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-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-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-02432

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 7 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what risk assessment it has carried out regarding the potential impact on recycling rates of charging for garden waste collection.

No risk assessment has been carried out regarding the potential impact on recycling rates of charging for garden waste collection.

There is no statutory requirement for local authorities to separately collect garden waste and charging for its collection is not a new option available to councils. Garden waste is included in Schedule 2 of the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992 which contains the types of waste for which a charge for collection may be made. It is up to individual councils whether to charge or not.

As set out in our update to the Climate Change Plan, we will consult on requirements to separately collect garden waste by 2023, to further promote reuse and recycling.

Question reference: S6W-02173

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the current energy from waste efficiency rating is of each incineration plant in Scotland, and how this compares with the efficiency rating stated at the planning/approval stage for each plant.

The following table shows reported efficiencies of each incineration plant for 2020. Installations are required to meet a 20% electrical efficiency from date of commissioning as set out in the Thermal Treatment of Waste Guidelines 2014 (TTWG 2014).

	Plant Information	Expected start-up efficiency at permitting	2020 Reported Performance
Millerhill Recycling & Energy Recovery Centre	Heat export potential but currently operating as electricity export only	22.6%	24.5%
Levenseat Energy from Waste Plant	Heat export potential but currently operating as electricity export only	22.9%	Commissioning late 2020 therefore data not yet due with SEPA.
Lerwick Energy Recovery Plant	Operate as heat export only	Not Available*	Latest available data is overall efficiency 64.9% 2010 (Missing data due to cyber-attack)
Baldovie Energy from Waste Centre	Heat export potential but currently operating as electricity export only	Not Available*	12.52%**
Dunbar Energy Recovery Facility	Heat export potential but currently operating as electricity export only	Not Available*	21.11%
Glasgow Recycling and Renewable Energy Centre	Heat export potential but currently operating as electricity export only	22.9%	20.6% (This includes the onsite AD plant)

* Planning and permitting took place prior to first publication of the Thermal Treatment of Waste Guidance in 2009.

** This plant was designed, commissioned and built, before the Thermal Treatment of Waste Guidance was first published in 2009.

Question reference: S6W-02161

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress on the implementation of an electronic system for recording waste data, as outlined in its publication, Making Things Last: A Circular Economy Strategy for Scotland, which stated that “We will move towards making the use of the electronic 'edoc' system mandatory for waste in Scotland and will consider inclusion of transfrontier shipment of waste (particularly in view of the EU Circular Economy package aspirations for electronic data exchange) and hazardous waste.”

We are taking forward this commitment as part of our work to implement an electronic waste tracking system, as set out in our update to the Climate Change Plan.

We are working with the UK Government, other devolved governments, and agencies such as SEPA, to develop and implement an electronic waste tracking system. This will provide a step change in the quality and timeliness of waste data to support decision-making and underpin the key building blocks required to drive delivery on existing waste and recycling targets and move towards a circular economy.

A joint consultation was originally planned for summer, but is now being planned for this autumn on behalf of all four nations of the UK. This consultation will seek views on how and when mandatory digital waste tracking should be implemented, including the types of waste that should be included.

Question reference: S6W-02170

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of any pilot or other exploratory schemes that have been undertaken on the biostabilisation of waste being sent to landfill.

Question reference: S6W-02176

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will list all incinerators in Scotland broken down by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) decile of the area they are located in.

The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) is a relative measure of deprivation which ranks 6,976 small areas (called data zones). Rank 1 represents the most deprived data zone in Scotland and 6,976 represents the least deprived data zone in Scotland. The rankings are split into deciles 1-10, which define the deprivation levels in 10% bands. Data zones in decile 1 are among the 10% most deprived areas in Scotland, and data zones in decile 10 are among the 10% least deprived.

The following table shows the SIMD decile for incineration facilities operational in Scotland in 2019, accepting household or commercial waste.

Site name (Operator)	Site activity	SIMD 2020 decile
Lerwick Energy Recovery Plant (Shetland Council)	Incineration	3
MEB (MVV Environmental Baldovie Ltd.)	Incineration	6
Dunbar ERF (Viridor Waste Management Ltd.)	Incineration	7
Glasgow Recycling & Renewable Energy Centre (Viridor (Glasgow) Ltd.)	Incineration	1
LREL (Levenseat Renewable Energy Ltd.)	Incineration	7
Millerhill Recycling & Energy Recovery Centre (FCC Waste Services (UK) Ltd.)	Incineration	6

All site information is available on the SEPA website: https://www.sepa.org.uk/regulations/waste/energy-from-waste/energy-from-waste-sites/ and SEPA’s waste sites and capacity tool: https://www.sepa.org.uk/data-visualisation/waste-sites-and-capacity-tool/

Further information on the SIMD is available here: https://www.gov.scot/ SIMD

Question reference: S6W-02174

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of how much public funding has been spent on clean-up and decommissioning work in relation to incinerator plant closures in the last 10 years.

Question reference: S6W-02163

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many visits there have been to the Recycle for Scotland website in each year since 2014-15.

The total visits, from 2014-15 to now, are split across the Recycle for Scotland (RfS) site, when it was standalone, and the new How to Waste Less (HTWL) site, which the RfS site was incorporated into in April 2020.

Year	Total Users	Total Visits	Website breakdown
2014-15	39,239	47,824
2015-16	53,254	65,097
2016-17	51,165	67,455
2017-18	90,285	113,224
2018-19	136,241	168,281
2019-20	151,491	183,514
2020-21	252,223	314,273	RfS: Users: 7,226 Visits: 8,133	HTWL: Users: 244,997 ‎ Visits: 306,140

Question reference: S6W-02162

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the percentage of the public that have had an awareness of the Recycle for Scotland brand in each year since the baseline estimate in 2014-15.

Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) no longer have recognition rate information for the Recycle for Scotland brand year-on-year as they stopped their tracker in 2015. The Recycle for Scotland website and associated pages have also been incorporated into ZWS’s How To Waste Less platform launched in April 2020. However, the latest recognition data comes from their Consumer Behaviour and Attitudes Survey carried out in February 2020. This survey was issued to 2331 householders who were responsible for recycling in their household. The recognition data is listed below:

• The ‘swoosh arrow’ part of the Recycle for Scotland logo: 63%

• Recycle for Scotland logo: 32%