- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 13 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what the response has been from the aggregates and construction sector to the length of time allotted to the consultation on developing a Scottish tax to replace the UK Aggregates Levy.
Answer
The public consultation on developing a Scottish tax to replace the UK Aggregates Levy opened on 26 September 2022 and closed on 5 December 2022. Over this 10 week period a total of 25 responses were received which are now being analysed, and a formal consultation analysis will be published in due course. Further stakeholder engagement, including with industry representative bodies and producers will also take place.
Industry representative organisations proposed that the consultation period be significantly extended and a working group established. Officials have met with representatives of these organisations in order to discuss their concerns, and I am carefully considering the position.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 12 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commit to establishing a register of quarries.
Answer
The Scottish Government will give full consideration to the case for establishing a register of quarries as part of the work underway to develop plans for a devolved replacement for the UK Aggregates Levy.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 11 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the funding awarded over the last year from the Social Enterprise Net Zero Transition Fund, including the environmental outcomes achieved to date from each project.
Answer
A table providing a summary of awards made from the Net Zero Transition Fund (NZTF) and their objectives has been lodged with SPICE, BIB no. 63871.
It is too early to outline the carbon savings/environmental impact just now, but we will be asking for this data in due course. The fund remains open and there are a number of active applications under consideration with further expressions of interest from Social Enterprises which are being supported by Social Investment Scotland (SIS) to finalise their plans.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many road accidents, where a defective/poor road surface was recorded as a contributory factor, there have been in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
In response to your query, my officials have provided the data below as requested.
The following table shows the number of accidents where a defective or poor road surface was a contributory factor.
Council | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
Aberdeen City | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Aberdeenshire | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Angus | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
Argyll & Bute | 5 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
Clackmannanshire | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Dumfries & Galloway | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
Dundee City | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
East Ayrshire | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
East Dunbartonshire | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
East Lothian | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
East Renfrewshire | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Edinburgh, City of | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
Falkirk | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Fife | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
Glasgow City | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
Highland | 7 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
Midlothian | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Moray | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
North Ayrshire | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
North Lanarkshire | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Perth & Kinross | 0 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Renfrewshire | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Scottish Borders | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
Shetland Islands | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
South Ayrshire | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
South Lanarkshire | 4 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 |
Stirling | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
West Dunbartonshire | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
West Lothian | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
Total | 49 | 50 | 38 | 23 | 34 |
The data in the table above is collected as part of the wider collation of data on road casualties, which informs our road safety publications. Statistical data on road casualties are reported annually by Transport Scotland in two publications, Key Reported Road Casualties in the Spring of each year, and Reported Road Casualties Scotland, in the Autumn of each year. Provisional figures for 2022 are not available yet.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of forecast reports conducted by Zero Waste Scotland showing any (a) potential savings and (b) net losses resulting from the forthcoming Deposit Return Scheme in each local authority area.
Answer
Modelling by Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) projects that 29 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities will incur a net financial benefit from the implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). Local authorities are also expected to benefit from a reduction in the impact of litter, and from efficiencies to collection services following the implementation of DRS.
ZWS it is engaging with individual local authorities, in particular the three currently projected not to make savings, to assess the impacts of DRS on them and look at options for service improvements.
These calculations are based on commercially sensitive data provided in confidence to ZWS by local authorities. We will therefore not publicly identify the three local authorities that stand to incur a net cost.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether there is a need for future monitoring and evaluation of the Deposit Return Scheme and, if so, whether (a) it or (b) Circularity Scotland will fund it.
Answer
The Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) Regulations require the Scottish Government to carry out a review of DRS before 1 October 2026.
The Scottish Government has commissioned external consumer research to provide a baseline and follow ups on recycling and awareness and uptake of DRS and any related barriers. This research is being undertaken by an experienced team from Union Advertising. The Scottish Government is also undertaking work with Zero Waste Scotland and Keep Scotland Beautiful to collate data through the Litter Management System survey on the impacts of DRS on on-the-ground litter.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of how projects funded through the Recycling Improvement Fund have delivered (a) increased frequency of recycling collections, (b) extended food and garden waste collections, (c) increased recycling capacity for problematic materials and (d) increased local authority compliance with the Household Recycling Charter.
Answer
Proposed impacts of individual projects are captured at both assessment stage and subsequent monitoring stages of each project.
