Seòmar agus comataidhean

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I seek your guidance. At question 6, the minister was asked a very direct question about what action the Scottish Government can take regarding the on-going Fife College staff pay dispute, and that question built on my earlier question at question 2 on what action the Government could take. In response to my question, the minister Graeme Dey asked what the Labour Party would do and, in response to question 6, he gave no answer at all. Is the minister unable or unwilling to take meaningful action to resolve the industrial dispute at Scotland’s colleges?

What can members do to get proper answers from these ministers?

Amendments 102 and 103, which are in my name, would help to achieve Scottish Labour’s aims of strengthening the bill in relation to reuse—a point that has already been made a number of times today. We recognise the important role that individual households and local authorities will play in the success of the bill. Much of that will be achieved through the code of practice, which will be co-designed with local authorities.

Through my interest in reusable nappies—I know that Douglas Lumsden loves to hear about that—and specifically the North Ayrshire scheme, it is apparent that there is a lack of awareness of good schemes where they exist. By requiring the code of practice to promote schemes such as North Ayrshire Council’s, we can tap into the public desire to help the environment. I believe that the public want to do the right things. By requiring existing reusable schemes to be promoted by the code, we will make it easier for people in Scotland to find out about such schemes in their local areas. To be clear, amendment 102 seeks to ensure that the code promotes reusable schemes that are operated by local authorities.

We recognise that Maurice Golden’s amendments 58 and 59 will help to boost the prioritisation of reuse and repair, so we were glad to see them. We were also pleased to see Maurice Golden’s amendment 60, which would require proper resourcing for local authorities to enable them to meet their duties under the bill. Local authorities need to have adequate capacity, in terms of skills and resources, to ensure that we become a more circular nation. It is important that the Scottish Government supports local authorities in every way that it can to properly achieve a more circular economy.

This group of amendments is important. It follows on from an important debate that we had at stage 2. We believe that the targets that Maurice Golden and Graham Simpson have lodged are critical to driving up action to increase recycling. We also agree that targets are essential, but, as we have seen in relation to climate targets, action is crucial. Given that this is a framework bill, it is critical that we set the right ambitions now, so that we can steer the right action to meet those ambitions in the future.

I have one amendment in this group. Amendment 104 is to

“make further provision for the promotion of reuse to assist local authorities to achieve their targets”.

That is connected to Scottish Labour’s concerns that, initially, the bill had a lot of focus on recycling but not enough on other important parts of the waste hierarchy, particularly reuse. Section 13 deals with targets for household waste recycling specifically. However, ultimately, it is important that we include provisions for the promotion of reuse wherever possible.

I thank Scottish Environment LINK for supporting amendment 104. The amendment recognises the crucial role of local authorities. Increasing reuse through the targets will help our local authorities to drive down the amount of waste that is ending up in landfill and will help to ease the transition to a more circular economy.

I hope that there will be a break soon so that the minister’s voice gets a little bit of respite.

I think that I understand the minister’s point about the statutory duties, but people in the chamber and outwith it will be wondering how the bill will encourage more activity in the local authority space to work with our third sector partners and others so that we can shift towards more reuse, which is really important. If we cannot support such a simple amendment, how else can we give effect to that?

Will the member take an intervention?

I am grateful to Mark Ruskell for his comments and for his interest in the issue, as a fellow cloth-bum parent—if that is the right terminology these days. I just want to try to get a bit of debate here. The scheme in North Ayrshire has been on the go since 2019 and, in the past, there were other schemes. Every year, when reusable nappy week comes around—it is normally in April—I go on social media and see lots of activity being promoted by local authorities in England and Wales, and I feel quite sad not to see more of that in Scotland. I know that Lorna Slater has heard me say that before. Progress is not being made.

Amendment 105 would require local authorities to bring in schemes by April 2026, which gives a bit of time. I have had a chat with COSLA and there is no objection to learning more from North Ayrshire. However, does Mark Ruskell not share my concern that, if we do not start to provide a bit of national direction and leadership on the issue, no more schemes will emerge in Scotland, which would be a real shame?

Scottish Labour welcomes amendment 71, in the name of Gillian Mackay. We note that Action to Protect Rural Scotland also strongly supports the amendment. Adding to the bill a provision that ministers

“may, by regulations, establish a take-back scheme for single-use vaping products”

would be welcome. I hope that all members will support amendment 71.

All members will know, from local conversations that they will have had, that tackling the blight of single-use vapes in our communities is important. People have raised with me the issues caused by litter that they see in local parks. Young people, especially those in our primary schools, are often the most vocal about that.

Scottish Labour welcomes the other work that the Scottish Government and the UK Government have undertaken and the approaches that Gillian Mackay has championed as we try to achieve a ban on single-use vapes. The Prime Minister’s last-minute gamble on an early election has clearly delayed the implementation of any such ban. I hope that, whatever happens after the election on 4 July, we will see cross-party and cross- Government working on the issue. As we work towards the medium and longer term, having such a ban would be ideal. It would be great if that could be done across the UK. If we need to drive that approach forward in Scotland, let us do so. We need to send a strong signal that such littering is not acceptable.

In response to Edward Mountain’s question, Gillian Mackay made an important point about making take-back easier for people. For example, South Lanarkshire Council should be commended for its appointment system for local amenity sites in my area. It has seen high demand from people who access the sites by car, so it now has an appointment system to manage any conflict there.

The general point is that we need to make such schemes as easy as possible for individuals to use. If people consume a product and go back to a particular retailer, the take-back model is appropriate.

I strongly support amendment 71.

I aim to surprise. We will talk about the issue later.

Amendment 74 speaks for itself, and I hope that members will support it. I am pleased to have worked closely with the minister on it.

I will make a final comment on amendment 45, which is in the name of Clare Adamson. It is an important amendment, as others have said. I know from my work chairing the cross-party group on construction that there is a lot of support for what the amendment proposes. In the interests of time, I will leave it there. I hope that colleagues will also support amendment 45.

I am not sure that I agree that what is proposed has to be a burden. Surely it is an opportunity. If Scotland is going to aspire to be a more circular nation, surely we need to encourage all our public bodies, regardless of their size, to play their part, and having a plan is really the start of that process.