Chamber and committees

The new publication format from Public Health Scotland is experimental and will continue to develop as the new Payments Model beds in.

The new publications draw from the revised Statement of Dental Remuneration (SDR) which sets out 45 comprehensive care and treatment activities from 1 November, as opposed to the previous SDR which was input-focused and included over 700 individual item codes. In reforming the SDR to focus on comprehensive care and treatment activities, we have also ensured that the overall model of care is predicated on being patient-centric and responsive to individual need and risk.

While we are therefore still able to draw broad comparisons on activity reported for clinical treatments pre- and post-pandemic, given the significant change to the basis on which raw data is collected, it is not appropriate for the two data-sets to be presented as equivalent in statistical reporting and comparisons drawn must be treated with appropriate caution. While broad comparisons are useful for providing indicative metrics on sector capacity pre- and post-pandemic, our focus is to ensure that all activity is of clinical value and appropriate to the patient's need.

Forestry and Land Scotland do not create policy but follow Scottish Government Policy created by other Scottish Government agencies.

Forestry and Land Scotland a) encourage raptor and owl conservation and monitoring by following the principles within Scotland’s Biodiversity Strategy, Scotland’s Forestry Strategy and by complying with all relevant wildlife legislation.

Forestry and Land Scotland b) are engaged with a range of local community conservation programmes, including those supported by Scottish Raptor Study Group. In 2023, FLS launched its Communities Strategy which is an invitation for community groups to come forward with ideas for projects and activities including conservation work on Scotland's National Forests and Land managed by FLS.

The Scottish Government is taking action to prevent and support the removal of plastic pollution in seas and waterways through measures detailed in the Marine Litter Strategy.

The refreshed Marine Litter Strategy aims to address the amount of litter entering the marine environment, as well as to help tackle existing litter, in order to achieve ecological, economic and social benefits. The Strategy’s action plan focuses on the most problematic types of marine litter including fishing and aquaculture gear, sewage-related debris, and plastic pellets, and will drive forward our work up to 2027 co-ordinating the efforts of our stakeholders and partners, working at a national and international level to help tackle this global problem.

The Scottish Government supports the removal of existing litter through funding the work of organisations that support and co-ordinate beach cleans and local community engagement, such as Local Coastal Partnerships. We have also funded litter removal offshore through KIMO’s Fishing for Litter scheme, and at our rivers with Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Upstream Battle project, preventing litter entering waterways, travelling downstream, and ultimately reaching the sea.

None of the public bodies under the direct jurisdiction of the Scottish Ministers currently use physical record keeping as their only means of information storage.

A real terms uplift to health funding has been prioritised in the opening Budget position for 2024-25. We have invested £2 billion in the 2024-25 budget for social care and integration, which is an increase of over £1 billion compared to 2021-22. This delivers on our Programme for Government commitment to increase social care spending by 25% (£840 million) over this Parliament, two years ahead of our original target.

Despite this significant investment the financial climate remains extremely challenging, and we are working with partners to understand and address the challenges, within the context of a finite budget.

The Scottish Government currently monitors plastic pollution in the sea through microplastics in surface water, sea-floor litter, and beach litter. We have initiated work to collect data on plastic pollution in waterways though supporting and funding Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Upstream Battle project. The National Litter and Flytipping Strategy action plan contains a number of actions related to improving data capture on litter and flytipping, with the aim of improving our knowledge of these issues.

The Scottish Government microplastics monitoring programme began in 2013, and has undertaken annual surveys since that time. Microplastics are present in the surface waters of all Scottish Marine Regions, although have not been found to be present at all sample sites. Scottish Marine Regions next to the most urbanised and industrialised areas of the country have been shown to have higher concentrations of microplastics. Annual surveys continue to gather data, and would contribute to any baseline developed in the future.

