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-16754

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government which retailers it has met to discuss the Deposit Return Scheme since 1 January 2023.

The following table shows the meetings that the Scottish Government has had with retailers to discuss the Deposit Return Scheme.

Date	Meeting
17-01-2023	Meeting with Scottish Grocers' Federation (SGF) and Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity
31-01-2023	Meeting with Grocery CEOs and Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity
14-02-2023	Meeting with Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF) and Scottish Government Officials
15-02-2023	Meeting with CSL, British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Chief Executives of major grocery retailers and Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity
27-02-2023	Meeting with Scottish Grocers' Federation (SGF) and Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity
28-02-2023	Meeting with Food and Drink stakeholders and Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity
01-03-2023	Meeting with Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity
09-03-2023	Meeting with Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity
16-03-2023	Meeting with Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity
24-03-2023	Meeting with Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Scottish Government Officials
28-03-2023	Meeting with Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) Technical Committee and Scottish Government Officials
29-03-2023	Meeting with Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Scottish Government Officials
29-03-2023	Meeting with Scottish Grocers' Federation (SGF) and Scottish Government Officials
30-03-2023	Meeting with Asda and Scottish Government Officials
31-03-2023	Meeting with Tesco and Scottish Government Officials
06-04-2023	Meeting with Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Scottish Government Officials
11-04-2023	Meeting with Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) and Scottish Government Officials
11-04-2023	Meeting with Federation of Independent Retailers (NFRN) and Scottish Government Officials
18-04-2023	Meeting with multiple retailers and Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity
20-04-2023	Meeting with multiple retailers, the First Minister, and Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity
21-04-2023	Meeting with Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Scottish Government Officials

Question reference: S6O-02185

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what process informed its previous decision to launch the Deposit Return Scheme on 16 August 2023, including any input that it sought from industry regarding its readiness for that date.

Question reference: S6W-16847

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the statement in the Climate Change Committee publication, Progress in reducing emissions in Scotland: 2022 Report to Parliament, that “Scotland’s targets for peatland restoration are not ambitious enough and are not being met”.

Question reference: S6W-16845

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 25 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what process informed its decision to adopt a target of 20,000 hectares per year of peatland restoration, and for what reasons it did not act on the Climate Change Committee’s target recommendation of 45,000 hectares per year by 2022.

We arrived at our current target of restoring 20,000 hectares per year of peatland based on evidence from the Scottish Government’s second report on proposals and policies (RPP2) in 2013 which highlighted that it would be technically feasible for Scotland to restore 20,000 hectares of peatland a year.

Based on this the Scottish Government subsequently established firm annual peatland restoration targets in 2018 in its Climate Change Plan: third report on proposals and policies 2018-2032 (RPP3) .

We have adopted this as a target and in 2020 set out ambitious plans to invest more than £250 million over ten years to restore at least 250,000 hectares of degraded peatlands by 2030.

Question reference: S6W-16846

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 25 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work it is doing to meet the (a) gaps in contractor availability and (b) skill shortages, which are reportedly limiting progress towards peatland restoration goals.

The Scottish Government continues to work with our delivery partners across Peatland ACTION to tackle the many barriers to upscaling peatland restoration in this relatively young sector.

Recent progress to address contractor availability and skills shortages include:

NatureScot published a Technical Compendium in November 2022 which includes guidance on how to restore peatland; this is direct response to a call for greater standardisation which will help contractors to specify and plan works more efficiently
A variety of skills initiatives are underway including: on-site demonstration days; a newly launched peatland restoration training course; on-the-job new entrants initiative; and targeted training on topics such as Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) tendering.
A Peatland Skills, Capacity and Training Group has been established which brings together partners from the Peatland ACTION delivery partners, Skills Development Scotland, LANTRA, Confor, Scotland’s Rural Collage and the James Hutton Institute to develop a collaborative approach to addressing the skills shortages.

Peatland restoration is an industry in its infancy – it is only a few years old and has not yet developed significant supply capacity.

The £250 million multi-year government commitment entered into as part of the Bute House Agreement has increased confidence in the private engineering sector to invest in the people, machinery, skills and training needed to increase delivery capacity, is helping to increase capacity and output, and we expect that trajectory to continue.

