Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not routinely gather or centrally hold information on staff attrition rates across all public sector, or publicly funded, bodies.

National Statistics on employment across the public sector in Scotland, including headcount by devolved and reserved sectors, are published on a quarterly basis and can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/collections/public-sector-employment-statistics/.

In the case of some specific workforces, further information relevant to attrition rates is also available:

• Official Statistics on the NHSScotland workforce, including staff turnover, are published and can be found at: https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot/data-and-reports/official-workforce-statistics/ .
• National Statistics on the composition of the Civil Service workforce, including staff turnover by department and devolved administration, are published annually and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics

Zero Waste Scotland has worked with Transport Scotland and Scottish Enterprise to produce three reports , published in 2021, forming the series ‘Battery use in Scotland now and in the future’.

Further to the original three reports, Transport Scotland (in partnership with Zero Waste Scotland) commissioned a report to explore actions required to support the establishment of a circular economy for batteries in Scotland, which will be published in due course.

The enterprise agencies and the Scottish National Investment Bank have a key role in promoting and scaling up circular economy practices and business models.

We do not hold information in which country each vehicle was manufactured.

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 length of the battery supply chain, however no specific assessment has been done to date on quantities of minerals required for the transport network. This research is published and is available here: Battery use in Scotland now and in the future | Zero Waste Scotland.

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.

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.

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.

As part of its regular engagements with the Scottish and global battery supply chain, Scottish Enterprise have held meetings with AMTE which Scottish Government officials have joined. The relevant information will be placed in SPICe bib number 64366.

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 chemicals to end of life. This research is published and is available here: Battery use in Scotland now and in the future | Zero Waste Scotland. This research suggests that by 2030 there could be up to 16000 tonnes of vehicle batteries available in Scotland for second life purposes.

Due to the novelty of batteries being used in their second life the market opportunities and business models for their use or disposal are not currently certain. Current UK Extended Producer Responsibility legislation dictates that the battery manufacturer remains responsible for the collection, recycling and disposal of the battery, meaning that it will be at the manufacturer’s discretion whether they use a domestic reprocessing facility located in Scotland or the UK

Urban mining” is not a term that is in use by the Scottish Government, but we understand it to refer to the recovery of critical raw materials from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

The WEEE Regulations 2013, which are the regulations underpinning WEEE recycling in the UK, do not require information on recovery of critical minerals to be reported and so the Scottish Government does not hold this information. Along with the other UK governments, we intend to consult later this year on a suite of reforms to the WEEE Regulations; we are considering as part of that measures to increase the recovery of critical raw materials.