Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-19046

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 26 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it (a) has met and (b) plans to meet with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service regarding its consultation on a National Litter and Flytipping Strategy.

During the consultation process for the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy, the Scottish Government engaged a wide range of organisations and has been carefully considering consultation responses, of which there were 978. The majority of proposals received a high level of support, one of which is to conduct an evidence review of barriers to enforcement of litter and flytipping offences. The Scottish Government has commenced this research and has ensured that the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is engaged in this research project. The research findings will be published later this year.

Question reference: S6W-19045

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 26 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it (a) has met and (b) plans to meet with Police Scotland regarding its consultation on a National Litter and Flytipping Strategy.

During the consultation process for the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy, the Scottish Government convened the inaugural meeting of the Flytipping Forum, of which Police Scotland is a member and the purpose of which is to support co-ordinated action to tackle flytipping.

The National Litter and Flytipping Strategy has been co-designed in partnership with Zero Waste Scotland, Keep Scotland Beautiful and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. Furthermore, during the development of the Strategy, the Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime, chaired by Police Scotland, has been regularly engaged on the strategy’s progress and provided the opportunity to feedback on consultation proposals.

The Strategy will soon be published, following on from which the Flytipping Forum will be convened to discuss the strategy’s content and priority actions.

Question reference: S6W-19044

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 26 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government which organisations the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Just Transition has met with regarding its consultation on a National Litter and Flytipping Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-19047

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 26 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much money was raised from fixed penalty notices for littering and fly tipping between 2014 and 2022.

Question reference: S6W-19043

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 26 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government which organisations the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity has met with regarding its consultation on a National Litter and Flytipping Strategy.

During the consultation process for the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy, I attended the inaugural meeting of the Flytipping Forum, the purpose of which is to enable ongoing engagement between policy makers and stakeholders to support co-ordinated action to tackle flytipping. Membership of the Forum includes Scottish Land and Estates, National Farmers Union Scotland, Woodland Trust Scotland, Keep Scotland Beautiful and Police Scotland as well as local authority representation through a combination of CoSLA, SOLACE and further relevant networks.

I have been carefully considering responses to the consultation, and continue to engage on litter and flytipping issues as part of my engagement with local authorities, third sector organisations, community groups, and industry bodies. The Strategy will soon be published , following on from which the Flytipping Forum will be reconvened to discuss its implementation.

Question reference: S6W-19042

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 26 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding is allocated to preventing fly tipping and littering for the financial year 2022-23.

The Scottish Government is taking forward a range of measures that contribute to tackling litter and flytipping as part of our wider efforts to tackle Scotland’s throwaway culture. In 2022-23 this included ongoing investment in local authority recycling infrastructure and banning some of the most problematic single-use plastic products.

Within this wider context, the Scottish Government allocated approximately £265,000 to prevent fly tipping and littering for the financial year 2022-23. This includes:

	£k
National Litter and Fly tipping Strategy consultation analysis and publication	51
On-going litter and flytipping prevention work, funded via Zero Waste Scotland core grant	131
Staff costs	83
TOTAL	265

Question reference: S6T-01459

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding any implications for its Deposit Return Scheme, when it and its agencies were informed of Circularity Scotland's financial position, including the company's reported need to send staff home.

Question reference: S6W-18535

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address the growing needs for dentistry and GP services in Lothian, in light of data showing that, for example, the population of East Lothian has increased by 21.5% compared to Scotland’s average of 8.2% between 2001 and 2021.

Health and Social Care Partnerships are responsible for planning for the health and social care needs of their residents.

Funding for general medical services is based on population level data about registered patients and practice shares are continuously adjusted to reflect the movement of patients.

Scottish Government continually reviews in conjunction with all Boards, including NHS Lothian, areas for inclusion within the Scottish Dental Access Initiative. This provides funding to dentists who wish to establish a new practice, or extend an existing practice in areas where access to dental services is challenging.

Scottish Government will continue to liaise with NHS Lothian and local Health and Social Care Partnerships to understand all their service-related infrastructure plans and priorities.

Question reference: S6W-18458

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 16 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what projections it has made on recycling rates for (a) glass and (b) plastic following the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme.

Question reference: S6W-18539

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-17872 by Lorna Slater on 25 May 2023, what the remit is of the Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group in relation to the Deposit Return Scheme.

The Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group was established as part of the refreshed system wide governance for the Deposit Return Scheme in Scotland (DRS) for the implementation stage of the programme. The function of this group is:

To provide collective strategic assurance of successful DRS implementation.
To hold all stakeholders mutually accountable for requisite actions.
To build consensus on issues where there is conflict in stakeholders’ positions.

? To drive down the number of outstanding operational issues.

? To manage resolution issues escalated to the Group.