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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 MSPs 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-07105

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity's comment to the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee, on 25 January 2022, that glass is not to be mechanically crushed as part of its Deposit Return Scheme, whether this replaces any previous plans for such glass to be crushed in reverse vending machines (RVMs); whether this will require different and more expensive RVMs to be used; what inquiries the minister or her officials have made on the cost implications of requiring that glass not be crushed; whether this will necessitate more frequent collections of glass recyclate, and, if so, what consideration has been given to that and any consequential costs and additional carbon emissions, and what its position is on whether it or Circularity Scotland have obtained sufficient information in order to be certain that this will not require additional costs to be incurred in operating the scheme.

Question reference: S6W-07100

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that waste captured by the Deposit Return Scheme could be processed outside Scotland, what assessment it has made of whether the economic benefits of a closed-loop glass recycling system would accrue to businesses based in Scotland.

I am not aware of any reports that glass captured through our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) could be processed outside Scotland.

There is a significant reprocessing industry for glass in Scotland. While it will be for Circularity Scotland Ltd (CSL) as scheme administrator to enter into reprocessing agreements on a commercial basis, I would note that the cost of transporting glass means the Scottish glass industry should have a competitive advantage due to the closer physical proximity to CSL.

I therefore anticipate that our glass industry will benefit from the increased quantity and quality of glass recyclate that DRS will make available.

Question reference: S6W-07104

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the comment by the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity at the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee on 25 January 2022 that the Deposit Return Scheme “will significantly increase the quantity and quality of glass recyclate”, what the precise evidence is on which this comment is based, and whether it will publish this evidence.

The Strategic Environmental Assessment Addendum, published on 14 December 2021, shows that our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will increase the quantity of glass recyclate by more than 1.3 megatonnes over 25 years. It is available here: Supporting documents - A Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland: Strategic Environmental Assessment Addendum - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

I understand that Circularity Scotland Ltd intends to collect and transport glass separately from other materials under Scotland’s DRS. This will reduce contamination which is currently a problem with glass collected at the kerbside. I am therefore confident that our DRS will significantly increase the quality of glass recyclate.

Question reference: S6W-07091

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the impact of the proposed Deposit Return Scheme on producers in Scotland, how many producers it estimates are operating in Scotland, and of those, how many it consulted directly.

We estimate that 4,100 businesses will qualify as producers for the purposes of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).

We have extensively consulted the drinks producer sector during the development and implementation of our DRS. Our Implementation Advisory Group included a range of representatives of the sector, and drinks producers, like any stakeholder, were consulted through the two consultations on DRS that ran from June-September 2018 and September-December 2019.

Question reference: S6W-07101

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what efforts it has made to increase the proportion of glass that has been fully recycled and processed in Scotland, and what effect the implementation of the Deposit Return Scheme will have on these efforts.

Question reference: S6W-07103

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity has met with the British Glass Federation in relation to the Deposit Return Scheme.

Question reference: S6W-07099

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that waste captured by the Deposit Return Scheme could be processed outside Scotland, whether it has fully considered the additional carbon impact of transporting the 560 million glass containers that are estimated by Zero Waste Scotland to be in scope of the scheme.

Question reference: S6W-07090

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether consideration has been given to the potential impact of the proposed Deposit Return Scheme on the wholesale sector, and, in light of the information contained in table 1, page 12, paragraph 46 of the Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland Final Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA), published in December 2021, for what reason it did not consult any wholesale businesses.

We have kept the wholesale sector closely involved in discussions relating to the development and implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), in particular through engagement with the Scottish Wholesale Association (SWA).

As table 1, page 12, paragraph 46 of the amended Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) for DRS makes clear, the SWA was consulted as part of the policy-development process that led to the amended BRIA.

Question reference: S6W-04070

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 October 2021
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of its plans for onshore wind in Scotland.

We intend to launch the consultation of the draft Onshore Wind Policy Statement later today, in line with the commitments we set out in the Programme for Government.

The consultative draft of the Policy Statement will be available to view on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781802014990 from today and the consultation questions will be available on Citizen Space at https://consult.gov.scot/energy-and-climate-change-directorate/onshore-wind-policy-statement-refresh-2021/ . The consultation will be live for 12 weeks from today until 21 January 2022.

The draft Onshore Wind Policy Statement (OnWPS) sets out the Scottish Government’s ambitions for onshore wind in Scotland out to 2030 in the context of our 2045 net zero emissions commitment. It outlines the huge potential for this technology, and assesses the significant economic opportunity of future deployment, particularly in light of green recovery aspirations. Scotland has excellent onshore wind expertise and is recognised as having one of the best wind regimes anywhere in the world in which to deploy projects.

The consultative draft of the OnWPS has been informed by stakeholder consultation and engagement and seeks views on specific questions, in particular on the Scottish Government ambition to secure an additional 8-12 Gigawatts of installed onshore wind capacity by 2030.

Question reference: S3O-06602

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 23 April 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in light of the decision taken by it on the request of Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) that the mobility clause within the contracts of some SNH staff will not be implemented, this decision will be replicated for any other relocations of public sector departments or functions where staff of such departments or functions have a mobility clause requiring them to transfer anywhere within Scotland.