Chamber and committees

The work on the Home Report Review had been delayed to allow for available resources to support the Scottish Government’s continuing response to the pandemic, though preparatory work for the review has been progressed.

The timetable for initiating this review, which will include substantial engagement with key stakeholders, will be subject to resources and kept under review.

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.

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.

SEPA requires adequate financial provision to be in place for all incineration facilities to ensure the site is closed safely and cleared of waste should it cease operation.

As with other industrial facilities, the financial provision required by SEPA does not include the costs of full de-commissioning of the facility.

Zero Waste Scotland has not commissioned any pilot or exploratory schemes for biostabilised waste being sent to landfill. However, Zero Waste Scotland has commissioned a study to better understand the potential for biostabilisation as a municipal residual waste treatment process in Scotland.

Within the Cultural Collections budget line for 2021-22 the 3 National Collections (National Galleries of Scotland, National Library of Scotland, and National Museums Scotland) saw increases to resource budgets of over £1 million to support the public sector pay settlement.

There was a reduction to capital budgets within the cultural collections and other cultural capital lines of £4.75 million due to the profile of capital commitments. In 2021-22 the capital allocation for the cultural collections decreased due to the commitment to the Scottish National Gallery project reducing compared to 2020-21; and completion of some capital commitments for National Museums Scotland.

The Other Cultural Capital budget line saw a reduction of £3.4 million due to the Scottish Government completing its funding commitments to several capital projects in 2020-21. These include the Paisley Museum project with £2 million committed in total, £750k of which was provided in 2020-21; Citizens Theatre project with £2 million committed in total, £1.25 million of which was provided in 2020-21; and Burrell Collection project with a £5.75 million total commitment including £650k in 2020-21, and an uplift of £750k in Covid emergency support delivered in 2020-21.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02365 on 3 September 2021. 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02365 on 3 September 2021. 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

The Scottish Government is committed to action to protect biodiversity and to the effective monitoring of progress towards this goal. We are working to meet the commitments set out within the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy, 2004 - 2020, and are aligned to the international Aichi biodiversity targets as set out in the Strategic Plan for biodiversity 2011-2020.

The final report against the Aichi targets published in 2021 showed that Scotland achieved 9 out of the 20 targets and another 11 are progressing. This compares favourably to the global picture, where the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) reports that good progress as being made on only 4 of the targets, and with the UK as a whole, which met only 5 targets. The CBD reports that there is no country in the world that has fully met the Aichi Biodiversity targets.

The 2020 Statement of Intent on Biodiversity included a commitment to protect 30% of our land for nature by 2030 And assess whether we could go further given that we have already achieved 37% protection of Scotland’s marine environment. We also recently added a new single high level indicator to the National Performance Framework which measures trends in marine and terrestrial biodiversity in Scotland.

Looking forward, we will publish a new biodiversity strategy in October 2022. This will set out how we will deliver our overall ambition of preventing any further extinctions of wildlife and halting declines by 2030, and making significant progress in restoring Scotland’s natural environment by 2045. This will lay the foundation for a new A Natural Environment Bill which will include legislation for new nature recovery targets.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government as this is an operational matter for Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority. I have therefore asked the Park Authority’s Chief Executive to write to the Member to provide details.