Question reference: S6W-16751

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 25 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will outline the rationale for the increased funding for the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh from £28.7 million in 2022-23 to £33.8 million in 2023-24, and whether it will provide further information on what this increased expenditure is expected to cover.

Question reference: S6W-16760

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 25 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work that it is doing to improve circularity within the Scottish economy.

The Scottish Government is taking a range of activities to improve circularity within the Scottish economy. This includes consulting on proposals for a Circular Economy Bill Delivering Scotland's circular economy: Proposed Circular Economy Bill - Consultation analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) which we will bring forward before summer recess, and for a Waste Route Map which will be published later this year .

We have made one of the biggest investments in a generation to modernise recycling in Scotland through the £70m Recycling Improvement Fund. The Fund is supporting Scottish councils to modernise recycling services and increase both the quantity and the quality of recycling collected. This increases the supply of materials in frequent use and high demand, such as plastics, and helps to ensure availability of materials for businesses whilst reducing waste.

The forthcoming Deposit Return Scheme has already delivered hundreds of millions of pounds of investment across Scotland and is creating over 500 new green jobs.

Last year, we launched a Circular Textiles Fund to improve the circularity of textiles; issued a revised procurement policy note setting out that we expect public bodies to use their public procurement spend to support climate and circular economy ambitions ( and launched the Low Carbon Manufacturing Challenge Fund, which will support the development of new business models based on the principles of a circular economy.

We also provide funding to Zero Waste Scotland which has a range of support available for businesses and social enterprises to help them transition to more circular ways of working. Zero Waste Scotland also works in partnership with organisations throughout Scotland to encourage collaboration on circular economy projects between businesses, sectors and communities, for example: with Highlands & Islands Enterprise, South of Scotland Enterprise, Chambers of Commerce, manufacturing and renewable energy industry bodies.

Question reference: S6W-16761

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 25 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will outline the rationale for the reduction of Forestry and Land Scotland’s budget from £27.2 million in 2022-23 to £23.8 million in 2023-24; whether it will provide any further information on this budget reduction, and what impact it anticipates this will have on the agency’s ability to deliver its work.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) is funded primarily by revenue receipts from commercial trading activities such as the sale of timber, renewables, recreation, venison, estates, and other income raised. In addition, an Annual Subsidy Limit (ASL) is agreed with the Scottish Government. This is agreed by Scottish Ministers and forms part of the budget setting and review process and is set out in the annual Budget (Scotland) Act. It is this element of its funding that has reduced.

FLS is classified as a public corporation, for the purposes of its accounts, by the Office of National Statistics. This classification was awarded based on the nature of activity within the business and the high proportion of business trading. The classification enables the agency to build and sustain essential financial reserves across financial years to sustain and deliver outcomes. These are essential in managing the dynamic activity in the forestry sector.

As a result of the level of reserves held by FLS, the ASL allocated for FY 23/24 has been reduced. The FLS Business Plan sets out the main actions that the organisation will take over the period 01 April 2023 - 31 March 2024 to deliver the commitments and outcomes identified in their Corporate Plan. Ministers approved that plan in March 2023.

The plan highlights that FLS will use an element of its reserves to fund its ongoing activities.

Question reference: S6T-01336

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 April 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to a recent report by Friends of the Earth Scotland, which suggests that additional investment is required in public transport if the Scottish Government is to meet its target of reducing car kilometres by 20% by 2030.

Question reference: S6W-16077

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14616 by Lorna Slater on 6 March 2023, what specific steps it has taken to ensure that SEPA, as the Deposit Return Scheme regulator, has sufficient resources to provide “advice and guidance as the preferred route to achieving compliance for businesses who are striving to meet their obligations” under the scheme, in light of reports that Circularity Scotland is still unable to supply producers with all the information that they have requested.

SEPA has been provided funding by the Scottish Government to establish their regulatory service for the scheme. Once the scheme is operational, SEPA will be funded for the service via the producer registration fees collected. The Deposit and Return Scheme (DRS) for Scotland 2020 regulations provide that businesses with a taxable turnover in excess of £85,000 will pay an annual £365 fee when registering as a producer for Scotland's DRS. This regulatory activity will include provision of advice and guidance to businesses to support them in achieving compliance.