Chamber and committees

The Energy from Waste (incineration and advanced thermal treatment) Direction 2021 relates to new and existing live planning applications in the planning system.

If an energy from waste project already has planning permission and is under construction, there is no requirement under the terms of the Direction for that project to be notified to Ministers, unless for example a revised or additional planning application for the development is submitted.

Through the Equality Data Improvement Programme, officials recently undertook an audit of datasets used by the Scottish Government to identify the extent to which data on each of the nine protected characteristics are collected and published. The next stage, which is underway, will use this information to produce an equality data improvement plan for each analytical area, identifying immediate improvements to datasets that can be completed by the end of 2022 and longer-term improvements that can be completed by the end of 2025. Stakeholders, including equality organisations, will be consulted to help identify priority datasets in Spring 2022.

The Scottish Government is not undertaking any specific research on turning waste into fertiliser. The Scottish Government does not centrally collate research on individual topics.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2013 place take-back obligations on retailers and other distributors who sell electrical and electronic equipment. Obligated retailers or distributors must either; i) join the Distributor Take-back Scheme; ii) offer in-store take-back or iii) provide an alternative free take-back service that is available and accessible to customers. WEEE deposited at such facilities, or at household recycling centres, must be managed in accordance with waste management legislation and local planning requirements. These designated collection facilities track the amount of WEEE going for onward treatment, recycling, reuse and disposal.

SEPA regulates waste management activities in Scotland through Waste Management Licences (WMLs) and Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) permits. Operators are required to report waste data to SEPA on a quarterly or annual basis as specified in their licence, permit or exemption. Once these statutory waste data are collected and quality assured, they are used to check compliance with the licence or permit, and to fulfil statutory and non-statutory reporting obligations.

The Scottish Government does not collect or hold this data. Individual social landlords may hold this information for their own housing stock.

Further to the Level 3 data provided throughout the Budget document, Level 4 data can be accessed via the spreadsheet titled ‘Scottish Budget: 2022-23 - Level 4 Data’, available here: Scottish Budget 2022 to 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . A breakdown and description of what the £49.1 million for the Climate Action and Just Transition Fund is allocated toward can be found in the NZ, E & T tab on Row 90.

The Scottish Government continues to monitor the Nationality and Borders Bill and has not yet concluded legislative consent consideration, following amendments made to the Bill in December.

If we conclude that any provisions in the Bill are on matters within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament, or change the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament or executive competence of the Scottish Ministers, I will seek to lodge a legislative consent memorandum and will set out the relevant provisions for the consideration of the Scottish Parliament.

The objectives of the ten-year £500m Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray are to support and accelerate energy transition, create good, green jobs and maximise the region’s future economic potential. This reflects our determination to tackle the climate emergency and mitigate the impacts of that transition for communities across Scotland. We are therefore working at pace to deliver our sectoral, regional and site plans for a just transition.

As this is a new Fund, we are currently undertaking detailed policy design work and implementation planning ahead of the new financial year. The delivery of the Fund will be supported by a programme of engagement with partners, communities and other stakeholders across the North East and Moray and be underpinned by the principle of co-design. Further updates will be shared as this engagement develops.

The latest published Official Statistics on the number of incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the Police in Scotland are for the year to 31 March 2021. In the period from 1 January to 31 March 2021, where the victim’s gender was recorded, 80% (9,034) of domestic abuse incidents involved a female victim and a male accused; 17% (1,867) of domestic abuse incidents involved a male victim and a female accused.

Figures showing police recorded domestic abuse incidents are also published in the monthly data reports on how the pandemic has affected the Justice system in Scotland. In the period from 1 April to 30 June 2021 the police recorded 15,749 incidents of domestic abuse. This data is based on management information provided each month by Police Scotland, however we do not at this stage hold any further details on those involved. As standard practice, a gender breakdown will be available when the 2021-22 annual Official Statistics are published later this year.

Spend obtained from the Scottish Procurement Information Hub under the Business Subsector Category of Furniture by each department has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 63098) as a table.

It is not possible to determine from the information contained within the Scottish Procurement Information Hub whether the payment was for “new furniture”.