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: S5O-04611

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 September 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken of the impact of COVID-19 on the attainment gap.

Question reference: S5W-31522

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 14 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will expect the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) Administrator to declare the annual carbon impact of operating the scheme, broken down by material type.

Question reference: S5W-31527

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 14 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) Administrator will be required to support better accessibility of collection points in economically deprived areas.

As set out in the application form for a prospective scheme administrator(s) of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) (p15), published on 22 June 2020, to be approved an applicant must demonstrate how they will meet the collection targets set out in the DRS Regulations. This could include establishing, or supporting the establishment of, additional return points where necessary.

The application form is available here: .

Question reference: S5W-31530

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2020
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 14 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what the tonnage capacity for incinerators has been in each year since 2007, and what the projected annual capacity is for the period to 2024.

The following table shows the permitted incineration capacity, which is higher than the actual throughput, for each year since 2007. The total waste incineration capacity includes waste incineration facilities for clinical, municipal, biomass (e.g. wood waste), tyre and poultry litter wastes.

Several potential municipal and biomass facilities with an environmental permit are at different stages of development. Not all permitted facilities will reach financial close and construction. The permitted capacity of municipal waste incineration facilities in the commissioning or construction stages of development is around 0.5 million tonnes. The permitted capacity of waste incineration facilities where construction has not started is 0.8 million tonnes for municipal waste and 42,000 tonnes for biomass.

Permit start (Year)	Total permitted waste incineration capacity (million tonnes)	Biomass permitted incineration capacity (million tonnes)	Municipal waste incineration capacity (million tonnes)
2007	1.1	0.9	0.2
2008	1.1	0.9	0.2
2009	1.1	0.9	0.2
2010	1.1	0.9	0.2
2011	1.4	0.9	0.5
2012	2.0	1.4	0.5
2013	2.0	1.4	0.5
2014	2.2	1.4	0.7
2015	2.4	1.4	0.7
2016	2.8	1.4	1.1
2017	2.8	1.4	1.1
2018	3.0	1.4	1.4
2019	3.6	1.4	1.9
2020	3.9	1.4	2.1

Question reference: S5W-31526

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 14 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether payment of the national living wage will be a requirement of all Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) Administrator applicants.

Any scheme administrator(s) of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme will be required to comply with all relevant legal obligations, including in relation to pay and employment rights. Through our flagship Fair Work First policy, we are asking employers to go beyond their statutory duties and would strongly encourage any scheme administrator(s) to commit to Fair Work practices, including payment of the real Living Wage. The application form for a prospective scheme administrator(s), published on 22 June 2020, provides an opportunity for the applicant to do so, although the decision whether to approve or refuse an application will be based on the criteria set out in the DRS Regulations.

The application form is available here: .

Question reference: S5W-31528

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 14 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what extra weighting it will grant to Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) Administrator applicants that commit to measures that aim to ensure fairness between SMEs and larger businesses across the retail and production sectors.

Question reference: S5W-31532

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2020
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 14 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of waste that could have been recycled or recovered by some other means has been recovered via an incinerator in each year since 2007.

It is not possible to determine the percentage of waste that could have been recycled, or recovered by other means, that has been recovered via incineration each year since 2007 as compositional data for mixed residual waste from household and commercial sources is not collected on an annual basis.

Under the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012, materials collected for recycling, including plastics, cannot be incinerated; however, mixed residual waste from households and commercial sources may contain recyclable materials.

Question reference: S5W-31529

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2020
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 14 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what the most recent information it has regarding the percentage of (a) household and (b) commercial food waste that is (i) landfilled and (ii) incinerated, and what capacity there is for all waste to be recovered.

The exact percentages requested are not available.

Our Food Waste Reduction Action Plan sets out measures that will drive delivery against our target to reduce food waste by 33% by 2025. The 2013 baseline for this target is estimated to be 987,890 tonnes from all sources.

A waste composition study carried out in 2015 estimated that 23% of the residual household bin was food waste, the equivalent of 330,000 tonnes. Compared with a similar study in 2009, this represented a 21% reduction in the amount of household food waste sent for incineration or landfill.

A detailed breakdown of waste and waste destinations is not available for commercial waste. However, the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012, which came into force on 1 January 2014, mean that almost all businesses are required to have separate food waste collections and this will ensure the continued removal of food waste from the commercial residual waste stream. Since their introduction there has been a 40% increase in food waste recycling.

The two primary methods used to treat food waste are anaerobic digestion (AD) and in vessel composting (IVC), SEPA analysis of the AD and IVC sites in Scotland indicate that there is up to 200,000 tonnes of spare capacity to treat food waste at existing facilities.

Question reference: S5W-31524

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 14 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what extra weighting it will grant to Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) Administrator applicants that demonstrate an ability to deliver identified environmental, economic and social benefits that go beyond regulations.

To be approved by Scottish Ministers, any prospective scheme administrator(s) for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme must demonstrate how they intend to comply with member producers’ obligations on their behalf and that they are likely to subsist for at least five years.

While we anticipate that any prospective scheme administrator(s) will wish to take the opportunity to demonstrate how they will deliver wider benefits through the operation of the scheme, the decision whether to approve or refuse an application will be based on the criteria set out in the DRS Regulations.

Question reference: S5W-31525

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 14 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) Administrator will be permitted to deliver identified environmental, economic and social benefits that fall outwith the scope of DRS regulations.

The application form for a prospective scheme administrator(s) of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme, published on 22 June 2020, provides an opportunity for an applicant to demonstrate how they will deliver wider benefits through the operation of the scheme, although the decision whether to approve or refuse an application will be based on the criteria set out in the DRS Regulations.

The application form is available here: .