Maurice Golden

2 Dec 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-20690 by Lorna Slater on 4 September 2023, whether the outlined impact assessments to inform proposals to introduce a charge on single-use beverage cups have begun.

Answer · Lorna Slater: The impact assessments to inform proposals to introduce a charge on single-use disposable beverage cups are currently being developed, in partnership with Zero Waste Scotland, and will be published alongside the public consultation in due course.

28 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to its consideration of measures to increase the recovery of critical raw materials, what assessment it has made of the proposals set out in the EU Critical Raw Materials Act, including any EU targets on accessing strategic raw materials from domestic recycling.

Answer · Lorna Slater: The Scottish Government is aware that the European Council has announced that it has reached provisional agreement with the European Parliament on a regulation establishing a framework to ensure a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials. The …

27 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of any meetings over the last 12 months during which the next Draft Climate Change Plan was discussed, including a list of the attendees at each meeting.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: The Scottish Government has discussions regarding the draft Climate Change Plan regularly and when required. Cabinet meets weekly and discusses climate change and net zero matters on a regular basis; for example it discussed the draft Climate Change Plan on 7…

27 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of all active funding streams within the (a) Energy and Climate Change and (b) Environment and Forestry directorate, broken down by the (i) purpose of, (ii) launch and end dates of, (iii) total value of and (iv) total amount awarded to date through each fun…

Answer · Mairi McAllan: The Funding Streams are: Funding Stream Purpose Launch Date Scheduled End Date Total Value (Lifetime of Fund (1) Amount Awarded to Date Directorate for Energy and Climate Change      SME Loan Scheme SME Loan and Cashback Scheme. 2008 Ongoing N/A …

23 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government when the decision that was taken for the Water Environment Fund not to support the eradication of non-native species will next be reviewed.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: Scotland’s water environment is one of our most important national assets. The Scottish Government sets out it’s objectives and action programmes for protecting and improving Scotland's water environment in the River Basin Management Plan (RBMP), which the Sc…

23 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government when it last assessed the extent and effectiveness of nature-based flood management solutions, and whether it plans to provide extra funding for measurement efforts.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: The Scottish Government is committed to promoting and advancing Natural Flood Management (NFM) as one of a range of measures to adapt to current and future water-related environmental pressures. The Scottish Government has provided funding over a number of y…

23 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to establish monitoring of potential healthcare disruptions due to temperature and flood-related events.

Answer · Michael Matheson: It is for Health Boards to assess and prepare for risks to their sites and services from disruptive weather events as part of their climate change adaptation plans. There is at present no national monitoring system for potentially disruptive weather events …

23 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to conduct a time series analysis of temperature-related mortality in Scotland.

Answer · Jenni Minto: As set out in the Climate Change Committee’s ‘ Adapting to Climate Change Progress in Scotland ’ November 2023 report, there is a need to develop our understanding of the effects of heat on population health and wellbeing in Scotland. Public Health Scotla…

23 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what provision it is making for targeted multi-year funding for local authorities to introduce, upgrade and maintain flood resilience measures.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: Since 2008 the Scottish Government has made available capital funding of £42 million per year to enable local authorities to invest in flood protection measures. Currently 80% of the available £42 million is allocated to prioritised flood schemes and the othe…

23 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it provides to local authorities to support climate change risk assessments and adaptation plans for local roads.

Answer · Fiona Hyslop: The Scottish Government does not currently provide formal guidance to local authorities to support climate change risk assessments and adaptation plans for local roads. The Adaptation Scotland programme is funded by the Scottish Government to support capacit…

23 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether the next Scottish National Adaptation Plan (SNAP3) will include a Scotland-wide assessment of current and future potential risks from weather-related cascading infrastructure failures.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: In its November 2023 independent assessment of progress on climate adaptation, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) recommended that the Scottish Government should include “a national assessment of the scale of current and future risks from weather-related casc…

23 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much private investment it has secured for nature restoration efforts in each of the past five years, also broken down by restoration activity.

Answer · Gillian Martin: It is not the Scottish Government’s role to act as a broker or fundraiser. Instead the Scottish Government is seeking to create the conditions which promote the flow of responsible private investment into nature restoration. Our forthcoming Natural Capital Ma…

23 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has identified any barriers that could prevent it from meeting its peatland restoration targets, and, if so, whether it will provide further details of these.

