Chamber and committees

Special Advisers are appointed in accordance with Part 1 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 by the First Minister as a Special Adviser for the purpose of providing assistance to the Scottish Ministers.

As at the date of your request, the following Special Advisers were in post:

Colin McAllister

Callum McCaig

Jeanette Campbell

Gavin Corbett

Ewan Crawford

Jennie Gollan

David Hutchison

Harry Huyton

Ross Ingebrigtsen

Emily Mackintosh

Jack Middleton

The Pay Bands and Pay Ranges for those Special Advisers are as follows:

Information on what has been spent on circularity education in schools, colleges and workplaces is not held centrally but we have been able to establish that the support set out below has been provided.

Over the last five years, Zero Waste Scotland has employed an education and skills team (between 1 and 3 FTEs), to work with education and skills delivery bodies in Scotland to encourage uptake and incorporation of circular economy content into educational materials.

Zero Waste Scotland has spent £185,000 on education and skills projects, following the publication of Scottish Government’s Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan (CESAP) in 2020, to support the delivery of CESAP projects.

In addition, Zero Waste Scotland has, over the last five years, supported the Construction Supply Chain Sustainability School with £69,250.

The Scottish Government provided the Scottish Waste Industry Training, Competency, Health & Safety (SWITCH) forum with a grant of £50,000 in 2022-23. As part of this grant funding, SWITCH established two training courses in partnership with the University of the West of Scotland, targeted at supervisors in the waste industry, to develop skills and knowledge in waste legislation, licensing, compliance and planning.

The Scottish Government has also spent £569,501 over the last five years on relevant communications targeting the general public, principally focused on food waste.

The following table shows the main differences between Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) and the schemes operating in Finland, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Australia.

Following the announcement of the new launch date, the First Minister and the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy, and Biodiversity met with senior industry representatives, including the main supermarkets, to discuss the scheme. While Tesco was invited they were unable to send a representative, however the First Minister was able to meet with the Tesco’s CEO and their Head of Communications & Devolved Government Relations in London of 25 April. The Scottish Government is continuing to work with industry, both producers and retailers, to ensure that when Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme launches on 1 March 2024 it works for all.

We are supporting local authorities to prepare for the introduction of the scheme. Our scheme will mean that local authorities will have less waste to handle, as well as reduce litter and associated clean-up costs, which is good for residents and council budgets. The Scottish Government is supporting Scottish councils to modernise recycling services, and align with our forthcoming deposit return scheme.

The Scottish Government has met regularly with representatives of local authority waste management via the DRS System-Wide Assurance Group that met 13 times since February 2022. Local authorities remain a key partner and will continue to be part of the programme management structures.

We will bring forward further proposals on snaring in good time to allow any necessary consultation and introduction at Stage 2 of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. We advise the member to contact the NHS Boards directly.

The breakdown of CalMac scheduled sailings defined as (a) on time, (b) Level 1 Lateness and (c) Level 2 Lateness for each month since March 2022 are provided in the following table.

I have engaged with a number of stakeholders across the energy sector. On 13 April 2023, I visited the Hydrogen Refuelling site in Aberdeen, met Aberdeen City Council officials and technical experts, attended an Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub stakeholder meeting, and then a Scottish Cluster Roundtable Discussion.

I met with the CEO of NECCUS, on 26 April 2023 and attended the Energy Institute North East Highlands and Islands Dinner on 27 April 2023. On 2 May 2023, I visited Advice Direct Scotland, launching their Fuel Insecurity Fund. On 4 May 2023, I opened Scottish Renewables’ new office in Glasgow and on the 11 May 2023, I attended the All-Energy conference at SEC, Glasgow.

Richard Lochhead, the former Minister for Just Transition, Fairwork & Employment engaged with a wide range of stakeholders in the offshore energy sector during this period. A comprehensive list of all Ministerial engagements for the year 2022 has been published and can be found online ( Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)).

For the period of January 2023 until March 2023 The Minister had the following meetings:

• 9 February – The Minister met with Opportunity North East, Energy Transition Zone and the Net Zero Technology Centre, discussing Just Transition and the next phase of the Just Transition fund.
• 21 February 2023 – The Minister attended SBCC (Scottish Business Climate Collaboration) SME (Small/Medium Enterprise) Net Zero Hub launch event, with EY (Ernest & Young) and Scottish Power representatives in attendance.
• 2 March 2023 – Mr Lochhead visited South of Scotland Enterprise in Dumfries and chaired a roundtable discussion that included representatives from Carbon Capture Scotland, and visited Cochran Ltd on site.
• 16 March 2023 – The Minister chaired a CBI round table event, which included representatives from Centrica Energy, Equinor UK LTD, Scottish Power and SEC (Scottish Events Campus).
• 21 March 2023 - Mr Lochhead attended the Scottish Renewables Net-Zero Dinner and spoke to representatives from EDF Renewables, Scottish Renewables and EY (Ernest & Young).
• 22 March 2023 –The Minister delivered a speech to the Scottish Renewables Conference, and participated in a panel discussion with representatives from Scottish Renewables, EDF Renewables and Ripple Energy.

I also refer the member to the answer to question S6W-15805 on 24 March 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-committees/written-questions-and-answers .