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-13231

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it is engaging with the digital deposit return trial being run by Ocado, and whether it has requested that Zero Waste Scotland reviews the results.

The Scottish Government has not engaged with Ocado regarding its digital deposit return trial.

We would anticipate that industry will make extensive use of digital technology in delivering our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), for example by developing an IT system to track payments made and received, adopting state-of-the-art reverse vending technology to prevent fraud, and using digital media to communicate with the public regarding DRS.

We are aware of the so-called ‘digital DRS’ as a proposed approach to delivering deposit return whereby consumers redeem deposits on scheme articles by scanning them with a smartphone before placing them in their kerbside recycling. We considered this approach during the policy-development process for DRS and the strong feedback from both industry and environmental NGOs was that the technology is not sufficiently mature for implementation on the timetable for our DRS.

Question reference: S6W-13230

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of forecast reports conducted by Zero Waste Scotland showing any (a) potential savings and (b) net losses resulting from the forthcoming Deposit Return Scheme in each local authority area.

Modelling by Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) projects that 29 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities will incur a net financial benefit from the implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). Local authorities are also expected to benefit from a reduction in the impact of litter, and from efficiencies to collection services following the implementation of DRS.

ZWS it is engaging with individual local authorities, in particular the three currently projected not to make savings, to assess the impacts of DRS on them and look at options for service improvements.

These calculations are based on commercially sensitive data provided in confidence to ZWS by local authorities. We will therefore not publicly identify the three local authorities that stand to incur a net cost.

Question reference: S6W-13037

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether a dedicated anti-fraud team has been established to tackle potentially fraudulent activity in relation to the Deposit Return Scheme, and when any such team was established.

Question reference: S6F-01661

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 December 2022

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reported warnings that the implementation of the Deposit Return Scheme will be "ruinous for consumers and businesses".

Question reference: S6W-12879

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 19 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many people in Scotland have claimed unemployment-related benefits in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) age group and (b) local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-12883

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 19 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many homes in Scotland have been insulated with support from government funding in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-12878

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 19 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many companies are currently accredited to carry out home insulation work in each local authority area in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-12882

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS Scotland patients in each NHS board have been referred for surgical treatment in the rest of the UK in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-12767

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 16 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what lessons it can learn from the reported use of an expert working group during the introduction of the UK Aggregates Levy, and whether it will consider establishing a similar working group during the introduction of a Scottish Aggregates Levy.

The Scotland Act 2016 empowers the Scottish Parliament to legislate for a devolved tax to replace the UK Aggregates Levy. This is an environmental tax that aims to reduce extraction of primary – fresh or new – aggregate, mainly crushed rock, gravel and sand, used as bulk fill in construction.

The Scottish Government is progressing work to develop a devolved replacement for the UK levy. Consistent with the Scottish Approach to Taxation, set out in Scotland’s Framework for Tax, we will continue to consult and engage with stakeholders via a range of channels and fora to help inform this work.

Question reference: S6W-12732

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 14 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether Circularity Scotland Ltd meets the requirements and could be designated as a public authority for the purposes of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, in accordance with section 5 of the Act.

The Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) Scheme Administrator, Circularity Scotland Ltd, is a privately owned company. This arrangement is consistent with the polluter pays principle and is the same approach used by many similar schemes internationally.

The Scottish Government has not given any consideration to its designation as a Scottish public authority for the purposes of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.