Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government made awards amounting to £13.8 million through the European Fisheries Fund programme in 2009-10.

The Scottish Government will award £17.8 million through the European Fisheries Fund in September 2010.

The taking of mackerel by Icelandic and Faeroese fishermen has no immediate effect on Scottish individuals, businesses or fishing communities. However, the Scottish Government is doing everything possible to avoid the negative medium-term economic consequences that overfishing of the mackerel stock might entail.

The Scottish Government does not hold 2009-10 domestic recycling rate data. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is not expected to publish this data until the spring of 2011.

The table below contains the 2009-10 recycling rates for municipal waste collected by local authorities.

Local Authority	MSW Arisings (tonnes)	MSW Landfilled (tonnes)	MSW Incinerated (tonnes)	MSW Other Treatment (tonnes)	MSW Recycled / Composted (tonnes)	% MSW Recycled / Composted	BMW landfilled (tonnes)
Clackmannanshire	32,017	17,295	0	0	14,722	46.0	11,804
Fife	246,462	135,197	0	0	111,265	45.1	85,140
South Ayrshire	86,118	47,305	0	0	38,813	45.1	26,034
North Lanarkshire	221,470	125,610	0	0	95,860	43.3	71,158
West Lothian	108,781	62,034	67	0	46,680	42.9	33,591
Moray	65,144	37,267	0	0	27,877	42.8	22,384
Stirling	52,218	29,911	0	0	22,308	42.7	17,302
East Ayrshire	72,103	41,325	0	0	30,778	42.7	26,322
Falkirk	90,943	52,507	0	0	38,435	42.3	29,932
Perth and Kinross	95,919	55,242	336	0	40,341	42.1	31,039
Argyll & Bute	59,466	34,971	0	0	24,495	41.2	21,863
Midlothian	49,095	29,020	0	0	20,075	40.9	16,592
Angus	76,343	31,769	13,971	0	30,603	40.1	18,173
East Lothian	67,189	40,348	0	0	26,841	39.9	24,809
North Ayrshire	86,958	52,424	0	0	34,534	39.7	30,413
Dundee	95,760	16,388	41,931	0	37,441	39.1	7,074
South Lanarkshire	185,537	113,510	0	0	72,027	38.8	74,048
Dumfries and Galloway	94,210	48,047	9,733	0	36,430	38.7	22,964
Scottish Borders	71,180	44,120	235	0	26,825	37.7	25,594
East Renfrewshire	51,542	32,688	393	0	18,461	35.8	20,052
Renfrewshire	92,800	60,016	0	0	32,783	35.3	38,499
East Dunbartonshire	70,369	45,578	0	0	24,791	35.2	27,881
Highland	160,143	104,457	562	0	55,124	34.4	65,110
Aberdeenshire	150,567	98,961	0	0	51,606	34.3	66,693
Edinburgh	232,040	160,292	53	0	71,695	30.9	97,296
West Dunbartonshire	48,467	33,633	0	0	14,834	30.6	20,807
Inverclyde	48,259	33,946	0	0	14,312	29.7	21,353
Orkney	15,402	3,797	7,160	0	4,445	28.9	579
Aberdeen	125,024	92,417	0	0	32,607	26.1	56,952
Eilean Siar	21,477	16,495	0	0	4,982	23.2	9,956
Glasgow	331,657	264,211	0	0	67,446	20.3	157,062
Shetland Islands	13,659	784	10,122	0	2,752	20.2	575
Total Scotland	3,218,318	1,961,565	84,562	0	1,172,190	36.4	1,179,052

Source: SEPA Waste Data Flow.

The decision to replace the majority of East Coast services between Glasgow and Edinburgh with services operated by Arriva Cross Country is directed by the Department for Transport.

Further to this, the decision is to replace some of the most energy efficient electric trains on the UK network with some of the most polluting diesel trains, as measured by CO₂ per passenger kilometre.

It is unclear at this stage what the environmental impact of these changes will be. However, these services account for only a very small percentage of overall train movements in Scotland. In the context of published figures showing that rail transport accounts for less than 1% of overall emissions in Scotland, I see that the transfer from electric to diesel rolling stock over this route could only have a marginal impact on our plans for decarbonising public transport.

It is important to emphasise that regardless of power source, rail remains the most environmentally sustainable mode of powered transport. This is why we are working to encourage modal shift to rail from more polluting modes of transport.

The Scottish Government works closely with the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) to implement producer responsibility regulations in line with EC Directives on Packaging and Packaging Waste. The producer responsibility regulations obligate producers and suppliers who have a market share of more than £2 million and produce more than 50 tons of waste a year to pay towards recycling the waste they produce. By placing this obligation on producers the regulations provide an economic incentive to reduce and prevent unnecessary packaging waste. More details can be found on SEPA''s website:

http://www.sepa.org.uk/waste/waste_regulation/producer_responsibility.aspx.

The Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) delivery programme, created to support Scotland''s Zero Waste Plan, provides advice and support to all stakeholders involved in achieving a zero waste society. ZWS works with public agencies on the issue of reducing packaging of goods and supports the UK-wide Courtauld Commitment. Administered by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), the Courtauld Commitment is a voluntary agreement aimed at improving resource efficiency and reducing the carbon and wider environmental impact of the grocery retail sector.

The Courtauld Commitment (Phase 1) was launched in 2005 and had 42 signatories representing many key retailers and suppliers. This phase achieved the target of zero growth in packaging by 2008. Courtauld 2 was launched in March 2010 and moves away from solely weight-based targets, aiming to achieve more sustainable use of resources over the entire lifecycle of products, including their packaging. 29 major retailers and brand owners committed to Phase 2. Discussions about the shape of Phase 3 have commenced.

Further details on the Courtauld Commitment can be found here:

http://www.wrap.org.uk/retail/courtauld_commitment/index.html.

The Scottish Government has established the Zero Waste Scotland delivery programme to support the implementation of Scotland''s Zero Waste Plan. The delivery programme provides advice and guidance to all stakeholders involved in achieving a zero waste society, including local authorities.

Scottish Government published its Zero Waste Plan on the 9 June 2010. Annex B of the plan sets out guidance for local authority planning departments on the role of the land-use planning system in delivering waste management facilities. Scottish Government planning officials are working closely with all planning authorities in the preparation of their development plans including matters in relation to waste management. A wide range of stakeholders including planning authorities and Convention of Scottish Local Authorities have been engaged in the current review of Planning Advice Note 63 “ Waste Management Planning.

In addition, Scottish Government will shortly be giving further guidance to local authorities on the use of energy from waste treatment. Zero Waste Scotland and Scottish Futures Trust also provide local authorities with advice and support on procurement and achieving value for money in relation to waste management infrastructure.

As I indicated during the stage 3 debate on the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill on 30 June, the Scottish Government will bring forward in the near future appropriate legislation to assist sports that may be affected adversely by the introduction of the Knife Dealers Licensing Scheme.

The Energy Saving Scotland home renewables grant scheme has been very successful in stimulating the market for microgeneration technologies and helping over 4,000 householders to generate their own energy. Continued high demand led to an extra allocation in 2010-11 of £1.5 million.

This scheme has not been cancelled. It was a demand-led scheme and all available funding has now been fully allocated. Therefore, as there has been no reduction to the original proposed programme, there will be potential increase in greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, due to the additional funding allocated to the programme the reduction in green house gas emissions will be more than would have been achieved with the original budget. The latest estimate for emissions reductions by the scheme is 140,052.3 lifetime tonnes of CO₂.