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-02433

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many households have access to food waste collections.

Question reference: S6W-02632

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-31723 by Jeane Freeman on 9 November 2020, how it is ensuring that everyone eligible for free personal care under Frank’s Law is receiving it during the COVID-19 pandemic, in light of data on this not being reported.

Question reference: S6W-02273

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 9 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32506 by Roseanna Cunningham on 13 November 2020, whether it will provide updated figures to include spend during 2020-21.

Zero Waste Scotland have spent the following amount of money on tackling litter from 2015 to 2021:

Year	Spend on tackling litter
2020-21	£283,807
2019-20	£92,397
2018-19	£119,081
2017-18	£379,465
2016-17	£480,786
2015-16	£658,647

Additional funding was given to Zero Waste Scotland in 2015-16 to 2017-18 for specific projects, such as funding Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Clean Up Scotland Campaign and development of the Litter Monitoring System.

The Scottish Government and Crown Estates Scotland have funded Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB), for their "Upstream Battle" marine litter campaign. The details are as follows:

	Financial Year	Funding
Scottish Government	2018-2019	£30,000
Crown Estates Scotland	2018-2019	£25,000
Crown Estates Scotland	2020-2021	£20,000

The Scottish Government does not separately account for staff time dedicated to work on tackling litter.

Question reference: S6W-02438

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on whether a recommendation was submitted on a preferred design of a HazDoc system for waste monitoring.

We are not aware of a specific recommendation for the preferred full design for a HazDoc system submitted to Scottish Government.

The development of an electronic system for hazardous waste is being taken forward as part of our work to implement an electronic waste tracking system, as set out in our update to the Climate Change Plan. The design of this system so far has involved input from a range of stakeholders and will be informed through a consultation planned in Autumn.

Question reference: S6W-02414

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a (a) timeline of the work that (i) it and (ii) partner agencies have undertaken on the edoc waste monitoring system referenced in the strategy, Making Things Last: a circular economy strategy for Scotland, and (b) breakdown of the costs of this work, including (A) staff time and (B) costs from partner agencies.

The Electronic Duty of Care (edoc) system has been operational since January 2014 and was the result of a 4 year, multi-agency project. These project costs are not held centrally. The project was funded through the EU’s LIFE+ environment programme and led by the Environment Agency.

We are taking forward the commitment to move towards the use of a mandatory system for waste monitoring as part of our work to implement an electronic waste tracking system, set out in our update to the Climate Change Plan.

A joint consultation on the implementation of a mandatory electronic waste tracking system is planned for autumn on behalf of all four nations of the UK. This consultation will seek views on how and when mandatory electronic waste tracking should be implemented, including the types of waste that should be included. Accurate costs and staffing hours for this multi-agency project are not held centrally.

Question reference: S6W-02431

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what impact its deposit return scheme will have on the ability of local authorities to fulfil the aims of the Household Recycling Charter, agreed by COSLA in 2015, which seeks to help generate large volumes of high-quality recyclate from home recycling.

Question reference: S6W-02430

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what risk assessment it has carried out regarding whether the Household Recycling Charter can deliver increased recycling rates in line with the targets set.

Question reference: S6W-02436

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what trial or pilot projects of the edoc waste monitoring system it has undertaken since 2016.

The Electronic Duty of Care (edoc) system has been operational since January 2014. We are taking forward the commitment to move towards the use of a mandatory system for waste monitoring as part of our work to implement an electronic waste tracking system, set out in our update to the Climate Change Plan.

A range of trials have been undertaken as part of work to develop an electronic waste tracking system, including as part of a GovTech Catalyst competition. In 2019, as part of phase 1 of the competition, 5 technology suppliers each developed proof of concept electronic waste tracking solutions. Of these, 2 were selected and developed into prototype systems to test the key elements of waste tracking in 2020. These proof of concepts and prototypes were informed and tested by a user research panel of businesses, which currently includes around 450 businesses operating across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-02437

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how far it has progressed on the development of an electronic system for (a) hazardous waste and (b) transfrontier shipment of waste, and what the cost has been of (i) each project and (ii) the staff hours dedicated to each project.

The development of an electronic system for hazardous waste is being taken forward through a multi-agency project which proposes to implement a mandatory electronic waste tracking system. We plan on consulting on these proposals in the Autumn. Accurate costs and staffing hours for this multi-agency project are not held centrally.

The transfrontier shipment of waste is a reserved matter. We will work with Defra to consider any changes to improve data collection on transfrontier shipment of waste.

Question reference: S6W-02428

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent supporting local authorities to adopt the Household Recycling Charter.

Over and above the local government finance settlement, between 2015 – 2019 the Scottish Government provided around £8 million through Zero Waste Scotland to support local authorities in aligning their services with the Household Recycling Charter Code of Practice.

In March, we launched a £70 million recycling improvement fund to support improvements in local authority recycling infrastructure. One of the objectives of the fund is to Support Local Authorities with aligning their services to the Code of Practice which accompanies the Household Recycling Charter.