Questions and answers

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 ��˿�� 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: S6F-04026

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 May 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-36518

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider increasing portion sizes in free school meals, in light of reported comments from young carers that the portions are too small, particularly for children who may be missing other meals at home.

Local authorities must ensure that school meals, free or paid for, meet the nutrient standards set out in the Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2020. The nutrient standards are based on scientific evidence and dietary advice and designed to ensure that children and young people are provided with meals that contain an appropriate amount of energy and key nutrients to support their healthy growth and development. Operational decisions such as what food and drink to include on menus and what portion sizes should be provided are a matter for local authorities. The statutory Healthy Eating in Schools guidance contains practical advice on portion sizes recognising that needs are likely to be different across the school age ranges and notes that local policies should be in place to address that.

Question reference: S6W-36687

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government which incinerators, including those with accepted planning permission, are able to destroy persistent organic pollutants, in alignment with the SEPA guidance on the management of waste upholstered domestic seating.

Question reference: S6W-36688

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government which incinerators accept waste upholstered domestic seating for disposal.

Question reference: S6O-04464

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the deposit return scheme, including whether it will be appointing a deposit management organisation on schedule in April 2025.

Question reference: S6W-35341

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the cost to (a) local authorities and (b) businesses in Scotland of including incineration as part of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in 2028.

The UK ETS is jointly governed by the UK ETS Authority (‘the Authority'), comprising Scottish, UK and Welsh Governments and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland.

The Authority is currently in the process of analysing the results from a recent consultation and developing policy positions. Following this period of analysis, an Authority response will be published in due course, which will provide further details on the outcome of the consultation and policy positions for all Scottish partners.

We are aware that Scottish local authorities (LAs) are in a different position to the rest of the UK, given the introduction of the ban on landfilling biodegradable municipal waste, due to come into force on 31 December 2025. This differing position for Scottish partners is foremost in our consideration of related policies in this area.

In order to reflect this, a provisional analysis set out in the analytical annex of the recent consultation noted that if all household waste that currently goes to landfill in Scotland was to be redirected to incineration because of the landfill ban, total costs for all Scottish LAs could increase to £40million.

The Scottish Government is committed to continuing to working with COSLA on future ETS cost projections. We continue to work closely with Local Authorities, through our SG-LG group, on circular economy related issues.

Question reference: S6W-35340

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) start and (b) end date is for the target in the Zero Waste Scotland’s Corporate Plan to reduce the extraction of raw materials by one third; what data was used to arrive at this target, and for what reason the figure of one third was set.

Zero Waste Scotland's (ZWS) Corporate Plan for 2025-2030 includes present and future targets beyond the life of this Corporate Plan.

The reference to seeking reduction of Scotland's extraction of raw materials by one third is based on a , which stresses the importance of high-income countries reducing their material footprint by bending the resource use curve to achieve economic growth, reduced inequality, improved quality of life and dramatically reduced environmental impacts.

During the lifetime of the current Corporate Plan, Scottish Government will continue to work with ZWS in developing data and policies required to establish a baseline and trajectory for future target setting to measure progress towards a circular economy.

Question reference: S6W-35339

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how banning fossil-based plastic from incineration, as proposed at recommendation 17 of the report, Stop, Sort, Burn, Bury? Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy in Scotland, could mitigate the impact of the inclusion of incineration in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in 2028.

The Scottish Government published its response to Dr Colin Church’s second and final report on 5 May 2023, which focused on options to decarbonise residual waste infrastructure in Scotland.

We welcomed the report’s recommendations in supporting the continued reduction of emissions associated with waste, whilst also recognising Dr Church’s observation that “properly regulated incineration has an important role to play as part of the waste hierarchy in managing Scotland’s unavoidable, unrecyclable residual waste in a sanitary manner”.

We acknowledge of course that the residual waste sector is a complex system and, in accordance with Dr Church’s Recommendation 1, our Circular Economy and Waste Route Map (published in December 2024) sets out a series of ongoing and future policy commitments to achieve Dr Church’s Recommendation 1 (i.e. “rapidly seek further reductions in the proportion of recyclable materials in the residual waste stream”).

This includes policies such as banning single use plastic items, the implementation of the packaging extended producer responsibility scheme and a new co-designed statutory Code of Practice for household waste and recycling.

In its May 2023 response, the Scottish Government accepted Recommendation 17 in principle. While the Scottish Government agrees that phasing out the incineration of plastic waste is key to decarbonisation, our approach must be balanced, as banning it outright could lead to an increase in inappropriate disposal.

Our Route Map commitments will help to deliver increased reuse and recycling in accordance with our Circular Economy goals and help drive the reduction in fossil-based plastics going to incineration.

Question reference: S6W-35342

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to (a) mitigate any costs and (b) provide other support to local authorities in Scotland in relation to the inclusion of incineration as part of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in 2028.

The proposed ETS expansion is part of a whole-system approach set out in the final Circular Economy and Waste Route Map, making incineration a less attractive waste treatment method while limiting the production of plastic upstream and increasing its removal from the waste stream prior to incineration.

Supporting policies include the ban on certain Single Use Plastic Items, implementation of an Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging scheme this year and the commitment to require kerbside collection of plastic film and flexible packaging.

The Scottish Government is aware that the best way to mitigate ETS costs is to produce less waste and we will continue to work to put policies in place that reduce fossil-based waste in the residual waste stream.

That is why the primary focus of the Scottish Government continues to be on transitioning to a circular economy and preventing waste from occurring in the first place.

Question reference: S6W-35101

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what conditions it sets on renewable energy supply chains to invest in Scottish content where possible.

Maximising the economic opportunity for the Scottish supply chain from our renewable potential is a key focus for our Green Industrial Strategy, published in September 2024.

We are investing up to £500 million over five years in the offshore wind supply chain, which is expected to leverage additional private investment of £1.5 billion in the infrastructure and manufacturing facilities critical to growing the sector. This investment will support thousands of new jobs and maximise economic value to Scotland.

Through the Supply Chain Development Statements process, offshore wind developers have made commitments to invest an average of £1.5bn per project across the 20 ScotWind developments in the Scottish supply chain. These commitments are an integral part of the leasing process and are intended to drive developer engagement with the supply chain from the very outset of project development.

The UK Government’s Clean Industry Bonus will provide extra revenue support to offshore wind developers who choose to invest in cleaner supply chains, and in supply chains in the UK’s most deprived areas. We expect both Scottish offshore wind projects and supply chain to benefit from this new initiative.

Through the Onshore Wind Sector Deal we are continuing to see positive engagement with industry on publishing data on the percentage of local content in the supply chain, which will help to illustrate the economic impact developments for communities and Scotland’s regional and national economies.