- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether municipal waste incinerators in Scotland are currently required to accurately measure direct CO2 emissions through the use of calibrated flow rates and calibrated CO2 continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS), and, if not, what plans there are to require this, in line with the approach taken by the UK Government Environment Agency.
Answer
As per S6W-06417 answered on 28 February 2022 , measurement of CO2 emissions using calibrated flow meters and CEMS is not a current requirement in SEPA permits for existing MWIs.
All SEPA Permits for existing sites must comply with the requirements of the Waste Incineration BAT Conclusions (WI BATCs) by 3 December 2023. SEPA will review Permits for MWIs to ensure they will be compliant by the deadline. This will include the new requirement for a calibrated flow meter.
The calibration of CO2 CEMS is not required by the WI BATCs. However, as part of the BAT review process, SEPA will consider whether to include a requirement for calibration of CEMS for CO2 and reporting of CO2 mass emissions to align with the approach taken by the Environment Agency. Whether or not each MWI has an appropriate CEMS in place which is able to be calibrated for measurement of CO2 will be confirmed during the BAT Review for each Permit.
All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether additional funding will be allocated to the Deposit Return Scheme, in light of the reported estimation by Circularity Scotland Limited that there are 37,000 return points, rather than the 17,000 outlined in business and regulatory impact assessment (BRIA) and, if so, how much more will be allocated.
Answer
In line with the principle of producer responsibility, the operational costs to industry of discharging its obligations under the Regulations are not funded by the Scottish Government.
- Asked by: Paul O'Kane, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government when the (a) Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and (b) Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport last met the (i) Chair and (ii) Lead Clinician of the National Advisory Committee responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Respiratory Care Action Plan.
Answer
The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care has not met with the Chair or Lead Clinician of the Scottish Respiratory Advisory Committee.
Respiratory policy falls under the portfolio remit of Ms Maree Todd MSP, Minister for Public Health, Women's Health & Sport. The Minister has not met with the Chair or Lead Clinician of the Scottish Respiratory Advisory Committee.
However, officials meet regularly with the Lead Clinician of the Scottish Respiratory Advisory Committee to discuss the implementation of the Respiratory Care Action Plan for Scotland.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-05517 by Lorna Slater on 24 January 2022, regarding the estimated 27% lower impact of incineration over landfill, whether it will confirm that this involves an underlying assumption that (a) it is an estimate of historical (circa 2018) impacts rather than current or anticipated climate impacts of incineration, (b) it is based on sending waste directly to landfill with no biostabilisation component, (c) the impact of displaced energy is modelled using the UK grid rather than the relatively more decarbonised Scotland grid and (d) the technical report that contains the 27% estimate acknowledges data gaps in the composition of municipal waste and the energy outputs of energy from waste (EfW) plants.
Answer
All the underlying assumptions used in the analysis, including the information requested by the member, are available in the Zero Waste Scotland report The Climate Change Impacts of Burning Municipal Waste in Scotland and the accompanying technical report. Both are available on the Zero Waste Scotland website: The climate change impact of burning municipal waste in Scotland | Zero Waste Scotland .
- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many breast cancer screening centres are currently meeting the target of offering all eligible women aged 50 to 70 their breast screening appointments within 39 months of their previous screening, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The data is not available in the format requested as the Scottish Breast Screening Programme (SBSP) is delivered from six screening centres, each covering a designated population. The SBSP should offer an appointment to women within 36 months of their previous screening episode.
On average, the West and South West screening centres are offering women aged 53-70 a screening appointment within 39 months of their last screen.
The National Screening Oversight, Scottish Screening Committee and Breast Screening Programme Board (BSPB) continue to work with health boards to increase the number of available appointments, including through deploying additional mobile breast screening units and providing additional appointments during evenings and at weekends.
It should be noted that this data is unpublished management data that has not been subject to the standard quality checks that are applied to statistical publications.
- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what the current average length of time is between screening appointments for women aged between 50 and 70 eligible for the Breast Cancer Screening Programme, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The data is not available in the format requested as the Scottish Breast Screening Programme (SBSP) is delivered from six screening centres, each covering a designated population. It should be noted that the data provided below is management information that has not been subject to the quality checks that are normally applied on a statistical publication.
For women aged 53-70 years who were screened between 1st April 2020 and 31st January 2021, the average interval between screening episodes was 41 months across Scotland. The average interval between screening episodes across each screening centre was as follows:
East – 46 months
North – 40 months
North East – 42 months
South East – 41 months
West – 38 months
South West – 39 months
- Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to expedite a decision and position from the UK National Screening Committee on targeted lung cancer screening that could take place in Scotland, in light of this being under review since February 2020.
Answer
As we anticipate a decision from the UK National Screening Committee (NSC) in the coming months, we have no current plans to expedite this. This is a complex matter and it is important that time is taken to evaluate all available evidence. The Scottish Government has, however, provided funding to the University of Edinburgh to support an exploratory piece of research into the feasibility of the introduction of lung health checks within Scotland and it is hoped that the findings will support the evidence base being considered by the NSC.
- Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates the UK National Screening Committee will make a decision and confirm its position on targeted lung cancer screening that could take place in Scotland.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05600 on 10 January 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
It continues to reflect our latest position.
- Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the steps being taken to ensure that people resident in Scotland who have received their COVID-19 vaccinations abroad, or in other UK nations, have their medical records updated to allow them to prove their vaccination status when travelling internationally.
Answer
We have established a process for individuals who have received their coronavirus vaccinations outwith Scotland which allows for them to upload official proof of vaccination from an approved country to their Scottish Vaccination Record through NHS Inform . This will allow those who have been vaccinated within the UK or internationally to receive a combined fully vaccinated status to show for travel and domestic purposes.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the High Court summary judgment issued on 28 January 2022 in the case of HCC International Insurance Company PLC vs Scottish Ministers.
Answer
The Scottish Ministers accept the summary judgement in the English court proceedings brought by CMAL against insurer HCCI.