- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the implementation of the European Union’s Single Use Plastic Directive (SUPD), including Article 6 on produce design requirements and tethered caps; whether it plans to adopt the SUPD in full or in part, and in the event that it does, whether its approach to implementation will include (a) the organisation of any public consultation events and (b) proposed changes to legislation, and what the timescales would be for any such activities.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to maintaining alignment, where possible, with developing EU standards, including those set out by the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive. Last year, Scotland became the first part of the UK to implement a ban on some of the most problematic single-use plastic products through the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021. This legislation delivered Article 5 of the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive.
The Scottish Government is going further than these Regulations to deal with the problem of single-use plastics. For example, last year we announced plans to introduce a mandatory charge on single-use cups by 2025. This commitment aligns with Article 4 of the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive.
At present, the Scottish Government has not set a timetable for the implementation of Article 6 requirements. Any proposed Scottish Government action in this area will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny and public consultation. We are already taking concrete action, including by implementing a deposit return scheme and a reformed extended producer responsibility scheme for plastic packaging. With specific reference to Article 6, from 2025 drinks producers will be required to meet a 90% collection target of all in-scope drinks containers (plastic, glass, and metal).
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Elena Whitham on 20 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is taking to ensure there are welfare facilities within all fire stations in Scotland, so that firefighters can decontaminate themselves following any exposure to cancerogenic fire contaminants.
Answer
The safety and wellbeing of all fire and rescue officers is of upmost importance to the Scottish Government.
The Scottish Government has continued the commitment to support SFRS service delivery and reform with a further uplift of £10m resource for 2023-24, which will bring the total budget to £362.7m.
I am aware that SFRS has been engaged with the FBU and the work of Lancaster University for a number of years and its well established contamination working group has taken action across all aspects of operations to reduce exposure to harmful contaminants. This includes investment in new fire appliances and fire station facilities.
This continues to be a priority for SFRS and the contaminants group will continue to consider the research and take appropriate action.
- Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 20 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether a 10-week period was sufficient time for the public consultation on a proposed Scottish Aggregates Levy Bill.
Answer
The public consultation on developing a Scottish tax to replace the UK Aggregates Levy was open from 26 September to 5 December 2022. This was thought to be a sufficient window considering the issues in question, plans for concurrent stakeholder engagement, and the relatively recent review of the UK levy.
A total of 25 consultation responses were received. These are now being analysed to help inform our next steps, and a formal consultation report will be published in due course.
Although the consultation is an important part of our engagement, it is only part, and does not represent the entirety of it. Consistent with our Framework for Tax, we will continue to listen to and work with all stakeholders throughout the entire process leading up to introduction of the new tax.
- Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to assist residents in Dumfries and Galloway who are experiencing any difficulties recycling single-use plastic medical blister packs.
Answer
The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is responsible for setting all packaging requirements for medicines. Blister packs are not easily recycled because of strict regulatory requirements for pharmaceutical packaging. The Scottish Government encourages businesses to take steps to increase the recycling rates for this packaging where these are compatible with the waste hierarchy and ensure the high-value recycling of materials.
We are taking action to reduce packaging waste and improve recycling in Scotland, including the £70 million Recycling Improvement Fund, which will make it easier for households to recycle, and work across the devolved administrations to introduce extended producer responsibility for packaging. These actions will help local authorities increase the types of materials they can recycle.
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Elena Whitham on 20 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact that the freeze on the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) capital budget at £32.5 million will have upon the ability of SFRS to modernise its current estate.
Answer
Decisions on the allocation of its capital budget, including how to prioritise fleet, equipment or buildings is a matter for SFRS.
The Scottish Government is in regular contact with SFRS to ensure it has the resources it needs to keep communities safe. SFRS is currently undertaking an assessment of the risks faced by communities and the assets which are needed to deal with those risks and this will inform future discussions on both capital and resource budgets.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 20 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13629 by Neil Gray on 12 January 2023, when it expects to provide the update mentioned in the response, and whether this will be by the end of January 2023.
Answer
An update on the Expressions of Interest data reconciliation project is planned to be published by the end of February 2023.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what funding will be allocated as part of its new biodiversity strategy in the current parliamentary session.
Answer
The Scottish Government has made significant funding commitments to protect and restore our biodiversity and is committed to invest an additional £500 million in our natural economy over the course of this parliament. Our recent funding package of £2.9 million for biodiversity projects comes on top of a £65 million commitment for nature restoration. This additional funding includes £1.3m for Atlantic rainforest restoration to fund the first phase of a rainforest restoration programme; £0.5m for ‘Species on the Edge’; and £200,000 to expand nature networks.
As set out in the new draft Scottish Biodiversity Strategy we are committed to developing a Biodiversity Investment Plan, to mobilise public, private and philanthropic finance, closing the estimated £20 billion finance gap for nature this coming decade.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 20 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it had with business organisations ahead of the announcement, contained in the draft Scottish Budget 2023-24, that the Small Business Bonus Scheme relief thresholds would be reformed.
Answer
The Scottish Government accepted the independent Barclay Review’s recommendation that the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS) be evaluated and commissioned the Fraser of Allander Institute to do so. After the publication of the evaluation on 8 March 2022, the Scottish Government set up a short-term working group, which included business organisations, to consider in particular the recommendation “that the Scottish Government begins to collect new information that will make a more robust assessment of the SBBS (and potentially other reliefs) possible in the future”. The group concluded that the financial support which SBBS relief offers benefits many small businesses, but concerns were raised that collecting more information would place an additional burden on business which would not be welcomed at this time.
The Scottish Government also engages regularly with business and sectoral organisations including in a number of stakeholder roundtables ahead of the budget to help understand tax priorities for all the taxes that the Scottish Government has control over, including non-domestic rates.
Responding to the main ask from 19 business organisations, the Budget announced a freeze to the poundage, delivering the lowest poundage in the UK for the fifth year in a row, and continues to support our businesses and communities with a generous non-domestic rates relief package. The Small Business Bonus Scheme remains the most generous scheme of its kind in the UK, and will continue to take 100,000 properties out of rates altogether.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what work it has done with NHS Education for Scotland to improve mandatory equality, diversity and inclusion training for health and social care staff and ensure that this is up to date and relevant.
Answer
NHS Education for Scotland (NES), in partnership with the Equality and Human Rights Commission, produced an e-learning module for Non-Executive Board members on the Public Sector Equality Duty and the Equality Act. This was promoted to NHS Board Chairs in July 2022 and is a resource that all staff can access.
Equality is a theme running through the new Leading to Change programme aimed at developing future and current leaders in health and social care. NES is also working with a range of stakeholders to scope out current training and learning needs for staff on equality and diversity. This will inform work by NES to continue to develop up to date and relevant learning resources on equality and diversity for health and social care staff.
This will include a review and update of the NES essential learning module 'equality and human rights' which is available to the health and social care workforce.’
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to improve the granularity of workforce data regarding protected characteristics, in order to provide information on pay, promotion and recruitment, and ensure that this is recorded in a standardised way, and whether it publishes any such information.
Answer
Scoping work is ongoing to consider the additional data collection, recording, and quality assurance requirements necessary for implementing this action. Further information on the delivery of this action will be set out in our update to the National Workforce Strategy, to be published later this year.
