Chamber and committees

In January 2022 the Scottish Government published its draft vision for Scotland’s future public electric vehicle charging network that meets the needs of the people of Scotland and which supports a just transition and the delivery of our climate commitments. It recognises the need to attract private sector capital, skills and resources to grow the public charging network at scale and pace. A range of public bodies and other organisations, including COSLA, have been engaged over the past year as part of our work to finalise the Vision.

COSLA have also been engaged throughout the development of the EV Infrastructure Fund through which Transport Scotland is supporting Local Authorities to develop public electric vehicle charging strategies and expansion plans. These plans will help to identify future public charging needs, investment requirements and operating models for existing and new local authority owned public charging points.

There is an established and growing number of well-capitalised private charge point operators in Scotland and across the UK. Transport Scotland’s joint report published with Scottish Futures Trust in July 2021 indicated that investment costs in growing Scotland’s public charging network could reach £100 million per annum by 2030. It is encouraging, therefore, to hear the recent pledge from industry body Charge UK that its members will invest £6 billion in public charging infrastructure across the UK by 2030. Our focus is on encouraging that investment to spread across all of Scotland. That’s why our Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund aims to draw in £60 million of public and private investment to double the size of the public charging network to 6,000 charge points by 2026, including areas of the network where private investment is less viable.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18527 on 15 June 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Planning for the summit is underway. It will focus on practical support at classroom, school and local level to make a difference on this issue and will hear from young people, parents and carers, schools, local authorities and unions to discuss how to tackle the problem. Details will be set out in due course.

I refer the member to Scottish Government’s publication on 28 February 2023 of the timeline and process for securing an Internal Market Act exclusion for the Deposit Return Scheme: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/correspondence/2023/02/internal-market-act-correspondence/documents/timeline-and-process-for-securing-an-internal-market-act-exclusion-for-drs/timeline-and-process-for-securing-an-internal-market-act-exclusion-for-drs/govscot%3Adocument/DRS%2BTimeline%2Band%2BProcess.pdf

This is clear that Scottish Government sought an exclusion from the Internal Market Act for Scotland’s DRS under the Resources and Waste common framework since July 2021.

When the UK Government unilaterally decided in March 2022 to agree only a narrow exclusion for single-use plastics under the Common Framework, Scottish and Welsh Ministers made clear their concerns on impacts on other policy developments. I refer the member to the published communiqué from the 21 March 2022 meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Group for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs https://www.gov.scot/publications/inter-ministerial-group-for-environment-food-and-rural-affairs-21-march-2022/ .

Circularity Scotland are a private limited company established to deliver DRS on behalf of drinks producers. They do not report to the Scottish Government. However officials and I have met regularly with Circularity Scotland as part of preparations for the DRS scheme

The Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020 require a scheme administrator to report to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), on behalf of producers, as required, (a) the number of scheme articles first made available by that producer to be marketed, offered for sale or sold for the purposes of its retail sale in Scotland, (b) whether the scheme packaging in which those scheme articles were contained or sold was made wholly or mainly from PET plastic, glass, steel or aluminium, (c) the number of items of scheme packaging returned to the producer by wholesalers and retailers, (d) the number of items of scheme packaging collected by the producer from each return point operator, retailer providing a takeback service and hospitality retailer. A scheme administrator must also provide any information requested by the Scottish Ministers or SEPA for the purposes of monitoring compliance with the requirements in regulations 10(1) and 11(1) that relate to producer obligations.

Circularity Scotland also play a key role in the system wide governance framework and are represented in both the Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group and the Executive Oversight Group.

Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme has been based on successful schemes across Europe. The Minister has been thoroughly briefed by Zero Waste Scotland on relevant research findings throughout the policy’s development.

As stated in question S6W 18000 on 31 May 2023, research was undertaken by Zero Waste Scotland, who designed the scheme, and met with a range of international scheme administrators and operators, including those from Norway, Estonia, Sweden, Lithuania, Germany, Iceland, Denmark and Finland.

This research and briefing has meant that the minister has been fully appraised of the main characteristics of schemes across Europe and has not therefore personally travelled to the countries listed.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Transport Scotland has made funding available to all local authorities in Scotland to develop public electric vehicle charging strategy and expansion plans. These plans will help to identify future public charging needs (at both a local and regional level), investment requirements and a suitable model for operation of public charge points in the future. The duties of a local authority related to operating public charge points will depend on the operational model they choose to adopt.

Through our Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund, Transport Scotland will continue to provide funding that supports local authorities in establishing partnerships with the private sector that will enable new operating models to be established and continued private sector investment in Scotland’s public electric vehicle charging networks.

As part of the transition to a public ownership of ScotRail, there was a continuation of four existing Abellio contracts. This was necessary to ensure consistency of service for passengers and facilitate a smooth transition. These four Abellio contracts are for 1) Shared Services Centre, 2) Bus Service link between Central, Queen Street and Buchanan Street, 3) Rail Replacement and 4) the Management of Station Tenancy and Advertising Management.

One of these contracts is now operating in-house within ScotRail with the remaining three being at various stages of procurement for replacement contracts.

As Circularity Scotland (CSL) is a private company, the Scottish government does not have a record of all their meetings and engagements. However, as an industry led company, CSL has regular engagement with its members and businesses involved with DRS. CSL has also attended many stakeholder meetings with the Scottish Government, including the system wide assurance group, sector engagement with retail, hospitality and producer bodies, and most recently on 7 June with the Minister, First Minister and more than 80 business representatives.