Sea-floor litter data is collected during Scottish Government fish surveys which sample Scottish waters. There is now over 10 years of data, from 2012 onwards, which is used nationally and internationally as part of wider efforts to monitor changes in marine litter levels in the North-East Atlantic. There is evidence of an apparent decrease in litter density over time for some areas of Scotland’s seas.

The density and type of litter found on Scotland’s beaches has been recorded by the Marine Conservation Society since 1993. This data has been used by the Scottish Government to produce the pilot Scottish Beach Litter Performance Indicators. Beach litter loadings have been calculated for five sub-regions around the Scottish coastline. The amounts of litter found in the five sub-regions show a variety of trends, dependent on the litter type and location.

Information on these monitoring programmes has been published in Scotland’s Marine Assessment 2020 and can be found at https://marine.gov.scot/sma/assessment-theme/marine-litter

Research and monitoring shows that the majority of litter which ends up in the sea or in waterways has come from land-based sources. These sources include on-the-go food and drinks containers, sanitary items incorrectly disposed of through the sewer system, and flytipping. Maritime and aquatic sources also contribute to litter found at sea and in waterways, and these include maritime industries such as fishing, aquaculture, and shipping, as well as other sources such as angling.

The Scottish Government is taking action to prevent and support the removal of plastic pollution in seas and waterways through measures detailed in the Marine Litter Strategy and the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy.

The refreshed Marine Litter Strategy aims to address the amount of litter entering the marine environment, as well as to help tackle existing litter, in order to achieve ecological, economic and social benefits. The Strategy’s action plan focuses on the most problematic types of marine litter including fishing and aquaculture gear, sewage-related debris, and plastic pellets, and will drive forward our work up to 2027 co-ordinating the efforts of our stakeholders and partners, working at a national and international level to help tackle this global problem.

The Marine Litter Strategy covers a wide range of actions. We are working with the UK Government and Devolved Governments to put an end to pollution caused by wet wipes containing plastic, and we announced our intention to ban the sale and supply of these items on 22 April 2024, with legislation to be in force by mid-2026. We are also working to improve the management of end-of-life fishing and aquaculture gear to reduce litter and improve recycling rates, contributing to our circular economy. In addition, we are developing international solutions to prevent plastic pellet pollution, which can be found on our beaches and risk the health of our marine wildlife.

Litter has to be tackled from source, and in June 2023 we published a new National Litter and Flytipping Strategy for Scotland, which includes litter which may be washed from the land into waterways and the sea. This six-year Strategy aims to prevent litter and flytipping through influencing behaviour, improving the delivery of services, and strengthening enforcement. Published with an accompanying action plan, it sets out how we will achieve our vision of a Scotland not blighted by litter and flytipping.

The National Litter and Flytipping Strategy includes a variety of preventative measures. Fixed penalty notices for flytipping offences have been increased from £200 to £500 as of 1 January 2024. This is intended to act as a deterrent to flytipping and is one of the key actions for Scottish Government in the Strategy’s Year One Action Plan. In addition to fixed penalty notices, flytippers can also be issued a civil penalty by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). These include fixed monetary penalties of £600, and variable monetary penalties up to £40,000.

In January 2024, Scottish Government published our draft Circular Economy & Waste Route Map which sets out a range of priority actions to deliver sustainable use of our resources and progress a circular economy in Scotland by 2030, including measures to drive responsible consumption, production and re-use.

As part of this wider work, the Scottish Government is committed to matching or exceeding the standards set out by the EU Directive on single-use plastics where we are able to do so and in a manner that contributes towards maintaining and advancing standards.

From 1 June 2022 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. In addition, the Scottish Government has committed to introduce a minimum charge on single-use disposable beverage cups, ban the sale and supply of single-use vapes by 1 April 2025 and ban wet wipes containing plastic.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-27146 on 16 May 2024. 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

The Scottish Government is working on a contribution to the UK's report to the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee- detailing the actions being taken to ensure to ensure compliance with the convention. It will be published this summer.