Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-24876

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has done to develop partnerships involving communities, public and private sector investors to plant more trees and create more woodlands since September 2017.

The Scottish Government, through Scottish Forestry, is working with four planning authorities in the South of Scotland (Dumfries & Galloway, East Ayrshire, Scottish Borders, and South Lanarkshire) to develop a new approach to how we help land managers and wider interest groups better consider and identify opportunities for new, particularly larger scale, woodlands.

Forestry and Land Scotland’s (FLS) Community Asset Transfer Scheme provides a process for communities to buy, lease or use national forest land to benefit the community, which could include new woodlands. Since January 2017, 7 transfers have been completed totalling 305 hectares. Under the previous National Forest Land Scheme, 31 sales to community bodies were completed. Many such projects have focussed on making more use of existing local woodlands for local timber production and native woodland restoration.

Across Scotland, FLS has agreements or leases for around 90 community projects and partnerships on national forest land. FLS is also working with the Scottish Mines Restoration Trust, Hargreaves, and local authorities to explore the potential for 2,500 hectares of new planting as part of efforts to benefit communities and contribute towards national climate change ambitions.

In addition, further local partnership projects have been developed by Scottish Forestry to encourage more smaller-scale planting, for example through advisory work with farmers and through the Croft Woodlands project.

Question reference: S5W-24865

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has invested (a) through forestry grants and (b) in the National Forest Estate since September 2016.

(a) The published accounts for Forestry Commission Scotland show that the Scottish Government invested the following sums in support for forestry through forestry grants:

Period	FY 16-17	FY 17-18	FY 18-19
Grant Investments	£30.9m	£38.2m	£51.1m

(b) The Scottish Government has invested the following in Scotland’s national forests and land:

Period	FY 16-17	FY 17-18	FY 18-19
Trading Investment	£123.5m	£130.8m	£155.2m
Annual Subsidy Limit	£21.7m	£20.7m	£14.7m
Total Investment	£145.2m	£151.5m	£169.9m

Question reference: S5W-24874

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 19 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been paid out by the Digital Growth Fund in (a) 2018 and (b) 2019.

Question reference: S5W-24877

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has carried out to evaluate current practice around the reinstatement of trees removed during development of infrastructure since September 2017.

Between September 2017 and November 2017, the Scottish Government gathered and analysed data from infrastructure developers on the scale and cost of reinstating trees removed during development of infrastructure associated with windfarms.

The data shows that windfarm developers primarily aim to carry out their compensatory planting within the development boundary, with only around 10% of the total area felled requiring compensatory planting off-site. Off-site compensatory planting costs were found to be similar to the grants offered for woodland creation.

Question reference: S5W-24878

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many hectares of ancient woodland have been restored since September 2017.

Question reference: S5O-03586

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of including glass in its deposit return scheme on Scotland's glass manufacturers and recycling sector.

Question reference: S5W-25225

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what measures the Scottish Government will consider adopting to increase accessibility of glass recycling, in light of 43% of Scottish households having no access to kerbside recycling for glass.

Our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers will include glass bottles, which constitute the largest proportion of glass packaging on the market. The system will be designed to ensure people will be able to return items with the same ease as they bought them, making glass recycling more accessible than it is currently and allowing us to increase glass recycling significantly.

Glass containers not captured through DRS will continue to be collected by local authorities through local recycling services. We intend to host a recycling summit this year to bring together senior leaders across the public and private sectors to identify opportunities to accelerate the pace of progress towards our ambitious recycling targets and ensure a more consistent, efficient and easier to understand approach to recycling.

Question reference: S5W-25224

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact would be of excluding glass from the deposit return system in Scotland, in the event that an "all-in" deposit return scheme is introduced in England, which was given backing by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 16 July 2019.

We want to introduce a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) that is as ambitious as possible to provide maximum environmental and economic benefit for Scotland. Our modelling indicates that there is a clear benefit to including glass. This is primarily from significant increases in recycling, which uses less energy and therefore generates less carbon than producing glass from virgin materials. Furthermore, glass is a dangerous and costly component of litter, particularly when broken, therefore the reduction in glass being littered will offer benefits to local environmental quality.

Question reference: S5W-25088

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the extra funding that it plans for electric charging points will be allocated to rural communities.

On 29 August 2019, the Scottish Government announced a new Strategic Partnership between the Scottish Government, including Transport Scotland, Scottish Power Energy Networks and Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, that is intended to ensure that Scotland has access to a world-leading electric vehicle charging network and the electricity network needed to support it. The £7.5 million project is currently in development and it is anticipated that the knowledge and evidence they generate will be of benefit to both Scotland’s urban and rural communities.

We have provided over £30m in grant funding to all 32 of Scotland’s Local Authorities since 2012 to help establish a comprehensive electric vehicle charging network of over 1,000 charge points. Funding is distributed to local authorities based on a methodology agreed with COSLA. That methodology takes into consideration the areas with greater demand for new charging infrastructure, areas where there was pressure on existing charging infrastructure or areas of strategic importance to ensure adequate geographical coverage of charging infrastructure.

70% of publicly available charge points on the ChargePlace Scotland network are out with Scotland’s large urban areas with 40% of the ChargePlace Scotland network serving small towns and rural areas.

Question reference: S5W-24873

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 17 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made since September 2017 accelerating the deployment of connectivity infrastructure, including through delivering new rental guidance for mobile infrastructure on public buildings.

Independent broadband analysis site, thinkbroadband.com, states that fibre broadband coverage across Scotland has increased from 95% to 97.6% since September 2017, with superfast coverage of 30 Megabits per second and above increasing from 90.9% to 93.8% across the same timeframe. This is, in large part, thanks to the £400 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) roll-out, which has supported over 936,000 premises to date. Our £600 million investment in the procurement phase of our Reaching 100% (R100) programme, which is being 96.5% funded by Scottish Government, will drive extension of superfast broadband access to all non-domestic and domestic premises in Scotland.

We are creating an investment climate in Scotland that supports and accelerates commercial deployment of digital infrastructure. We are offering 10 years non-domestic rates relief on new fibre, in comparison with 5 years relief in England, and are continuing to develop rental Guidance to make it easier for telecommunications operators to access public sector land and buildings.

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