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-16243

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
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.

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.

Question reference: S6W-16120

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-15101 by Lorna Slater on 20 March 2023, whether (a) it or (b) its agencies have consulted with the Competition and Markets Authority on this matter.

The Scottish Government and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have consulted each other at various stages in the development of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme. This has included CMA providing general guidance on competition matters relevant to DRS policy. Executive agencies of the Scottish Government have not consulted CMA on DRS. I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-15101 on 20 March 2023 that decisions regarding contracts entered into by Circularity Scotland are for them as a private non-profit organisation. 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 .

Question reference: S6W-16904

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 18 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to reduce sewage in rivers, in light of reported Scottish Water data that states that sewage was discharged into Scotland’s rivers 14,000 times in 2022.

Question reference: S6T-01313

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 April 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the Deposit Return Scheme, in light of the First Minister recently stating that he was actively looking at options around the scheme and that he was "taking advice".

Question reference: S6O-02123

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 April 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it will work with local authorities to ensure access to local services, including leisure facilities, for local communities.

Question reference: S6W-15738

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 24 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether retailers will be reimbursed for any deposits paid on Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) articles that are recalled for non-DRS reasons, and, if so, how.

Where there is a product recall, we would expect current procedures to apply with the product being recovered intact to the producer who would manage the destruction as production waste or recycling.

Deposits and product costs would be reimbursed by the producer to the retailer and the producer will adjust their 'placed on market' report to Circularity Scotland Limited (CSL) by reporting the volume of product they have ‘placed on market’ via a self service portal. This allows CSL to calculate deposits and producer fees resulting in a refund of deposits and producer fees to the producer.

Question reference: S6O-02028

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will provide an update on what preparations it has made for the launch of the Deposit Return Scheme.

Question reference: S6W-15736

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 23 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the Deposit Return Scheme, how many applications for return point exemption were (a) made, (b) approved and (c) rejected since applications opened, broken down by month.

The following table shows the number of exemptions and voluntary return point applications, broken down by month, as of 16 March 2023.

	Feb-22	Mar-22	Apr-22	May-22	Jun-22	Jul-22	Aug-22	Sept-22	Oct-22	Nov-22	Dec-22	Jan-23	Feb-23	Mar-23	Totals
Proximity Applications Received	1			1	3		9		1		1		21	1	38
Granted				1		4	7				1			1	14
Rejected								1	1		1			1	4
Environmental Health Applications Received	3				1		2	1	1	4	7	16	51	168	254
Granted										1	3	2	4		11
Rejected				1	1					2	7				11
Voluntary Return Point Applications Received													1		1
Granted															0
Rejected															0

Question reference: S6W-15822

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 23 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09219 by Lorna Slater on 30 June 2022, whether it will provide an update on how many (a) exemption and (b) voluntary return point applications have been processed by Zero Waste Scotland to date.

Question reference: S6W-15735

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 23 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the Deposit Return Scheme, whether any producers that have registered after 1 March 2023 have been registered in accordance with regulations.