Chamber and committees

Speed restrictions on the Scottish rail network are imposed by Network Rail, as the owners of the rail infrastructure.

ScotRail advised that for week beginning 18 July 2022 there were approximately 11 services with a 20 mph speed restriction and 4 of these were likely to be as a result of rainfall rather than heat. The majority of services (approximately 26) had either a 30 or 60 mph speed restriction imposed for similar period.

Network Rail and ScotRail Trains hold weather plans in the event of extreme weather and these are activated when required.

We continue to carefully consider the report and recommendations made by the previous Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee as regards regional marine planning and are working to finalise our formal response, which will be published this Autumn.

Information on the total cost of operating waste incinerators in Scotland in each year since 2007-08 is not held centrally. Most waste incineration facilities in Scotland are privately operated and the Scottish Government does not routinely collect or hold data on the operational costs of these facilities.

Safety and security on our railways is reserved to UK Government and as such the British Transport Police (BTP) is responsible for the enforcement of the law on Scotland’s rail network. BTP can only investigate matters that are reported to them and not every incident reported to and recorded by ScotRail as the employer will be reported to BTP.

Therefore, ScotRail advised the following for how many assaults on ScotRail staff were reported since 2017, noting that 2017 is the last year that ScotRail holds data for:-

The Scottish Government is supporting communities who are impacted by water scarcity with an emergency scheme which is providing free bottled water. It is also funding a non means tested grant of up to £800 per household to fund improvements. Households whose Private Water Supply has run dry or who wish to secure grant for improvements should contact their Local Authorities to request assistance.

The Scottish Government is also undertaking five pilot projects to understand the complexities involved in the extension of existing water networks to allow households affected by water scarcity to connect. Results from these pilots are expected in the next few weeks and will inform future investment decisions

Many refugees resettled in Scotland have skills and experience developed through their trade or occupation in their home country, including in the construction industry, and may want to resume their profession here.

In Scotland, everyone working on a building site must first pass a health and safety test and be certified through the UK wide Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS).

The Building Skills for Construction Certification Project has developed supporting ESOL materials, to help ESOL learners to prepare for the computer CSCS test. Pilot courses are being delivered to test the resources. The project started on 1 September 2021 and will run until 30 November 2022. Pilot courses are running in Fife, Clackmannanshire and Dundee, as well as a national online pilot for candidates across Scotland to enable those who cannot access such training in person to benefit, particularly those in remote and rural communities where a pilot course would not be viable due to numbers.

There are seven Arabic speakers enrolled in this course across Dundee, Fife and Clackmannanshire. Throughout the rest of Scotland there are an additional thirteen learners on these courses, eleven of whom are Arabic speakers.

The CSCS ESOL course resources will be a lasting legacy of the project. At the end of the project, these resources will be freely available for any learning provider or training organisation to use, allowing courses to be run across Scotland to prepare refugees for work in the construction industry. There will also be a webinar at the end of the project which will cover how these resources should be used in practice.

This project has been funded through the New Scots Refugee Integration Delivery Project which is part funded through the EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

The Scottish Carbon Metric measures the whole-life carbon impacts of Scotland’s waste, and is a vital tool in our work to address the climate emergency. The most recent data shows that in 2018 the carbon impacts of Scotland’s waste fell to the lowest on record, 30% below 2011 baseline levels.

Most recently, the metric has provided key evidence to inform the development of proposals set out in our Waste and Circular Economy Route Map consultation. The Carbon Metric, and the newly developed Scottish Waste Environmental Footprint Tool (SWEFT), will continue to play a key role to help ensure that the Scottish waste and resources sector plays its full role in tackling the global climate emergency.

The Carbon Metric reports also contribute to the evidence base for Outcome 1 (Responsible Consumption) from Zero Waste Scotland's Corporate Plan, highlighting the environmental impact of over-consumption, and allowing their activities to be targeted for maximum impact. Additionally, insights from the most recent Carbon Metric report contributed to the evidence base for developing existing Scottish Government and Zero Waste Scotland activities, such as supporting the Circular Textiles Fund.

Over £23 million has been awarded to 15 local authorities, to date, through the Recycling Improvement Fund. This marks one of the biggest investments in recycling in a generation.

These initial investments have the potential to reduce CO2e emissions by 29,746 tonnes each year.

Carbon savings information for unsuccessful projects is not available, primarily due to insufficient evidence available to produce estimates.

Where a local authority has been unsuccessful in gaining funding, they receive feedback from Zero Waste Scotland. Zero Waste Scotland also offer support to explore funding opportunities and support the development of proposals.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00689 on 2 July 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at Written questions and answers | Scottish Parliament Website .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00689 on 2 July 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at Written questions and answers | Scottish Parliament Website .