Chamber and committees

As outlined in the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan a public review of progress towards the 33% target will take place during 2021, providing updated estimates of total food waste in Scotland and the commercial & industrial and household proportions. Scotland does not currently collect waste data at the granular level necessary to report annually or by supply chain sector.

The developing actions and infrastructure described in the response to question S5W-32200 on 30 October 2020, together with improvement in measurement methodologies will support an enhanced capacity for food waste and surplus measurement and reporting going forward.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

There has been some initial consultation with stakeholders regarding food waste and food surplus reporting within the recent consultation on proposals for legislation in the circular economy bill. It was put forward that there should be a power to enable Scottish Ministers to require mandatory public reporting of unwanted surplus stock and waste of certain materials by Scottish businesses. The full independent analysis of these consultation responses is available on the Scottish Government website .

We remain committed to consulting on the Scottish Government’s proposals for reducing food waste, as set out in the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan, in due course.

A breakdown of the Scottish Government marketing spend between 2015-16 and 2018-19 is available on the Scottish Government website:

• 2018-19: https://www.gov.scot/publications/marketing-spend-2018-2019/
• 2017-18: https://www.gov.scot/publications/marketing-spend-2017-2018/
• 2016-17: https://www.gov.scot/publications/marketing-spend-2016-2017/
• 2015-16: https://www.gov.scot/publications/advertising-spend-2015-2016/

The majority of funding for recycling and reuse communication initiatives is provided by Zero Waste Scotland. Table 1 contains the funding provided for national level initiatives funded through Zero Waste Scotland or Scottish Government containing communications to promote increased levels of recycling and reuse in each of the last five years.

Table 2 contains a breakdown of the capital grants allocated by Zero Waste Scotland to Local Authorities to promote increased levels of recycling and reuse between 2015-16 and 2019-20. These costs represent the combined costs of technical and communications support. Separate costs for communication initiatives are not available.

Table 1. National level campaigns to promote increased levels of recycling and reuse in each of the last five years

The Scottish Government regularly meets with representatives of the aviation industry including representatives from airports, airlines, Unions and other aviation stakeholders.

The Scottish Government has not instructed its framework suppliers of IT equipment not to deliver equipment and supplies to people working from home.

Scottish public sector organisations using these frameworks can directly engage with suppliers to discuss their specific order, build and delivery requirements. The procurement frameworks have the flexibility to accommodate requests for bespoke delivery, including home delivery.

Scottish Government officials have discussed the position regarding dog training aids with the Kennel Club through e-mail exchanges in September and October this year.

The Scottish Government has no plans to fund research into the animal welfare impacts of electronic training aids at this time.

The Scottish Government expects to publish its review of the effectiveness of the Guidance on Dog Training Aids, including an analysis of responses to its stakeholder survey, before the end of this year.

The review of the effectiveness of the Scottish Government Guidance on Dog Training Aids will consider all relevant information supplied by stakeholders, including the latest publication from the University of Lincoln researchers.

During the ongoing Covid pandemic, from March 2020 to 30 September 2020, the Scottish Government has contributed £6.5m to the demand-led Scottish Growth Scheme and this has unlocked additional public, private sector and European investment of £56.7m (£63.2m in total) in the form of debt and equity for 136 businesses. The Scottish Growth Scheme is a private sector match funding initiative which responds to private sector demand led requests for support, and is not Public Funding waiting to be allocated.