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-03204

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 1 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that all nationally significant infrastructure projects deliver a net biodiversity gain.

The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 sets out six outcomes to which a future National Planning Framework (NPF) should work towards, including securing positive effects for biodiversity, and we are developing new proposals which deliver positive outcomes for biodiversity from development without the need for overly complex metrics.

We will lay a draft NPF4 in the Scottish Parliament this autumn and will carry out extensive public consultation at the same time. We anticipate producing a final version of NPF4 for approval and adoption around spring 2022.

Question reference: S6O-00245

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to promote sustainable public procurement.

Question reference: S6W-03196

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 29 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment has been made of future opportunities for kerbside recycling of glass packaging containers that are not included in the forthcoming deposit return scheme.

No specific assessment has been carried out for kerbside glass recycling. However, the Scottish Government is committed to review the Household Recycling Charter’s Code of Practice, which aims to bring more consistency in household recycling services, and encourage higher participation in waste prevention, recycling and reuse. This review will directly consider the impact on kerbside recycling of measures like the introduction of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme, and reform to Extended Producer Responsibility, and enable the Code of Practice to evolve in line with developments across the waste and recycling sector.

We are working with the other administrations on the introduction of an extended producer responsibility system for packaging that will recover full net costs from producers and allocate funding to local authorities for the provision of effective and efficient kerbside recycling services. This will support improved recycling for all packaging types, including glass.

Question reference: S6W-02454

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 20 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the most recent baseline update is for (a) household and (b) commercial and industrial food waste arisings.

The most recent baseline data is contained within the 2016 Zero Waste Scotland report How Much Food is Wasted in Scotland? | Zero Waste Scotland . This report uses 2013 data and is broken down as follows:

Household (solid and liquid waste) – 598,946 tonnes (60.6%)
Food and drink manufacturing – 248,230 tonnes (25.1%)
Other sectors – 140,714 tonnes (14.2%)
The total of 987,890 tonnes covers all quantifiable food and drink waste in Scotland and provides a baseline for the Scottish Government’s flagship target to reduce all food waste arising in Scotland by 33% by 2025. Food losses incurred in primary production are currently excluded from the baseline figures. A Waste Composition Analysis, originally planned for 2021 but delayed due to Covid-19, is being carried out by Zero Waste Scotland this year and more detailed information will be available once that work concludes.

Question reference: S6O-00181

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how it will support Scotland’s move to a more circular economy.

Question reference: S6W-02457

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 14 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of households (a) participates in local authority provided food waste collections, and (b) has access to food waste collections.

The Scottish Household Survey 2017 shows that there has been a steady increase in the number of people using food waste recycling caddies, rather than throwing food out with general waste. Less than half (48%) of households now dispose of food waste with their general rubbish. The proportion of households making use of local authority-provided food caddies was 55 % in 2017

In response to (b), the duty to segregate food waste in the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 covers approximately 80% of Scotland’s population. The latest figures are from September 2015 and can be found in Zero Waste Scotland’s report: How Much Food Waste Is There in Scotland? , published in 2016, showing that over 1.5 million Scottish households had access to food waste collection.

The upcoming review of the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan in addition to the development of a Routemap to deliver our ambitious 2025 waste and recycling targets will consider improvements to the data collection and monitoring relating to food waste.

Question reference: S6W-02456

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 14 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32341 by Roseanna Cunningham on 6 October 2020, what progress has been made in considering the rural exemption for food waste.

The planned consultation on the range of commitments identified in the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan has been delayed by a number of factors, including the recent Covid-19 crisis.

We are developing a Routemap to deliver our ambitious 2025 waste and recycling targets which will inform the development of the new Circular Economy Bill and there will also be further engagement and consultation to shape the Bill’s contents. A review of the rural exemption for food waste will be considered as part of this.

Question reference: S6W-02439

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 14 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken of managing market influenced budgets in local authorities.

The Scottish Government work in partnership with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities to negotiate a financial settlement that ensures local authorities can continue to provide the high quality frontline services that the people of Scotland expect and deserve.

The vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets, including those that are influenced by external markets forces, and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities.

Question reference: S6W-02458

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 14 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of households uses local authority provided food waste caddies.

Question reference: S6W-02443

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 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what modelling work it has undertaken on any requirement for residual waste treatment capacity in Scotland, and whether it will provide a breakdown of any forecasts since 2016 for such requirements.

In April 2019, we published the Waste Markets Study which assessed the treatment options for Scottish biodegradable municipal waste. The study is available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/waste-markets-study-full-report/

We have also commissioned work to assess the residual waste treatment capacity needs up to 2025, in light of our commitment to end the practice of landfilling biodegradable municipal waste by 2025. This work is ongoing and we will publish it in due course.