Total amount paid out under the waste implementation fund: EIR release

FOI reference: FOI/18/03293
Date received: 6 November 2018
Date responded: 13 December 2018

 

Information requested

 

You asked for: 

 

 

In correspondence you clarified that you would like the information by financial year, and by calendar year covering 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2017.

 

Response

 

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations.  We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.  

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

The answer to your question is included in the table below:

 

Financial Year 2016-2017
Total Amount Paid out under the waste implementation fund	Total funded £283,855 (started September 2016)
Breakdown of the expenditure as a percentage of total funding available	83.5%, budget £340k
Number of payments made by the fund	11
Number of applications received by the fund	36, 15 rejected, 10 carried over to following financial year

1st  January 2016 to 31st  December 2017*
Total Amount Paid out under the waste implementation fund	£712,667.90
Breakdown of the expenditure as a percentage of total funding available	Budget for 2017/18 was £900k. Please note that as the budgets are set for financial years I cannot provide a percentage for part of a Financial Year.
Number of payments made by the fund	22
Number of applications received by the fund	76 during period September 2016 (fund started – December 2017 (22 funded, 26 carried forward, 22 rejected by the panel.)

 * The fund started September 2016

The Resource Efficiency Waste Prevention Implementation Fund started in September 2016 and its purpose is to support SMEs across Scotland to prevent waste and save money.  Zero Waste Scotland administers the fund, and advises that whilst a project may have been approved for funding in one financial year, the lead in time for the SME to procure equipment or undertake recommended measures can mean they delay submitting the information required to receive their funding for some time. Grant milestones are agreed with grantees at the point of grant contract but these can be moved with a justification from the grantee about delays and with the agreement of Zero Waste Scotland. 
 
Zero Waste Scotland has reviewed the details of the fund and its operations to ensure maximum impact and value for money, and has made a number of improvements including clarifying the application process and information required to submit a request. In addition from the next financial year, Zero Waste Scotland intends to launch an online application process to improve speed and transparency in processing.