Chamber and committees

The following table provides a breakdown of the projected tonnage and funding allocated to Recycling Improvement Fund projects for which tonnage increase is a direct impact. It should be noted that this list does not include all funded projects as recycling tonnage increase is not a direct impact for some projects, such as investments in vehicle technology to help local authorities to identify the most efficient collection routes and to capture data to improve service management and communication with residents.

Each year the Scottish Government provides the Scottish Environment Protection Agency with a grant from the Water Environment Fund (WEF) to support work to deliver our River Basin Management Plan. The projects this supports is reviewed on an annual basis to ensure funding through WEF is targeted on projects which will derive the greatest benefit to Scotland’s rivers and neighbouring communities.

Currently, alternative funding streams for projects to remove Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) in Scotland enable more effective use of resource and provide greater benefits for biodiversity. Subsequently, WEF funding is at the moment prioritising restoring rivers and improving fish migration.

For more information on funding for INNS, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23295 on 11 December 2023. 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 has worked with Zero Waste Scotland to update relevant impact assessments at each point the Regulations have been updated, most recently for the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland (Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations 2023 laid in Parliament on 30 June 2023. This updated Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment was shared with Parliament on 11 September 2023 - Scotland's Deposit Return Scheme | Scottish Parliament Website. We plan to update all DRS Impact Assessments again once Defra have confirmed the final design of their scheme

The Scottish Government microplastics monitoring programme began in the winter of 2013, and has undertaken annual surveys since that time. 479 locations have been sampled between 2013 and 2022. These sample sites are distributed throughout the 11 Scottish Marine Regions and the Offshore Marine Regions. Not all Regions were sampled in every year and the number of sampling sites visited also varied between years.

The microplastics in surface water assessment in Scotland’s Marine Assessment 2020 gives the number of sample sites visited in each year from 2013-14 to 2019-20. This can be viewed at https://marine.gov.scot/sma/assessment/microplastics-surface-water In addition, the sites sampled each year up to and including 2021-22 can be viewed in the dataset published at https://data.marine.gov.scot/dataset/dataset-sources-sinks-and-hazards-micro-plastics-scotland%E2%80%99s-seas-2013-present/resource#{query:{from:400},view-grid:{columnsWidth:[{column:!season,width:157},{column:!date_deploy,width:149}]}} Data for 2022-23, and the current sampling year of 2023-24 have not yet been published.

The Scottish Government recognizes the importance of natural flood management (NFM) measures in reducing, slowing or otherwise managing flood waters across catchments and along the coast while also delivering multiple environmental benefits. The Scottish Government provides funding to improve and restore catchment processes including hydrological processes through the Water Environment Fund, Peatland Restoration Fund, Nature Restoration Fund and Forestry Grants scheme.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information on the total number of NFM schemes currently operating across Scotland. The Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 recognises the important role of, promotes and encourages the use of NFM techniques, however, the responsibility for the development and delivery of flood protection schemes rests with individual local authorities, who are best placed to respond to local resilience needs. The Scottish Government provides funding to local authorities to facilitate this.

Effective catchment management requires all of Scotland's land owners and land managers to play their part. As such, individual landowners may decide to operate their own NFM schemes, and there is no requirement for them to notify Ministers of such activity. However, we encourage everyone operating a scheme and interested in this field to join the Scottish Government funded NFM Network Scotland which has been set up to share knowledge and best practice amongst those working with NFM projects, research or activities.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Local authorities are responsible for enforcing the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 and accordingly they undertake inspections and issue licences.

Information on the number of inspections undertaken and licences issued related to animal welfare establishments and organisations engaged in rehoming activities may be requested from individual councils.

A breakdown of lead Directorates is available in the most recent Climate Change Committee progress report on adaptation (CCC, November 2023).The Committee’s recommendations for the highest priority climate risks to be addressed in the next Scottish National Adaptation Plan are broken down by Directorate on pages 18 and 19. Furthermore, each chapter ends with lead Directorates identified against specific policy recommendations relevant to the chapter.

It is critical that Scotland’s energy system is resilient and that security of supply is maintained. We acknowledge that the location of infrastructure is an important factor in determining its contribution to the future security and resilience of our energy supply.

Our fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) signals the key priorities for ‘where’ and ‘what’ development should take place at a national level. NPF4 places climate and nature at the centre of our planning system and makes clear that development proposals should be sited and designed to adapt to current and future risks from climate change.

The Scottish Government is broadly supportive of the proposal by the Electricity Networks Commissioner, Nick Winser, for a Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP). We are continuing to engage with the UK Government to ensure that as the SSEP is developed it fully takes into account Scotland's energy ambitions and respects devolved policy.

Security of electricity supply is reserved and a responsibility of the UK Government. It is delivered by the National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) under regulation from Ofgem.

National Grid ESO and the two electricity network operators in Scotland monitor, record and address any electricity outages at the transmission and distribution level. As such, the Scottish Government does not separately monitor weather-related power outages.

However, during disruptive events affecting electricity supplies, Scottish Government officials work closely with the UK Government and network operators as necessary, to understand impacts, restoration plans and the welfare of affected customers. If required, during severe weather events and associated power outages, the Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGoRR) may convene SGoR meetings with the attendance of network operators.