- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 2 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to encouraging local authorities to issue public bonds to attract investment for net zero projects.
Answer
Local authorities are independent democratically elected bodies with their own powers and responsibilities. As long as they act lawfully, it is up to each local authority how it manages its day-to-day business and decision making processes. Ultimately, it is for locally elected representatives to make local decisions on how best to deliver services to and outcomes for their local communities, including decisions on borrowing to attract investment for net zero projects. Any borrowing by local authorities, whether it’s through the public works loans board or through the issuance of bonds, is for local authorities to determine affordability themselves, subject to the conditions of their prudential borrowing regime.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 2 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the recycling rate of waste electrical and electronic equipment.
Answer
The Scottish Government is working with the other UK administrations on reforms to the producer responsibility system for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) to make it easier for consumers to recycle WEEE and incentivise producers to make more sustainable design choices. We will consult on these reforms in due course.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 2 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether weight is the most appropriate metric for measuring quantities of waste, and, if this is not the case, whether (a) climate change coefficient, (b) environmental impact, (c) scarcity, (d) recyclability and (e) social benefit is being considered as an alternative metric.
Answer
As set out in our 2022 Waste and Circular Economy Route Map consultation, we intend to set new circular economy targets for the period to 2030, which go beyond weight-based criteria.
We must ensure that any future targets correspond to our Environment Strategy and overall vision for a circular economy, alongside the four underpinning principles we set out in the consultation. These key principles included focus on achieving net zero by 2045 and the delivery of a sustainable international material footprint.
Our final Route Map is due for publication later in 2023.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 2 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to inform individuals and businesses how to identify textiles fit for reuse, before recycling.
Answer
Zero Waste Scotland seeks to raise awareness of the benefits of responsible consumption by promoting the benefits of reuse. This is regularly done through communications campaigns promoting the Revolve programme, actions such as Pass It On Week and European Week for Waste Reduction, and encouraging individuals to reuse items and choose second-hand. Its recent carbon metric publication highlighted the impact of textiles waste.
Zero Waste Scotland is working to support businesses in understanding the benefits of circular business models which support the waste hierarchy, including hosting an upcoming textiles specific webinar.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 4 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how it is improving data gathering in relation to health outcomes.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 4 May 2023
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 25 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has carried out of the impact of any stretched local authority budgets on the ability to deliver waste collection and recycling services.
Answer
The Scottish Government has not carried out analysis on any association between local authority budgets and delivering waste collection and recycling services.
The Scottish Government has provided an additional £793 million to local government in 2023-24, which is a real terms increase of £376 million or 3 per cent. However, it is for locally elected representatives to manage the allocation of resources and the level of services that are delivered to their local communities, taking account of local needs and priorities.
Scottish Government continues to engage and support local authorities with waste and recycling operations. This includes our £70 million Recycling Improvement Fund, to support local authorities in improving recycling infrastructure and deliver modernised services.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 25 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the 2019 Full Business Case for the Deposit Return Scheme needs to be updated in light of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, recent inflationary pressures and increased energy prices, and, if it considers that it does need updating, when that update will be carried out.
Answer
The Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment and Strategic Environmental Addendum for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme were updated when the amending Regulations were introduced in December 2021. Any further changes to the Deposit Return Scheme Regulations will have the appropriate impact assessment work carried out during the drafting process in the same way.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 25 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what funding it has provided to (a) businesses within the reuse and remanufacturing sector and (b) any other businesses or organisations, for specific projects to improve their own circularity, in order to improve circularity within Scotland, in each of the last five years.
Answer
The Low Carbon Manufacturing Challenge Fund (LCMCF) is a new Fund operated by Scottish Enterprise providing capital investment of £26m over five years.
At 17 April, £150,000 has been provided to one project supporting a business which helps to improve its own circularity via the re-use of energy.
We also support Zero Waste Scotland who provide a range of support and advice for businesses looking to develop circular business ideas.
Details of the funding provided by Zero Waste Scotland are as follows.
| | £m 2018-19 | £m 2019-20 | £m 2020-21 | £m 2021-22 | £m 2022-23 | £m Total |
Circular Economy Investment Fund | 2.34 | 2.21 | 1.5 | 3.25 | 2.14 | 11.44 |
Circular Economy Business Support | 1.57 | 2.34 | 0.9 | 1.11 | 0.45 | 6.37 |
Green Islands | 0 | 0 | 0.23 | 0.02 | 0 | 0.25 |
Revolve | 0 | 0 | 0.08 | 0.01 | 0.07 | 0.16 |
Construction Advice and Support Service | 0 | 0.08 | 0.08 | 0 | 0 | 0.16 |
Annual Total | 3.91 | 4.63 | 2.79 | 4.39 | 2.66 | 18.38 |
ZWS estimate that approximately £2.16 million of the Circular Economy Investment Fund support detailed in the table relates to re-use and re-manufacturing.
