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: S5W-25350

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 25 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reported concerns regarding waiting times at established pain clinics and understaffing, what its response is to further reported concerns regarding the decision that the Scottish Access Collaborative's work on chronic pain, which was requested by it to reduce waiting times at established specialist clinics, has been changed to aid primary care, which does not have similar established pain structures.

Question reference: S5W-25342

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 25 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the suitability of current Scottish Medicine Consortium processes and methods for the assessment of gene therapies.

The Scottish Government notes that the Scottish Medicines Consortium has undertaken recently an assessment of the “CAR-T” cell therapy submission Kymriah ® (tisagenlecleucel) for paediatric patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia ( ) and adult patients with diffuse large cell B lymphoma ( ). In this assessment, the SMC’s existing methods and processes proved to be suitable for the consideration of gene therapies. The independent SMC does of course keep these matters under review.

Question reference: S5W-25352

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 24 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government which GP surgeries have closed in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S5O-03583

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, 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 action it is taking to increase biodiversity in Edinburgh.

Question reference: S5W-25036

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many drinks containers are sold in Scotland, broken down by (a) container (PET, Glass, Aluminium, HDPE, etc.) and (b) beverage type.

The following table is from Zero Waste Scotland container data used to model a deposit return scheme (DRS) for Scotland.

Product category	Can*	Glass	PET	Grand Total
Alcohol	221,893,000	295,870,000	20,905,000	538,668,000
Soft drinks and fruit juice	364,637,000	24,888,000	332,522,000	722,047,000
Water	11,000	588,000	200,787,000	201,386,000
Dairy	228,000	10,058,000	91,198,000	101,484,000
Other	52,591,000	1,607,000	48,704,000	102,902,000
Grand Total	639,361,000	333,011,000	694,115,000	1,666,487,000

* Of the total drinks sold in cans, Zero Waste Scotland modelling assumes 99% are aluminium and 1% steel.

Figures are based on Kantar consumer panel data for in-home soft drinks, in-home alcohol, and out-of-home soft drinks, rounded to the nearest thousand. Out-of-home alcohol estimates are based on a combination of NHS Scotland’s estimates of on-premise alcohol sales and British Beer and Pub Association statistics. Due to the planned exclusion of HDPE from DRS, data on HDPE are not available to the same level of detail. Zero Waste Scotland is currently working with industry to improve estimates for all containers placed on the market in Scotland, using manufacturer and point-of-sale data sources.

Question reference: S5W-25033

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessments it has carried out of how the introduction of a deposit return system will impact on consumer choice.

Decisions concerning the marketing of products are ultimately a matter for individual producers. The Scottish Government’s Deposit Return Scheme Full Business Case Stage 1 concludes that industry is best placed to deliver an efficient and effective scheme which minimises additional cost for business. This model, supported by an industry-led approach to the adoption of fraud prevention measures, is intended to limit the potential impact of deposit return on consumer choice.

Question reference: S5W-25039

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the introduction of a deposit return system will have on the viability of kerbside recycling for local authorities.

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting local authority collection arrangements for a range of packaging materials alongside DRS. Under our proposed reforms of wider packaging producer responsibility arrangements, the costs to local authorities of delivering these services will in future be met by producers.

Zero Waste Scotland continues to work with local authorities to assess the impact of deposit return on their waste collection services.

Question reference: S5W-25040

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what materials are collected by local authorities via kerbside collection, broken down by council.

The following table sets out the separate streams collected by each local authority. This information was collected and supplied by Zero Waste Scotland. Collections can vary within each local authority:

