematic single-use plastic items.

Question reference: S6W-41152

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 27 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what research it has conducted to understand the impact of microplastics in disposable cups.

There has been no specific research on microplastics in single use cups, but wider research on the subject of microplastics was considered as part of the Strategic Environmental Assessment. This concluded that reducing the numbers of disposable cups being used and littered the environmental impacts of microplastic pollution would be reduced. This and other impact assessments supported the development of our single use cups policy.