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-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%

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-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-02160

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 Zero Waste Scotland had an impact target of Scotland achieving a household waste recycling rate of at least 60% by 2020, which was agreed by the Scottish Government in 2016.

Zero Waste Scotland does not have an impact target for achieving the 2020 household waste recycling target.

The 60% household waste recycling target is a Scotland wide target. Making progress towards all of our ambitious waste and recycling targets requires a collaborative effort between a range of stakeholders, including Scottish Government, local government, SEPA and Zero Waste Scotland, as well as businesses and the wider public across Scotland.

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-02175

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 how many current incineration operators have indicated that they have set aside funds to offset the costs of decommissioning their sites should they go out of business.

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-02177

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 6 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-01363 by Graeme Dey on 6 August 2021, whether it will provide a more precise date by which it will publish the route map for meeting its target to reduce car use.

Question reference: S6W-02272

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 6 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the response to question S5W-32957 by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 November 2020, whether it has since updated the research on the financial impact of littering.

Question reference: S6W-02171

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 6 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had regarding introducing a tax on waste incineration services.

The Climate Change Plan sets out the Scottish Government’s commitment to develop a Routemap to meet our ambitious 2025 waste and recycling targets in a way that maximises carbon saving potential. The Scottish Government is working with partner organisations to develop the Routemap.

The Scottish Government has no plans to introduce a tax on waste incineration services. We will however consider the role of fiscal incentives, such as a waste tax, in the context of the planned Routemap and the Climate Change Plan

We have also committed to review the role incineration plays in Scotland’s waste hierarchy, taking account of all available evidence. An update will be provided to Parliament this month regarding the plans for this.