- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31906 by Gillian Martin on 16 December 2024, what discussions it has held over the past year with (a) academia and (b) private sector companies regarding any expansion of reuse and recycling of rare earth materials.
Answer
We must keep our precious resources in use as long as possible, in line with our circular economy ambitions and reusing and recycling materials has an important part to play in Scotland’s response to tackling the climate crisis. I have not held discussions with academia or private sector companies regarding rare earth materials but would welcome any discussions to make progress in this area.
Scottish Enterprise (SE) has undertaken research to understand the implications for Scotland on accessing Critical Raw Materials and Technologies (CRM&T), including rare earth materials. This research will allow SE to further understand how Scottish companies can remain competitive. SE will continue to engage with academia, private enterprises, and beyond to fully understand the implications for Scotland.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31983 by Gillian Martin on 17 December 2024, on what dates its meetings with the UK Government Office for the Internal Market (OIM) in 2024 took place; which of those meetings were attended by a cabinet secretary or minister, and at which of those meetings there was specific discussion of the provisions of the Circular Economy Bill and/or the provisions of the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024.
Answer
The Internal Market Act (IMA) was imposed on the Scottish Parliament without its consent, and radically undermines its powers. Every party in the Scottish Parliament, barring the Scottish Conservatives, voted for its repeal in October 2023, and the Scottish Government is clear that the IMA must indeed be repealed in line with the wishes of this Parliament. We therefore welcome the statutory review of the IMA announced by the new UK Government, which must now be used to undo the damage created by the Act, and ensure that the Parliament’s powers are fully restored.
Since 2021, Scottish Government officials have had over 40 meetings with officials and/or panel members from the Office for the Internal Market (OIM), some bilateral, others multilateral meetings with the other governments of the UK. Discussion at these meetings has included updates on the parliamentary progress of the Circular Economy Act
The Scottish Government continues to engage regularly with the OIM and has discussed measures already taken to restrict supply or manufacture single-use items, and will continue to do so in relation to any future policy.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of animal cruelty were reported to the police in 2023-24; of these cases, how many resulted in a (a) prosecution and (b) conviction, and, of those that resulted in a conviction, what proportion resulted in a custodial sentence.
Answer
There is no single crime of animal cruelty and such crimes are identified differently in the annual Accredited Official Statistics publications on Recorded Crime in Scotland and Criminal Proceedings in Scotland. These publications are based on separate and unlinked data sets and cannot be considered as proportions of each other.
Recorded Crime in Scotland is based on a count of crimes reported to Police Scotland. The year is based on when any crime(s) were reported to police. Animal cruelty offences are only identifiable at crime level. In 2023-24 there were 274 offences of animal cruelty reported to Police Scotland. This breaks down into 49 offences of cruelty to protected animals (excluding dogs), 177 offences of cruelty to dogs, 15 offences of cruelty to wild animals and 33 offences of hunting with dogs.
Criminal Proceedings in Scotland is based on a count of people proceeded against in court (and the number of those resulting in conviction). Data for 2023-24 is not yet available.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to transform participation rates for women in entrepreneurship.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 15 January 2025
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 8 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31824 by
Shona Robison on 9 December 2024, for what reason it considered that there
would be a disproportionate cost in providing data for appointments prior to
2020, in light of such data being provided in the answer to question S6W-12529,
and whether it will set out the (a) cost of supplying the answer to question
S6W-12529 and (b) estimated cost of providing pre-2020 data for question
S6W-31824.
Answer
In accordance with the Public Appointments Team’s data retention policy, the retention period for documents supporting the public appointments process is five years after the appointment tenure in post has ended. Therefore we do not hold any information regarding public appointments which ended prior to December 2019.
We also do not hold any information regarding public appointments made prior to 2011.
To provide data for appointments made between 2011 and 2019 would include data from over 360 appointment rounds, some of which were for several appointees. Information for each appointment round would have to be searched individually for the information requested, which we estimate would take at least seven working days, therefore incurring a disproportionate cost.
We are unable to provide estimated costs of providing the information requested in questions S6W-12529 and S6W-31824 but would like to confirm that these costs would be disproportionate for the reason given above.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 03 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 8 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of the Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics 2023, whether discarding is continuing in the Nephrops trawl fishery, and what action is being taken to reduce any such food waste or ecosystem harm.
Answer
The abundance of fish in Scottish waters means that a varied industry has developed over time, with many different types of fishing vessels operating as part of a mixed fishery. There are different target fish species, depending on the type of fishing vessel and where it operates, and different issues around unwanted catch. Discarding in the nephrops trawl fishery does occur as whitefish may be caught alongside nephrops. Since the introduction of the landing obligation, this unwanted catch can amount to a disproportionate cost for fisherman who have to land and then dispose of it. As such, the Scottish Government have utilised lawful exemptions to the landing obligation for these fish, in order to lessen the financial burden on these small nephrops vessels. These exempted fish are fully accounted for in quota calculations and factored into stock assessments.
As part of the policy development of our Future Catching Policy, we have been working with industry to explore pragmatic technical and spatial measures to support fishers to reduce discarding. We also know there are improvements we can make to the implementation of the landing obligation that will make the rules around discarding more effective and will work with industry and others to develop this.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 8 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31828 by Gillian Martin on 10 December 2024, what quantity of single-use plastic items has been seized from individuals and/or businesses in contravention of the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 since the regulations came into force.
Answer
The Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 do not include a power to seize single use plastic items. They do, however, allow the taking of samples of articles or substances found in any premises that the enforcement officer enters. These samples, which could include single use plastic items, can then be retained for the purposes of examination and testing and to be used in evidence in any proceedings for an offence under the Regulations. Information on any samples taken and retained may be available from the enforcement authorities.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 8 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31828 by Gillian Martin on 10 December 2024, in light of the information not being held centrally, which sources would be required to gather the information requested.
Answer
Data on the usage of the noted material could be obtained through a range of activity including population surveys, waste composition analysis, cross-border trade analysis and studies of the weight and carbon impact of typical products.
It should be noted that, as the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 place restrictions on supplying the single-use plastic products in question in the course of a business, sales data in Scotland would therefore be of limited value in ascertaining usage.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 8 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31981 by Gillian Martin on 17 December 2024, whether it has asked SEPA to review local authority efforts to identify contaminated land downstream of disused lead mines, in light of reports of the UK Government tasking the Environment Agency to do so in England.
Answer
Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, land contamination is the responsibility of local authorities. Any land which is identified as being contaminated, including any downstream of disused lead mines, should be managed in accordance with their routine regime of identifying and securing remediation for contaminated land. The Scottish Government expects that local authorities will prioritise based upon risk to the environment and human health, rather than source of land contamination.
The Scottish Government has no current plans to ask SEPA to review local authority actions in this area.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 8 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31982 by Gillian Martin on 17 December 2024, what plans it has to assess any land contaminated by historic metal mining.
Answer
Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, land contamination is the responsibility of local authorities. Any land which is identified as being contaminated, including any contaminated by historic metal mining, should be managed in accordance with their routine regime of identifying and securing remediation for contaminated land.
