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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-07282

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its response for the consultation, Building standards (fire safety).

Question reference: S6W-07278

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, as part of its review of the role of the BS 8414 standard in Scotland, what discussions it has had with the (a) UK Government regarding its decision in 2018 to end the use of the BS 8414 standard for residential and institutional buildings over 18m and (b) Welsh Government regarding its decision in 2020 to do the same.

Question reference: S6W-07281

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will introduce regulations, similar to those in England and Wales, to only allow A1 and A2 rated Euroclass materials to be used on the outside of high-rise and institutional buildings in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-07114

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 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the Valpak report, Deposit Return Schemes for Drinks Containers, and its findings that a majority of people prefer a kerbside collection scheme to be used for recycling.

Public support for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) is high.

Zero Waste Scotland’s consumer research indicates that 71% of the public support the introduction of DRS.

Kerbside collection remains important since it enables people to recycle non-scheme items. Additionally, DRS will help local authority waste management services to free up capacity to support wider collection services and improve recycling rates on other materials.

Furthermore, DRS will significantly increase the quantity and quality of glass recyclate, creating an aggregated and high-quality feedstock for reprocessing.

We do not believe an enhanced kerbside scheme could deliver the level or rate of improvement that we will see through DRS. Packaging recycling rates have stalled, including for glass, and the current producer responsibility system is not driving improvement.

DRS should deliver an 85% collection rate for glass by the second full year of operation at the latest.

Question reference: S6W-07137

Asked by: Maggie Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what contact during this parliamentary session it has had with the Department for Work and Pensions regarding the impact of social security sanctions in Scotland.

Since the start of this parliamentary session the Scottish Government has written to the UK Government on three separate occasions regarding a number of different issues with the Universal Credit system. The Scottish Government is very concerned that since the DWP reintroduced conditionality, including sanctions, the number of hardship payments have increased substantially. The Scottish Government will continue to call on the UK Government to make Universal Credit a system that works for people and not against them.

Question reference: S6W-07123

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, in relation to the business and regulatory impact assessment (BRIA) of 2019 and the Final BRIA of 2021 of the Deposit Return Scheme and section 4.1 on calculating the costs and benefits of recycling, whether it will provide the detailed calculations for the “associated costs and benefits”, setting out (a) the individual figures and computations of the costs per tonne calculated for “collecting, sorting and disposing of the recycled materials” and (b) the benefits per tonne of “material revenue, carbon savings, residual collection, landfill savings and litter reduction benefits”, and for what reason the loss of landfill tax resulting from less material going to landfill has been excluded from the calculation.

The model used to inform that BRIA deals with local authorities as a collective group and it is therefore not possible to provide detailed calculations for individual local authority costs and benefits in relation to recycling. You can view the full report here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/deposit-return-scheme-scotland-final-business-regulatory-impact-assessment/ .

Landfill tax is considered a ‘transfer payment’ under HM Treasury guidance and is therefore not included in BRIA calculations.

Question reference: S6W-07144

Asked by: Kaukab Stewart, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what support it will provide for early career researchers in medical research (a) in general and (b) at the British Heart Foundation’s Glasgow Cardiovascular Research Centre, in light of reports that its funding has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office run a range of Fellowship schemes for early career researchers to build capacity for health research in Scotland. These schemes are open to researchers in all fields including cardiovascular research. Applications are subject to peer review with funding recommendations made by independent panels.

Clinical Academic Training Fellowship Scheme to enable early career researchers to undertake a PhD.

Clinical Academic Fellowships – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

NES/CSO Postdoctoral Clinical Lectureships to enable medics with a PhD to have 50% research time while completing training.

Joint NES/CSO Postdoctoral Clinical Lectureships – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

Early Postdoctoral Fellowship providing 3 years of funding for early career researchers to develop their academic career.

Early Postdoctoral Fellowship – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

Researchers at the British Heart Foundation's Glasgow Cardiovascular Research Centre are eligible for these awards.

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-07121

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, in relation to the Deposit Return Scheme and the estimates it made of the costs of loss of revenue to retailers caused by the loss of space necessary to accommodate a reverse vending machine (RVM), whether it will state (a) what specific evidence it obtained from Envipco whom it cites as the basis for the figure used of around 0.5 square metres, (b) what discussions it had with representatives of small retailers in connection with the business and regulatory impact assessment (BRIA) of 2019 (paragraph 174) and the Final BRIA of 2021 (paragraph 209), (c) what its response is to reports that many small retailers believe that the space required for the smallest RVM that would permit its location in a shop and its use for its intended purpose, including extraction of recyclate, is 3 square metres of floor space, which is around six times more than what was estimated and (d) what it estimates will be the total annual cost of loss of revenue for retailers that is attributable to the loss of floor space required for RVMs based on the area of (i) 0.5 and (ii) 3 square metres.

The most up to date information available regarding the impact of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme on retailers, including information about the use of Reverse Vending Machines (RVMs) can be found in the amended Final Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA), which was published on 22 December 2021 and can be downloaded from the Scottish Government’s website here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/deposit-return-scheme-scotland-final-business-regulatory-impact-assessment/ .

Question reference: S6W-07136

Asked by: Maggie Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what evaluation it has made of the impact on the Scottish labour market of the UK Government’s proposed reduction in the time offered to unemployed social security recipients to seek work in their preferred job sector from three months to four weeks.

The Scottish Government routinely publishes a range of labour market statistics and analysis to monitor changes in our labour market. These can be accessed at the following link: Labour market statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

No evaluation of the UK Government’s proposed reduction in the time offered to unemployed social security recipients to seek work has been carried out by the Scottish Government. However, this recent announcement from the UK Government is yet another example of a system which doesn’t work well enough to help our most vulnerable people, in a time when support is most needed. Universal Credit, which is the responsibility of the UK Government, is too often failing the people it is designed to support and driving more people into poverty.