The Recycling Improvement Fund has funded the following projects under these headings:
(a) increased frequency of recycling collections
Council | Summary of impact on (a) | Total project grant (£m) |
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar | Expansion of collection services to rural areas. | £0.8m |
East Lothian | Charter aligned single weekly pass service for source separated kerbside recycling and food waste. | £2.7m |
Perth & Kinross | Expansion of recycling service. | £2.6m |
(b) extended food and garden waste collections
Council | Summary of impact on (b) | Total project grant (£m) |
Aberdeenshire | Service change to align with Charter and increased food waste collection. | £3.4m |
East Lothian | Charter aligned single weekly pass service for source separated kerbside recycling and food waste. | £2.7m |
Highland | Introduction of an additional, chargeable garden waste service. | £0.2m |
Midlothian | Expansion of food waste recycling service to a further 1,800 rural properties. | £0.1m |
(c) increased recycling capacity for problematic materials
Council | Summary of impact on (c) | Total project grant (£m) |
Fife | TOMRA plastic film sorting equipment, allowing collection of film from all households in Fife. | £0.4m |
North Ayrshire | Mattress cleaner to allow mattress reuse/recycling. | £0.07m |
(d) increased local authority compliance with the Household Recycling Charter.
Council | Summary of impact on (d) | Total project grant (£m) |
Aberdeenshire | Service change to align with Charter and increased food waste collection. | £3.4m |
East Lothian | Charter aligned single weekly pass service for source separated kerbside recycling and food waste. | £2.7m |
West Lothian | Introduction of a kerbside service change to move to twin stream recycling to comply with the Code of Practice. | £4.04m |
South Ayrshire | On-the-go recycling in local community parks, that align with charter. | £0.09m |
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how it is engaging with the digital deposit return trial being run by Ocado, and whether it has requested that Zero Waste Scotland reviews the results.
Answer
The Scottish Government has not engaged with Ocado regarding its digital deposit return trial.
We would anticipate that industry will make extensive use of digital technology in delivering our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), for example by developing an IT system to track payments made and received, adopting state-of-the-art reverse vending technology to prevent fraud, and using digital media to communicate with the public regarding DRS.
We are aware of the so-called ‘digital DRS’ as a proposed approach to delivering deposit return whereby consumers redeem deposits on scheme articles by scanning them with a smartphone before placing them in their kerbside recycling. We considered this approach during the policy-development process for DRS and the strong feedback from both industry and environmental NGOs was that the technology is not sufficiently mature for implementation on the timetable for our DRS.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many retailers are currently using Deposit Return Scheme return points on a voluntary basis.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not keep a record of the number of retailers currently operating return points on a voluntary basis.
We understand that a number of businesses are trialling or have already trialled the use of reverse vending machines in their premises in Scotland and welcome their commitment to ensuring their readiness for the launch of the UK’s first Deposit Return Scheme on 16 August 2023.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 20 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on what the (a) claimant count and (b) unemployment rate in Dundee has been in each of the last five years, broken down by ward area.
Answer
The claimant count rate for Dundee City local authority and 2021 electoral wards within Dundee City are shown in table 1 for November 2018 to November 2022.
The model based unemployment rate for Dundee City local authority are shown in table 2 for years Jul 2017-Jun 2018 to Jul 2021-Jun 2022. Model based estimates of unemployment are the official source for unemployment rates by local authority. Unemployment rates by electoral ward are not available from this source.
Table 1: Claimants as a proportion of residents aged 16-64 years
Area | November 2018 | November 2019 | November 2020 | November 2021 | November 2022 |
ladu:Dundee City | 4.2 | 4.6 | 7.1 | 5.1 | 4.1 |
ward2021:S13002548 : Coldside | 6.1 | 6.9 | 10.4 | 7.5 | 5.7 |
ward2021:S13002551 : East End | 5.8 | 6.9 | 10.2 | 7.5 | 6.0 |
ward2021:S13002546 : Lochee | 6.5 | 6.9 | 9.2 | 7.1 | 6.1 |
ward2021:S13002549 : Maryfield | 4.5 | 4.4 | 6.8 | 4.9 | 4.4 |
ward2021:S13002830 : North East | 4.1 | 4.6 | 7.4 | 4.9 | 4.0 |
ward2021:S13002545 : Strathmartine | 4.1 | 4.4 | 7.3 | 4.9 | 3.8 |
ward2021:S13002552 : The Ferry | 1.1 | 1.1 | 2.8 | 1.4 | 1.3 |
ward2021:S13002547 : West End | 2.3 | 2.4 | 4.1 | 3.0 | 2.4 |
Source: Nomis - Official Census and Labour Market Statistics (nomisweb.co.uk)
Claimant count by sex and age
Claimants as a proportion of residents aged 16-64 years
Rates for local authorities from 2020 onwards are calculated using the mid-2020 resident population aged 16-64.
Under Universal Credit a broader span of claimants are required to look for work than under Jobseeker's Allowance. As Universal Credit Full Service is rolled out in particular areas, the number of people recorded as being on the Claimant Count is therefore likely to rise.
Table 2: Model based estimates of unemployment Dundee City local authority