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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 1620 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-11863

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 15 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09253 by Lorna Slater on 21 July 2022, whether it will provide a breakdown of all of the individual meetings that it has had with small brewers to discuss its Deposit Return Scheme since 28 October 2021.

Question reference: S6W-11956

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 15 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what responses the First Minister’s Environmental Council gave to the question, posed to the Council at its June 2022 meeting, “In your experience, what are the best mechanisms to reduce consumption of raw materials and how do they fit with the policy priorities that [the Scottish Government has] identified?”.

The First Minister’s Environmental Council’s responses to the question regarding mechanisms to reduce consumption in raw materials can be found in the minutes of the meeting on 13 June 2022: www.gov.scot/publications/first-ministers-environmental-council-minutes-june-2022/

Specifically, the minutes report that:

members suggested an increase in community and stakeholder engagement to understand how best to incentivise household recycling - noting the lack of standardised recycling across local authorities and the social barriers to recycling.
members highlighted chemical recycling as a key example to support a fundamental shift: i.e. chemicals in products holding back recycling potential. Members suggested further investigation on targeting the use of critical elements such as Lithium
support was provided on embedding circular economy practices into construction and product design. Key challenge is addressing the generation of waste, not just managing existing waste.
need to consider low carbon as well as recycled materials and understand the evidence behind different choices is important here.

Question reference: S6W-11955

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 15 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will act on the recommendation of the First Minister’s Environmental Council to consider targets focused on the environmental footprint of goods rather than weight-based targets.

Yes, as set out in our recent Waste and Circular Economy Route Map consultation, we intend to set new circular economy targets for the period to 2030 which go beyond weight-based criteria.

We must ensure that any future targets correspond to our Environment Strategy and overall vision for a circular economy, alongside the principles we set out in the consultation. One of these key principles is that any future targets should help to ensure that we deliver a sustainable international material footprint.

The feedback from the First Minister’s Environmental Council will be considered along with responses to the Route Map consultation, which are currently being analysed.

Question reference: S6W-11779

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 9 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the amount of emissions generated from the manufacture of textiles in Scotland in each of the last five years.

Unfortunately, the Scottish Government is unable to produce these specific statistics as the Greenhouse Gas Inventory that we use does not allow us to extract data separately for textiles. However, a one-off project published in November 2020 ( available here ) shows estimates for textiles manufacturing. We have also included the estimates for wearing apparel from 2014-2018. Please see the following table.

These statistics are on a ‘residence basis’ which differs slightly from the territorial basis we usually use. Nonetheless, we expect the difference between residential and territorial emissions for textiles to be minor.

Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 103 Economic Sectors 1998 to 2018
Residence basis
Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydro-fluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons
sulphur hexafluoride and nitrogen trifluoride expressed in thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent

SIC(07) group		2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
13	Textiles	105.4	108.4	108.4	104.8	100.7
14	Wearing apparel	23.5	24.0	23.6	21.4	21.1

Question reference: S6W-11777

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 9 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10334 by Mairi Gougeon on 13 September 2022, what proportion of the £564 million Common Agriculture Policy payments in 2021 was specifically allocated to support wool farmers.

Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments are not specifically allocated to wool farmers. Sheep producers in Scotland are however eligible for a number of CAP support schemes including the Basic Payment Scheme (payments total circa. £418 million), Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (payments total circa. £62 million) and the Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme (payments total circa £7 million).

Question reference: S6W-11774

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many wool-related applications have progressed to stage 2 in relation to the Circular Textiles Fund.

Question reference: S6W-11778

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10333 by Mairi Gougeon on 13 September 2022, whether it will provide details of the terms and timeline of the review of the British Wool Board.

The review of the British Wool Board is being conducted by Defra in collaboration with British Wool and the Devolved Administrations. The review is intended to produce a set of recommendations for improvements to the current model which will be agreed by UK and Devolved Ministers. In part this will be looking at:

The merits of the current model for UK producers and Administrations and what improvements could be made within the existing framework:
An Assessment of the changes that would be needed to the legislation, along with a timescale for implementation

The final report and recommendations is expected to be completed and signed off by all Ministers by the end of the year.

Question reference: S6W-11775

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-11018 by Lorna Slater on 30 September 2022, how many applications that do not include capital expenditure elements have been successful at stage 1 in relation to the Circular Textiles Fund.

Question reference: S6W-11776

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-11018 by Lorna Slater on 30 September 2022, what the intended aim is of the 75% split in favour of capital expenditure in the overall grant budget allocation of the Circular Textiles Fund, in light of the fact that applications are not required to include capital expenditure.

Question reference: S6O-01470

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide an update on the progress that has been made on a Deposit Return Scheme.