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-20814

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 12 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has invested in developing a domestic recycling infrastructure for (a) electric vehicle and (b) other types of batteries.

Since 2018, the Scottish Government, through Zero Waste Scotland, has supported 4 companies with an interest in battery reprocessing/recycling through the European Regional Development Fund at a total cost of around 67500. Through the Just Transition Fund, we have also invested £626,734 in Ripcell, based in Aberdeen, to deliver an innovative pilot scheme using their patented BiCircular process which uses waste to recycle EV batteries.

Question reference: S6W-20816

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has carried out since 2021 to identify potential second-life stationary storage applications for electric vehicle batteries.

Research published in 2020 (commissioned by Zero Waste Scotland in partnership with Transport Scotland and Scottish Enterprise) assessed the current and future use of batteries in Scotland across the entire length of the battery supply chain, from manufacturing to predicted quantities available at end of life. This research is published and is available here: Battery use in Scotland now and in the future | Zero Waste Scotland.

More recently the Scottish Government commissioned further research with Zero Waste Scotland to identify what practical actions Scotland could take to encourage and benefit from a circular economy - encouraging the reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling of electric vehicle batteries. This research will be published in due course.

Question reference: S6W-20825

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of Scotland’s rail (a) track, (b) vehicle kilometres and (c) freight journeys are electrified.

In Scotland 40.7% single-track railway kilometres are electrified.

The Scottish Government does not hold vehicle kilometres information centrally, however some 76% of passenger journeys are made by electric train.

The volume, route and traction type for rail freight varies considerably from year to year. It is estimated that in the financial year 2022 to 2023, 50% of rail freight moved in Scotland was electrically hauled.

A considerable constraint on increasing this proportion is the number of freight terminals and ports at the other end of rail freight journeys in England that remain unelectrified.

Question reference: S6W-20817

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of any meetings that it has held with original equipment manufacturers of electric vehicle batteries in the past three years to explore opportunities to site manufacturing and/or reprocessing facilities in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-20815

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has undertaken to explore the potential for lithium refining in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-20812

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it is assisting efforts to explore potential reserves of critical minerals in Scotland.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of critical minerals for the future prosperity of Scotland.

Critical mineral mining relates to powers reserved to the UK Government, and the Scottish Government is supportive of the UK Critical Minerals Strategy. This sets out the UK’s vision and actions to improve the resilience of its critical mineral supply chain through signposting financial support opportunities for UK critical minerals businesses.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with the UK government to explore the potential reserves of critical minerals in Scotland and to ensure their secure and sustainable supply.

Question reference: S6O-02510

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its progress in removing highly combustible cladding from buildings.

Question reference: S6W-20663

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 6 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when the financial appraisal of the proposed Scottish Veterinary Service will conclude, and whether the findings will be published in detail or summary format.

The Scottish Government is committed to the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS) to ensure there are highly trained staff to provide Scotland with good animal health and food safety to meet all our needs across the public and private sector for animal health issues.

A Programme has been established to manage the work required to create an SVS, which includes determining which functions the Service should deliver, and conducting a financial appraisal of the operational and investment costs of the Service.

The financial appraisal will be refined throughout the programme as actual costs are better understood, as is standard practice, and the conclusions will be communicated in due course.

Question reference: S6W-20691

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-20139 by Jenni Minto on 15 August 2023, whether it will provide an update on the composition and activity of the task group considering indoor air quality, as outlined in the report, Cleaner Air for Scotland 2.

Question reference: S6W-20690

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether an impact assessment of proposals to introduce a charge on single-use cups will be carried out before the end of 2023.