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-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-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-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.

Question reference: S6W-02415

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, further to the answer to question S6W-01875 by Michael Matheson on 16 August 2021, what plans it had to introduce the edoc waste monitoring system referenced in the strategy, Making Things Last: a circular economy strategy for Scotland, before agreeing to a four nations consultation.

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-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-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-02172

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 which energy from waste plants are monitoring their CO2 emissions.

Waste incinerators are required to monitor and report their carbon dioxide emissions as a ‘Part A process’ under the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2012.

The Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2012 require permitted sites to report specified pollutants, including carbon dioxide, which are then published in the Scottish Pollutant Release Inventory (SPRI). The SPRI is available here: Scottish Pollutant Release Inventory (SPRI)