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: S6W-00666

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 24 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to establish a baseline for marine plastic pollution monitoring.

Question reference: S6W-00369

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 21 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-33605 by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 December 2020, whether it will provide an update on the work to establish the new Litter Monitoring System, and by what date it expects the system to go live.

Zero Waste Scotland is continuing to work with Keep Scotland Beautiful, Association for Public Service Excellence, Local Authorities, the Improvement Service and SOLACE to implement a new Litter Monitoring System.

Zero Waste Scotland have been have been providing support to Keep Scotland Beautiful to trial the litter monitoring system. Training will begin over the next few months and will allow Local Authorities to use the system. The Local Environment Audit and Management System will continue to be used during this transition and it is expected to be fully replaced by the Litter Monitoring System for 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-00371

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-34080 by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 December 2020, whether a decision has been taken on the distribution of the £70 million recycling fund.

Question reference: S6O-00054

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting the growth of jobs that will support a greener economy.

Question reference: S6W-00370

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 9 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-34419 by Ben Macpherson on 3 February 2021, whether its review of the effectiveness of the Guidance on Dog training Aids has been published.

Question reference: S6W-00292

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether support for the development and deployment of carbon capture and storage will continue regardless of any formal support arrangement that ministers agree with the Scottish Green Party.

The Scottish Government supports the development of carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) as a common whole-system decarbonisation infrastructure with the flexibility to adapt over time to play a central role across the decarbonisation strategies of key sectors such as heat, industry and power. A proven technology, there are more than 50 CCUS facilities worldwide, with an estimated combined capture capacity of 96 million tonnes of CO2 per annum.

The Committee on Climate Change describes CCUS as a “necessity, not an option” to achieve net-zero emissions; indeed, the swift development of CCUS as a cornerstone of our energy transition is vital to achieving Scotland’s net zero emissions reduction targets.

Scotland is the most cost-effective place to begin CCUS in the UK, with existing oil and gas infrastructure available to repurpose for CO2 transport and storage. The development of CCUS could offer a range of transition opportunities for Scottish oil and gas firms and domestic supply chain companies.

We are already supporting efforts to deploy CCUS in Scotland, including through our Emerging Energy Technologies Fund, which will provide £80m over the next five years to support the development of CCUS and negative-emissions technologies. We have also provided funding and policy support to the Acorn CCS project in Aberdeenshire, considered the most advanced CCS project in the UK.

Question reference: S6W-00122

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it will carry out its review of the role that incineration plays; what the remit of the review will be, and whether it will issue a moratorium on incinerator applications while it is underway.

Our commitment to tackling the climate emergency and transitioning to a net-zero society by 2045 is unwavering. In 2019, the whole-life carbon impact of Scotland’s household waste reached its lowest level since official recording began.

To help achieve this, building Scotland’s circular economy and reducing, recycling and reusing resources is vital. With this and our world leading climate change targets in mind, the Scottish Government have committed to review the role that incineration plays in Scotland’s waste hierarchy and will update Parliament on plans for this in due course.

To further accelerate progress, Scottish Ministers are fully committed to ending the practice of sending biodegradable municipal waste to landfill by 2025. This is in line with recommendations made by the Committee on Climate Change.

We still need capacity to dispose of residual waste, which cannot be reused or recycled, while we make the transition to a circular economy in Scotland.

It is worth nothing, responsibility for dealing with any planning applications rests, in the first instance, with the local council as planning authority.

Question reference: S6W-00121

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it will introduce the Circular Economy Bill.

Question reference: S6W-00120

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it will carry out the independent gateway review on the implementation date of its Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), and whether it still anticipates launching its DRS on 1 July 2022.

We intend to carry out the Gateway Review into the go-live date for DRS by the end of the summer and provide an update to Parliament following summer recess.

While industry has made good progress towards implementing DRS, we recognise the unique and significant pressures that COVID-19 has placed on relevant sectors over the past year. The Gateway Review will assess the impact of the pandemic on the go-live date for the scheme.

Question reference: S5W-35456

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 18 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-34562 by Paul Wheelhouse on 1 February 2021, when it will bring forward further plans for a publicly-owned energy company, and whether such a company will be established in 2021, as was announced in October 2017.

As you will be aware from my answer to the referenced Parliamentary Question and my update of 13 November to the Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee, work on the public energy company, such as engagement on the findings of the Outline Business Case, was affected as a result of redeployment of officials to support the COVID-19 response and potential local authority partners have also needed to focus resource on responding to the pandemic.

Officials have been remobilised and we are reviewing the independent, public energy company Outline Business Case to reflect on the climate emergency and our ambitious net zero targets as well as more recent energy market developments, and we are working with interested local authorities to publish the Outline Business Case alongside identifying next steps.