Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has met with a number of stakeholders regarding the regulation of electronic dog training collars. These include the Kennel Club and Scottish Kennel Club; Dogs Trust; the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; and the Electronic Collar Manufacturers Association.

Scottish Government requires that fish farms submit information on treatments administered to farmed fish for which they are in withdrawal, in addition to site disease information and mortality rates, in order to inform the fish health inspectorate of fish health at the time of escape. Scottish Government is considering adapting its current publication system to include this information.

The risk to the public of consuming treated escaped farmed salmon is negligible.

Of the two businesses subject to fixed monetary penalties, one was inspected on 18 May 2017 and found to be compliant at that time.

The second business was scheduled for re-inspection on 17 November 2017 and its compliance status will be advised when the information is available.

The minimum criteria businesses must meet to be considered "fully compliant" with the duty are to:

• take all reasonable steps to ensure the separate collection of dry recyclable waste, and/or

• take all reasonable steps to ensure the separate collection of food waste produced by the food business (where a rural exemption is not applicable).

As defined in amendments made by the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 to Section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, this can be summarised as:

• Segregating all target dry recyclables (plastics, metal, glass, paper & cardboard) generated. Businesses will be expected to have and use an internal material segregation system that matches an external recycling collection service from an authorised provider. Recyclables should be free of contamination, e.g. glass should be separately collected from paper and cardboard.

• SEPA’s Food Waste Management Guidance sets out the expectations across the food waste supply chain in order to achieve high quality recycling. Only food waste managed in accordance with this guidance will fulfil the waste acceptance permit condition at food waste treatment facilities. https://www.sepa.org.uk/media/219841/wst-g-049-food-waste-management-in-scotland.pdf.

• All businesses must be compliant with duty of care for waste as set out in the Scottish Government's statutory Duty of Care Code of Practice.

The Scottish Government has no position on those investigating actual or potential animal welfare crime publishing information of these activities, other than to advise them strongly to remain within the applicable law, notably the Contempt of Court Act 1981. Such organisations may publish information as they see fit, although they are unlikely to do so if this will prejudice investigations or potential prosecutions. Organisations whose investigations have resulted in a successful prosecution often publicise the decision of the Courts.

The Scottish Government does not maintain a central register of reports as there is no single definition of a report. We have not conducted a review of reports published or unpublished. We have a commitment to open government including pro-active publication where possible. Scottish Government also follows the Model Publication Scheme developed and approved by the Scottish Information Commissioner.

I have asked Zero Waste Scotland's Chief Executive to contact the Member to provide the information requested.

The Scottish Government has not commissioned any research regarding the potential effects of increased circular economic activity on the labour market. Our circular economy strategy identifies the potential economic and environmental opportunities underpinning the prioritisation of our actions. We would expect the employment benefits of these interventions to become clearer as implementation proceeds.

This information is not held centrally.

However, through our Switched on Fleets programme we have supported the purchase or leasing of around 400 Ultra-Low Emission Vehicles across the public sector in Scotland.

The initial implementation of the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 was focussed on communication and awareness raising. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) worked in partnership with Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) and waste service providers to co-ordinate messages, produce leaflets, use radio, print and social media and talk to trade bodies and businesses. This was very successful with a ZWS awareness tracking study showing a rise from 15% business awareness to over 80% by the end of the campaign (samples of 500 random businesses).

In 2015, twenty-five local authorities undertook compliance sampling in a total of 6752 premises across Scotland. The results are summarised below:

• 62% of premises were fully compliant

• 20% were making some efforts to comply

• 18% were still using a single general waste service, i.e. making no effort to recycle

In order to reach those still failing to comply, 130,000 information leaflets were distributed to waste producers via partner organisations in November 2015.

The leaflets were also distributed to local authority waste enforcement & environmental health officers. In addition, local authorities, ZWS, Resource Efficient Scotland (RES) and Netregs all developed accessible information and other support material to enable businesses to comply.