Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-24877

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has carried out to evaluate current practice around the reinstatement of trees removed during development of infrastructure since September 2017.

Between September 2017 and November 2017, the Scottish Government gathered and analysed data from infrastructure developers on the scale and cost of reinstating trees removed during development of infrastructure associated with windfarms.

The data shows that windfarm developers primarily aim to carry out their compensatory planting within the development boundary, with only around 10% of the total area felled requiring compensatory planting off-site. Off-site compensatory planting costs were found to be similar to the grants offered for woodland creation.

Question reference: S5W-24865

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has invested (a) through forestry grants and (b) in the National Forest Estate since September 2016.

(a) The published accounts for Forestry Commission Scotland show that the Scottish Government invested the following sums in support for forestry through forestry grants:

Period	FY 16-17	FY 17-18	FY 18-19
Grant Investments	£30.9m	£38.2m	£51.1m

(b) The Scottish Government has invested the following in Scotland’s national forests and land:

Period	FY 16-17	FY 17-18	FY 18-19
Trading Investment	£123.5m	£130.8m	£155.2m
Annual Subsidy Limit	£21.7m	£20.7m	£14.7m
Total Investment	£145.2m	£151.5m	£169.9m

Question reference: S5W-24874

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 19 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been paid out by the Digital Growth Fund in (a) 2018 and (b) 2019.

Question reference: S5O-03586

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of including glass in its deposit return scheme on Scotland's glass manufacturers and recycling sector.

Question reference: S5W-25225

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what measures the Scottish Government will consider adopting to increase accessibility of glass recycling, in light of 43% of Scottish households having no access to kerbside recycling for glass.

Our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers will include glass bottles, which constitute the largest proportion of glass packaging on the market. The system will be designed to ensure people will be able to return items with the same ease as they bought them, making glass recycling more accessible than it is currently and allowing us to increase glass recycling significantly.

Glass containers not captured through DRS will continue to be collected by local authorities through local recycling services. We intend to host a recycling summit this year to bring together senior leaders across the public and private sectors to identify opportunities to accelerate the pace of progress towards our ambitious recycling targets and ensure a more consistent, efficient and easier to understand approach to recycling.

Question reference: S5W-25224

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact would be of excluding glass from the deposit return system in Scotland, in the event that an "all-in" deposit return scheme is introduced in England, which was given backing by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 16 July 2019.

We want to introduce a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) that is as ambitious as possible to provide maximum environmental and economic benefit for Scotland. Our modelling indicates that there is a clear benefit to including glass. This is primarily from significant increases in recycling, which uses less energy and therefore generates less carbon than producing glass from virgin materials. Furthermore, glass is a dangerous and costly component of litter, particularly when broken, therefore the reduction in glass being littered will offer benefits to local environmental quality.

Question reference: S5W-24859

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 17 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has made available to local authorities to carry out SEEP (Scotland's Energy Efficiency Programme) pilots since September 2016.

Since 2016 the Scottish Government, through Scotland's Energy Efficiency Programme, has made available the following:

SEEP Phase 1 (2016-17 – 2017-18) - £9,100,000 was made available
SEEP Phase 2 (2017-18 – 2018-19) - £11,000,000 was made available
Transition Phase (2018-19 – 2019-20) - £5,500,000 was made available
Decarbonisation Fund (2018-19 – 2019-20) - £3,500,000 was made available

This year the Scottish Government has made available a further £3.5 million on this year’s Decarbonisation Fund Phase 2. The deadline for applications to this was the 23rd of August 2019. Funding awards will be made in due course.

Funding which has been awarded to projects from September 2016 till August 2019 totals £17,264,263.29.

Question reference: S5W-24879

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 17 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many hectares of new woodland have been created through the New Woodland Investment Programme since September 2017.

Question reference: S5W-24873

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 17 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made since September 2017 accelerating the deployment of connectivity infrastructure, including through delivering new rental guidance for mobile infrastructure on public buildings.

Independent broadband analysis site, thinkbroadband.com, states that fibre broadband coverage across Scotland has increased from 95% to 97.6% since September 2017, with superfast coverage of 30 Megabits per second and above increasing from 90.9% to 93.8% across the same timeframe. This is, in large part, thanks to the £400 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) roll-out, which has supported over 936,000 premises to date. Our £600 million investment in the procurement phase of our Reaching 100% (R100) programme, which is being 96.5% funded by Scottish Government, will drive extension of superfast broadband access to all non-domestic and domestic premises in Scotland.

We are creating an investment climate in Scotland that supports and accelerates commercial deployment of digital infrastructure. We are offering 10 years non-domestic rates relief on new fibre, in comparison with 5 years relief in England, and are continuing to develop rental Guidance to make it easier for telecommunications operators to access public sector land and buildings.

Question reference: S5W-24869

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 17 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has invested through the Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund since September 2014.

Between 2013 and 2016 the Scottish Government invested almost £11 million through the Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund to support the development of wave and tidal energy projects in Scotland.

The Scottish Government continues to support the research, development, innovation and demonstration which will maintain Scotland’s global lead in marine energy. Since 2014 we have invested almost £40 million in our Wave Energy Scotland (WES) programme, which has funded 86 contracts and engaged with 200 separate organisation across 13 different countries, and which will see the deployment of two Scottish wave energy prototypes for testing in real sea conditions in Orkney in the summer of 2020. In February 2019 we launched the £10 million Saltire Tidal Energy Challenge Fund to build on Scotland’s world leading tidal energy projects and accelerate the commercial deployment of tidal technology.

Chamber and committees