Scotland's Digital Future: Scottish Public Sector Green ICT Strategy

Legislation and Scottish Government Policy

The Green ICT policy is not itself underpinned by legislation or mandation. It will, however, contribute to the mandatory and reporting elements established in other aspects of Scottish Government Legislation and policy initiatives:

Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act, 2014

The sustainable procurement duty of The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act, 2014 refers to the 'environment', and requires certain authorities to produce procurement strategies and annual reports. The key element pertinent to the Green ICT strategy is that before carrying out a regulated procurement initiative, public authorities should consider how in conducting the procurement process they can improve the economic, social, and environmental wellbeing of the authority's area.

This is underpinned by self-assessment and prioritisation tools, and a maturity model which will allow procurement staff to assess the behavioural indicators of their organisation, and will feed into the legislative requirement of reporting. These tools should go live in April 2015 with the first requirements for reports to be submitted in 2016, and applies to procurement professionals.

Climate Change (Scotland) Act, 2009

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act, 2009, sets out targets to reduce Scotland's greenhouse gas emissions by at least 42% by 2020 and 80% by 2050, compared to a 1990-1995 baseline.

To ensure the delivery of these targets, the Act also requires that the Scottish Ministers set annual targets for Scottish emissions from 2010 to 2050, and publish a report on proposals and policies setting out how Scotland can deliver annual targets for reductions in emissions once emissions targets are fixed.

The Report , Low Carbon Scotland: Meeting the Emissions Reduction Targets 2013-2027 published in June 2013 shows that Scotland is on track to meet targets and how, with concerted effort across public sector organisations, they could be met up to 2027.

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment ( WEEE)

The EC Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (2002/96/ EC) was made law in the UK IN 2007.

The WEEE regulations have interdependencies with the Scottish Landfill Tax which comes into force in April 2015, and also with Scotland's Zero Waste Plan so all three documents should be read together.

WEEE obligations do not cover all aspects of waste and asset disposal (e.g. data removal and destruction, and the transportation of waste for disposal). These additional costs can sometimes be offset the residual value of old equipment, but this needs to be negotiated with the supplier conducting the waste removal.

Also, some WEEE is defined as "special waste" which means it contains hazardous material and must be disposed of with a fully completed consignment note by a registered waste carrier, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) Website contains more information on the identification and disposal of "special waste".