Local Authority	Service provision
Aberdeen City Council	Paper, card, plastics, metals, glass
Aberdeen City Council	Food and garden waste
Aberdeen City Council	Residual
Aberdeenshire Council	Paper, card, plastics, metals
Aberdeenshire Council	Food waste caddy
Aberdeenshire Council	Residual
Angus Council	Paper, card, plastics, metals, glass
Angus Council	Food waste caddy
Angus Council:	Residual
Angus Council	Chargeable garden waste
Argyll and Bute Council	Paper, card, plastics, metals
Argyll and Bute Council	Residual
Clackmannanshire Council	Paper, card, plastics, metals
Clackmannanshire Council	Food waste caddy
Clackmannanshire Council	Garden waste
Clackmannanshire Council	Residual
Dumfries and Galloway Council	Paper, card, plastics, metals, glass (recycling limited to Wigtownshire)
Dumfries and Galloway Council	Food waste (recycling limited to Wigtownshire)
Dumfries and Galloway Council	Residual
Dundee City Council	Paper & Card
Dundee City Council	Plastic, metals, cartons
Dundee City Council	Food waste caddy
Dundee City Council	Residual
East Ayrshire Council	Paper, card, plastic, metal, cartons, glass
East Ayrshire Council	Food waste caddy
East Ayrshire Council	Residual
East Ayrshire Council	Garden waste
East Dunbartonshire Council	Food waste caddy
East Dunbartonshire Council	Paper & Card
East Dunbartonshire Council	Plastic bottles, metals, glass
East Dunbartonshire Council	Garden waste
East Dunbartonshire Council	Residual
East Lothian Council	Paper & Card
East Lothian Council	Plastic, metals, glass
East Lothian Council	Garden waste
East Lothian Council	Food waste caddy
East Lothian Council	residual
East Renfrewshire Council	Paper & Card
East Renfrewshire Council	Food and garden waste
East Renfrewshire Council	Plastic, metals, glass
East Renfrewshire Council	Residual
Edinburgh City Council	Food waste caddy
Edinburgh City Council	Paper, card, plastics, metals
Edinburgh City Council	Glass, small WEEE, textiles
Edinburgh City Council	Residual
Edinburgh City Council	Chargeable garden waste
Falkirk Council	Food waste caddy
Falkirk Council	Paper & card
Falkirk Council	Metals, plastics, cartons
Falkirk Council	Glass, small WEEE, textiles
Falkirk Council	Garden waste
Falkirk Council	Residual
Fife Council	Plastic, metals, cartons
Fife Council	Paper & Card
Fife Council	Food and garden waste
Fife Council	Residual
Glasgow City Council	Paper, card, plastic bottles, metals
Glasgow City Council	Food and garden waste
Glasgow City Council	Glass bottles & jars
Glasgow City Council	Residual
Highland Council	Paper, card, plastics, metals
Highland Council	Food waste caddy
Highland Council	Residual
Highland Council	Chargeable garden waste
Inverclyde Council	Paper, card, plastics, metals
Inverclyde Council	Food waste caddy
Inverclyde Council	Garden waste
Inverclyde Council	Residual
Midlothian Council	Paper, card, plastics, metals
Midlothian Council	Food waste caddy
Midlothian Council	Glass bottles & jars
Midlothian Council	Residual
Midlothian Council	Chargeable garden waste
Moray Council	Paper & Card
Moray Council	Glass bottles & jars
Moray Council	Plastic bottles, metals
Moray Council	Food and garden waste
Moray Council	Residual
North Ayrshire Council	Food and garden waste
North Ayrshire Council	Paper & Card
North Ayrshire Council	Plastic, metals, glass
North Ayrshire Council	Residual
North Lanarkshire Council	Paper & Card
North Lanarkshire Council	Plastic, metals, glass, cartons
North Lanarkshire Council	Residual
North Lanarkshire Council	Food and garden waste
Orkney Islands Council	Plastic bottles, metals, paper/thin card, glass
Orkney Islands Council	Residual
Perth and Kinross Council	Paper, card, plastics, metals
Perth and Kinross Council	Food and chargeable garden waste
Perth and Kinross Council	Residual
Renfrewshire Council	Paper & Card
Renfrewshire Council	Plastic, metals, glass, cartons
Renfrewshire Council	Residual
Renfrewshire Council	Garden waste
Renfrewshire Council	Food waste caddy
Scottish Borders Council	Paper, card, plastics, metals
Scottish Borders Council	Food waste caddy
Scottish Borders Council	Residual
Shetland Islands Council	Paper & Card
Shetland Islands Council	Plastic bottles, metals, cartons
Shetland Islands Council	Residual
South Ayrshire Council	Food waste caddy
South Ayrshire Council	Plastic, metals, cartons
South Ayrshire Council	Glass bottles & jars
South Ayrshire Council	Paper & Card
South Ayrshire Council	Residual
South Ayrshire Council	Garden waste
South Lanarkshire Council	Food and garden waste
South Lanarkshire Council	Plastic, metals, glass
South Lanarkshire Council	Paper & Card
South Lanarkshire Council	Residual
Stirling Council	Plastic, metals, cartons
Stirling Council	Paper & Card
Stirling Council	Food and garden waste
Stirling Council	Glass bottles & jars
Stirling Council	Residual
West Dunbartonshire Council	Paper, card, plastics, metals
West Dunbartonshire Council	Food and garden waste
West Dunbartonshire Council	Residual
Western Isles Council	Paper, plastic, metals, cartons,
Western Isles Council	Food, garden, cardboard
Western Isles Council	Residual
Western Isles Council	Glass bottles & jars
West Lothian Council	Paper, card, plastics, metals
West Lothian Council	Food waste caddy
West Lothian Council	Garden waste
West Lothian Council	Residual

Question reference: S5W-25032

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what impact assessments it has carried out of how the introduction of a deposit return system will impact on its minimum unit pricing policy.

The deposit charged to consumers should not be considered to form part of the price of products. We intend that the deposit level be advertised separately from the price of all products sold in obligated containers and this is provided for in the draft regulations which have been laid before Parliament. We anticipate that at least 90% of deposits paid by consumers will be redeemed once DRS is fully established, with redeemed deposits then being used to offset future purchases. This should minimise any impact on product choice.

Question reference: S5W-25037

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether creating a separate Scottish market for soft and alcoholic drinks, thereby removing it from the current UK-wide system, would have a detrimental impact on Scottish producers.

The draft Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020 propose the introduction of new legal obligations on all producers wishing to sell single-use drinks containers to consumers in Scotland. It will be for producers to determine appropriate fraud prevention measures which we understand to be the key issue in determining whether separate stock will need to be held for the Scottish market.