Answer · Gillian Martin: The Scottish Government has identified, working with our Peatland ACTION delivery partners, multiple barriers that are preventing it from achieving its peatland restoration targets. These include a lack of skilled project designers, technical advisers and age…

23 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether any barriers have been identified to unlocking private investment in climate change adaptation measures, and, if so, whether it will provide further details of these.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: In its November 2023 independent assessment of progress on climate adaptation, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) outlined the need for private investment, alongside public funding, to support adaptation action. Barriers limiting private investment to date ha…

23 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made in developing a monitoring and evaluation framework for climate change adaptation.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: In line with statutory duties, annual reports on climate adaptation are laid in Parliament every May setting out progress made towards implementing climate adaptation objectives, proposals and policies. Twice every 5 years, Ministers also commission the UK Cl…

23 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans for responsibility for planned outcomes in the next Scottish National Adaptation Plan (SNAP3) to sit with individual directorates.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: The next Scottish National Adaptation Plan (SNAP3) responds to the risks identified by the 2022 UK Climate Change Risk Assessment . This Assessment identified 61 risk and opportunities. The Scottish Government has assigned Director-level owners for all identi…

23 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on setting quantifiable targets for establishing levels of resilience to climate change.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: In its November 2023 independent assessment of progress on climate adaptation, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) recommended that the Scottish Government “should set specific and quantified targets for levels of resilience across Scottish society under each …

23 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government which NHS boards have published a climate change adaptation plan, as required by the NHS Scotland Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy 2022-2026.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Paragraphs 77 and 78 of the NHS Scotland Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy 2022-2026 outline adaptation requirements for NHS Scotland Health Boards. In particular paragraph 77 requires that Health Boards will prepare and implement climate change a…

22 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-01058 by Mairi McAllan on 13 July 2021, what progress has been made on establishing a baseline for marine plastic pollution monitoring.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: The Scottish Government microplastics monitoring programme began in 2013, and has undertaken annual surveys since that time. There have been nearly 400 locations sampled between 2013 and 2023. Microplastics are present in the surface waters of all Scottish Ma…

21 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on which (a) sectors and (b) materials should be prioritised to reduce Scotland's material footprint based on Scotland’s Material Flow Accounts.

Answer · Lorna Slater: While the Material Flow Accounts are useful for quantifying how much of a resource we are consuming and producing, Zero Waste Scotland has indicated that the current model has a limited degree of granularity in the materials being consumed and it does not e…

21 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what data improvements are planned for Scotland's Material Flow Accounts.

Answer · Lorna Slater: I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23191 on 7 December 2023. 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-committ…

21 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government when Zero Waste Scotland will publish the 2019 Material Flow Accounts update.

Answer · Lorna Slater: The Material Flow Accounts model is being reworked so that its new trade data will be aligned with EU material flow accounting practices. Zero Waste Scotland is also exploring the scope for mapping material flows to economic sectors. As a result of the UK…

21 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what data it collects on national reuse rates in Scotland.

Answer · Lorna Slater: The Scottish Government does not currently collect data on national reuse rates in Scotland.  

17 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the first meeting of the Storm Babet recovery taskforce, how much new funding is being supplied to each local authority to issue flat rate grants to those most affected by Storm Babet, and when any such funding will be issued.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: The Scottish Government has agreed a package of support for people whose homes and businesses were affected by Storm Babet. Funding is being provided to eligible local authorities to allow them to issue flat rate grants to all households and businesses suffe…

16 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on businesses within the energy supply sector that have net zero plans in place.

Answer · Neil Gray: Developing a net zero or decarbonisation plan can help businesses to understand how they can change their practices to reduce their carbon emissions and the benefits they can gain from doing so. The Enterprise Agencies provide a range of support to help busin…

15 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of flooding damage to property were recorded in each of the past five years, broken down by local authority area.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: Information on the location, damage and costs caused by individual flood incidents is not held by the Scottish Government but detailed information may be held by local authorities, emergency responders and the insurance industry. SEPA collect information on …

15 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its capital expenditure per head of population has been in each local authority area in each of the last 10 years.

Answer · Tom Arthur: The following table shows capital expenditure per head of population for the 32 local authorities shown. In any given year, capital expenditure per person varies substantially between local authority areas. This will in part reflect the different priorities …

13 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential for sustainable aviation fuel production in Scotland by (a) 2025, (b) 2030 and (c) 2045.

Answer · Fiona Hyslop: The Scottish Government has not assessed the potential for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production or supply in Scotland by specific dates. However, we continue to explore options for incentivising the production and use of SAF including the support the Sc…

13 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the proportion of sustainable aviation fuel that will be able to be supplied to Scottish airports from domestic production by 2025. 

Answer · Fiona Hyslop: I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22954 on 23 November 2023. 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-commit…

13 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what work has been done to explore potential applications for artificial intelligence in the development and delivery of services for the Armed Forces and veterans community.

Answer · Graeme Dey: The Scottish Government has not explored potential applications for artificial intelligence (AI) specifically focused on the development and delivery of services for the Armed Forces and veterans community. However, Scotland’s AI Strategy , published in 202…