The Circular Economy Business Support programme provided SMEs with tailored, expert, one-to-one consultancy support.
Green Islands funding supported the provision of dispensing and other equipment that enabled customers to obtain grocery products in reusable containers
The Revolve programme provided direct funding to support reuse organisations
The Construction Advice and Support Service supported Scottish construction businesses to become more sustainable and circular in their day to day working.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 24 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-31530 by Roseanna Cunningham on 14 September 2020, whether it will provide an updated table of capacity figures to 2023, with projections to 2030.
Answer
The following table shows permitted incineration capacity figures held by SEPA to 2023.
The first report of the independent review of the role of incineration in Scotland’s waste hierarchy, made assumptions about capacity beyond 2023, although in doing so, noted that it is unlikely that all facilities in the pipeline (i.e. those not build and at various stages of planning and permitting) will be built. The first report from the independent review is available here: Stop, Sort, Burn, Bury (www.gov.scot)
Year | Total operational waste incineration operational capacity (million tonnes) | Operational biomass incineration capacity (million tonnes) | Operational municipal waste incineration capacity (million tonnes) | Permitted municipal waste incineration capacity (million tonnes) |
2007 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
2008 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
2009 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
2010 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
2011 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 0.5 |
2012 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 0.2 | 0.5 |
2013 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 0.2 | 0.5 |
2014 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 0.2 | 0.6 |
2015 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 0.2 | 0.5 |
2016 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 0.2 | 0.7 |
2017 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 0.2 | 0.7 |
2018 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 0.2 | 0.9 |
2019 | 2.4 | 1.4 | 1 | 1.3 |
2020 | 2.4 | 1.4 | 1 | 1.5 |
2021 | 2.5 | 1.4 | 1.1 | 2.1 |
2022 | 2.5 | 1.4 | 1.1 | 2.2 |
2023 | 2.9 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 2.2 |
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 24 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-15780 by Lorna Slater on 22 March 2023, what its position is on conclusion 7 of the report, Stop, Sort, Burn, Bury? Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy in Scotland, that “Scotland should not construct more capacity than it needs and only some of the currently planned capacity should be built”, and, if it accepts this conclusion, what its position is on whether ascertaining which of those planned developments should be built can only be determined based on the forthcoming capacity cap, which may indicate a lower capacity than is currently in development.
Answer
The first report of the independent review of incineration conducted a capacity analysis. It recommended that the Scottish Government ensure no further planning permission (i.e. beyond that already in place) is granted to incineration infrastructure within the scope of the Review, unless balanced by an equal or greater closure of capacity, subject to certain limited exceptions. Our response to the Review set out our intentions to set out in National Planning Policy that the Scottish Government does not support the development of further municipal waste incineration capacity in Scotland, with very limited exceptions. Following the adoption and publication of National Planning Framework 4 on 13 February 2023 that action is now complete.
To support future planning decisions, we accepted the review’s separate recommendation to develop an indicative capacity cap. However, it is important that any indicative cap is as robust as possible and developing such a cap will be a significant piece of work.
Where relevant consents and permissions have already been granted, the review noted that it is ‘unlikely that all facilities in the pipeline will be built, especially those that have not yet secured full financial backing’. The Review did suggest some principles, based on stakeholder feedback, that might be applied to determine which of the pipeline facilities would be best to build and which might be deprioritised, in light of the potential overcapacity predicted. These included:
- Proper appreciation of resource and waste management as a complex and interdependent system.
- Application of the proximity principle (that waste should generally be managed as near as possible to its place of production) at a sub-national level.
- Consideration of access to low-carbon transport, especially where longer distances are involved.
- Opportunities for synergy with other activities. For incineration, this should prioritise access to heat offtake and, in due course, carbon dioxide offtake options.
- Local environmental and social impacts.
- Wider environmental impacts, such as the carbon and other benefits from recycling to avoid virgin raw material production.
We would encourage those involved in the development of these facilities to take into account capacity and the principles set out by the independent review of incineration.
