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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-07096

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 23 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to its proposed Deposit Return Scheme, what consideration (a) it and (b) Circularity Scotland has given to the potential impact on distributers and wholesalers in Scotland of a need for two separate SKU’s (Stock Keeping Units), in particular in relation to (i) cost and (ii) space implications, in light of the plans for separate labelling requirements for Scotland and the rest of the UK.

Question reference: S6W-07093

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 23 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its proposed Deposit Return Scheme, whether wholesalers will be permitted during the course of their normal delivery schedule to use the same lorries and vans for back haul of the collection, and uplift of glass bottles, plastic containers and aluminium tins; whether SEPA has been asked to provide advice on this matter, and, if so, when (a) it was first asked to do so and (b) the advice will be published.

Since July 2021 SEPA has advised that the same vehicle that is used for delivery can be used for the backhaul of scheme packaging provided that:

the haulier is a registered waste carrier ;
where backhaul is carried out in a vehicle used to transport fresh food, there is sufficient separation and a barrier to prevent contamination of waste materials with organic matter.

This advice was published as part of a series of DRS Frequently Asked Questions on SEPA’s website on 8 March 2022.

Question reference: S6W-07097

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 23 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the proposed Deposit Return Scheme may contravene the provisions on non-discrimination of goods, which are included in the UK Internal Market Act 2020.

Question reference: S6W-07113

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 23 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comments, regarding potential benefits for industry from its Deposit Return Scheme, by the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity at the meeting of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee on 25 January 2022, that the scheme "will generate about £600 million a year" and that "there is a lot of money to be made", whether it will provide a detailed breakdown of this figure in terms of any potential benefits to industry, and how precisely any such benefits will arise.

The figure is based on Circularity Scotland Ltd’s assessment of its expected annual turnover as scheme administrator once it is in steady state.

We anticipate that implementation and operation of DRS will generate a range of business and employment opportunities in the extensive infrastructure and logistics required for the scheme, for example in the construction and operating of sorting and bulking centres.

Question reference: S6W-07092

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 23 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many businesses in the SME sector it anticipates will cease doing business in Scotland as a result of any additional costs of compliance with the proposed Deposit Return Scheme, such as the bar code and labelling requirements.

Participation of small producers is vital to the success of the scheme and we believe we have taken their needs into consideration in designing DRS.

We have consulted extensively with businesses of all sizes that will be affected by the implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme. We are not aware that any producers have decided to cease doing business in Scotland, although we are aware that some have expressed concerns about whether they will continue to sell their products in Scotland.

This is one of the reasons why we have applied a de minimis for the SEPA registration fee. This will remove a cost for businesses operating below the current VAT threshold, benefiting around 1,600 of the more than 4,000 anticipated producers selling into the Scottish market

Question reference: S6W-07098

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 23 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to its plans to include glass packaging in a Deposit Return Scheme, whether it has considered the impact on overall glass recycling rates of splitting glass into two waste streams for material collected manually and using reverse vending machines.

Section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 requires those handling waste to ensure that it is handled in a fashion that promotes high-value recycling.

Return points, producers and Circularity Scotland, when handling returned scheme packaging, including glass, will therefore have an obligation to promote high-value recycling regardless of whether the glass is collected manually or by the use of reverse vending machines.

Question reference: S6W-07109

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the current remuneration is, including any pension or other entitlements, for (a) the (i) chair, (ii) chief executive officer and (iii) chief financial officer and (b) each of the independent directors of Circularity Scotland; whether this will remain the same in each of the next two years; who determines their remuneration, and whether it is subject to ministerial approval.

Question reference: S6W-07125

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the basis is for the assumption that 3,021 reverse vending machines (RVM) will be required for the Deposit Return Scheme, as shown in Table 2 of the business and regulatory impact assessment (BRIA) of 2019 and the Final BRIA of 2021, and how many RVMs Circularity Scotland estimates will be required.

Question reference: S6W-07124

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the estimated cost of fraud of the Deposit Return Scheme reduced from £108 million in the business and regulatory impact assessment (BRIA) of 2019 to £74.3 million in the Final BRIA of 2021.

Question reference: S6W-07122

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it did not include in either the business and regulatory impact assessment (BRIA) of 2019 or the Final BRIA of 2021 of the Deposit Return Scheme an estimate of the total annual cost of loss of revenue for retailers that is attributable to the loss of floor space required for RVMs, and whether it will publish these calculations showing the full detail.

As stated in the Final Business Regulatory Impact Assessment, it is anticipated that floor space implications associated with the installation of Reverse Vending Machines (RVM) are likely to be modest. Generally, it is expected that high-volume retailers will choose to introduce RVMs as they will be able to process returns with greater efficiency, while low-volume retailers will choose to operate manual collection and return, as the costs and space requirements of an RVM may be prohibitive.

Whichever method is adopted, retailers will be able to charge a handling fee from the scheme administrator to fully compensate them for the costs involved in the collection, checking and storage of used containers.