Chamber and committees

There were five people convicted under section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (where main crime) in Scottish courts in 2021-22.

The information that has been requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

There were no convictions under regulation 67 of the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2012 (where main crime) in 2021-22.

There were no convictions under section 40(1) of the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (where main crime) in 2021-22.

The external costs associated with the production and publication of the Building a New Scotland paper, ‘An independent Scotland in the EU’, are set out in the following table:

During 2019 and 2021 the Scottish Crime Recording Board consulted users on Recorded Crime National Statistics. This included gathering their views on suggested changes to how crimes and offences were grouped within the statistics, and in the way findings are presented within the bulletin. The Recorded crime and police activity statistics consultation: summary of responses was published in March 2022.

As a result of this consultation, the previously named Miscellaneous offences group was split into two groups – Antisocial offences and Miscellaneous offences. The splitting of this group allowed for more detail at the crime category level, including the introduction of an Environmental offences crime category. Since June 2022, recorded crime statistics have been published at both crime group and crime category level, on a quarterly basis.

The Scottish Government do not have any current plans to consult further on the way we present this data, however we would be happy to provide more detailed data on specific crime or offence categories on request.

Environmental Waste Crime is a priority for the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce (SOCT), which has established an Environmental Waste Crime Working Group to take forward appropriate activity to disrupt the impact of organised crime groups in this sector and reduce the harm they cause to communities. Membership of the Working Group includes SEPA, COPFS, HMRC, NCA, Office of the Traffic Commissioner, Police Scotland and Resource Management Association Scotland.

The SOCT has recently published its Progress Report. The report offers case studies on some of the activity including environmental waste crime, undertaken by the SOCT and partners since March 2020.

Serious Organised Crime Taskforce Progress Report 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Developing a net zero or decarbonisation plan can help businesses to understand how they can change their practices to reduce their carbon emissions and the benefits they can gain from doing so. The Enterprise Agencies provide a range of support to help businesses develop net zero plans and to transition to net zero. Since 1 November 2022, Scottish Enterprise grant funding has been provided on the condition that the recipient business either has a net zero action plan in place, or commits to developing one within twelve months of accepting the grant. Scottish Enterprise retains a record of those organisations which have a net zero plan in place.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS published its Annual Procurement Report on the SPS Website on 2 October 2023. (Link: http://www.sps.gov.uk/Corporate/Publications/Publication-9204.aspx ).

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

In compliance with the deadline set out in Section 22 of the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act, SPS will publish their annual report and accounts for 2022-23 in December 2023.