Chamber and committees

Circularity Scotland (CSL), as a private non-profit organisation and scheme administrator for DRS, represents and provides services to its members including Scotland’s largest drinks producers, importers, wholesalers and retailers. This is entirely appropriate for a scheme that has industry responsibility at its heart. The Scottish Government will register as a return point operator (RPO) with CSL and will be handled no differently than any other registered RPO.

Transport Scotland applied its normal risk management practices from the beginning of its work on the A9 Dualling programme to the identification and assessment of factors that could affect delivery of the programme. Individual factors were raised with Ministers as relevant to issues on which Ministers were periodically briefed.

This is a matter for independent hospices, Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships. The information requested is not held centrally.

Circularity Scotland submitted an application to Scottish Ministers for approval to become a scheme administrator. Drinks producers, wholesalers and retailers across Scotland collaborated to create Circularity Scotland and support its application to become a scheme administrator. The Scottish Government did not engage in discussions with producers or retailers with regards to Circularity Scotland’s application. While Circularity Scotland is the only approved scheme administrator, it does not have exclusive rights in relation to the collection of scheme articles. There is no limit on the number of scheme administrators that can operate within the scheme.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

We recognise the importance of swimming pools and other sports facilities in supporting the physical and mental health of the nation. sport scotland, our national agency for sport, are supporting Scottish Swimming to deliver the Scottish Swimming Facilities Project to accurately understand the current swimming pool provision, life cycle and predict the landscape in the short, medium and long term.

We have asked sport scotland to write to Mr Miles Briggs MSP with more details of the Scottish Swimming Facilities Project and to keep him updated as it progresses.

The M8 Woodside Viaduct is a vital element of the motorway and road network serving Glasgow, the wider region and country, carrying approximately 150,000 vehicles per day. The decision to restrict traffic lanes on the viaducts was made for safety reasons by Transport Scotland’s Director of Roads, as reducing the live traffic loading on the structure was a key aspect to its management, continued use and repair.

Demolishing the structure was ruled out due to the economic, environmental and social impacts on businesses and communities served by the local and trunk road network, including the costs, durations and traffic volumes involved. The refurbishment option was considered to have less economic, social, traffic and environmental impacts. This decision was supported by stakeholders, who expressed significant concern over the impact of lane closures, let alone full closure of the viaduct.

Angus Campbell, the Chair of the Ferries Community Board, is now engaging with island communities and ferry users regarding the recommendations of the phase oneProject Neptune report. That consultation is due to finish next month and Mr Campbell will provide Ministers with a report on his findings shortly after.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and myself met with hospice sector representatives on 14 March to discuss the pressures that the hospice sector are currently facing. The Scottish Hospice Leadership Group and a number of hospices continue to be valued members of the Scottish Government’s Strategy Steering Group for Palliative and End of Life Care, and Scottish Government officials continue to attend the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group (SHLG).

In our Scottish Government procurement: annual report 2021 to 2022 we reported that 94% of our contractors are committed to paying the real Living Wage, an increase of 2% points over the previous year. The Scottish Government considers Fair Work criteria on a case-by-case basis and requires suppliers to pay the real Living Wage to workers involved in the delivery of our contracts where it is relevant to the contract, non-discriminatory and proportionate to do so. We do not hold information about the specific number of contractor staff who benefit from this commitment.

Food Standards Scotland has a dedicated Food and Feed Incident Team comprising a Head of Incidents, an Incident Manager and three incident officers. The team is also assisted by a Support Team comprising a Support Manager and Support Officer. These two individuals assist in the investigation of food- feed incidents, however, much of their time is spent on other divisional priorities.

When identifying the spend on food- feed investigations, consideration has been given to staffing costs along with other associated costs linked with carrying out the investigations. The spend is assuming the full time cost of all members of staff, including the support team.

The following table presents the annual spend on incidents for the last 3 years and the percentage of the overall Food Standards Scotland budget this reflects.