Chamber and committees

The investments made to date from the Recycling Improvement Fund have the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by 32,104 tonnes each year.

With support from Zero Waste Scotland, local authorities submit estimated greenhouse gas emission reduction figures, where available, for each project as part of the Fund’s assessment process. These figures are regularly reviewed during project implementation as part of the Fund’s monitoring processes, and as a result there may be variation in these figures as individual projects progress.

The recent public consultation and discussions with stakeholders sought views on a range of issues, including the tax treatment of cross-border movements of aggregate, imports and exports, rates, reliefs and exemptions.

The Scottish Government is carefully considering the consultation responses, and what further evidence and input may be required on all issues relating to the Levy. This will include further stakeholder engagement, including with industry representative bodies and producers.

The Scottish Government will take the current arrangements for the UK Aggregates Levy, and the recent review of these, fully into account when making decisions on the proposed arrangements for a future devolved tax. We will also consider the research we commissioned to review, model and analyse illustrative options for a Scottish levy, including potential cross-border effects. The final report from the research, which was conducted by Eunomia, was published in August 2020.

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.

As of 31 December 2021, all homes and business in Scotland had the ability to access a superfast broadband connection either through the R100 contracts, the demand-led R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) or commercial coverage. Our interim voucher meant that anyone whose property was in an R100 contract build plan beyond the end of 2021 had the ability to access a temporary superfast solution. We extended the availability of the interim voucher until 31 March 2022 to ensure that anyone who wanted to, could access a superfast connection through this scheme.

As of 1 December 2022, the R100 contracts had built connections to over 15,000 properties across Scotland with a further 3,800 connected as a result of contractual overspill. Over 2,700 connections had also been delivered through the R100 SBVS. This is, of course, in addition to those premises which are already connected commercially or via our legacy programme, DSSB.

No Ministerial meetings took place with the Mineral Products Association (Scotland) or representatives of the Scottish aggregates sector in 2022.

However, my Officials have had ongoing engagement with several aggregates sector associations and representatives during 2022. I look forward to building on this and engaging with the sector.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.