Chamber and committees

There are no environmental regulations which specifically control the release of non-biodegradable material in sky lanterns. The Environmental Protection Act 1990 includes the offences of littering and offences relating to waste management, including the handling and disposal of non-biodegradable waste. Any event that results in waste generation, such as lantern festivals, must ensure proper disposal of waste to avoid environmental harm. These offences may be relevant where the release of lanterns was determined to have met the statutory definitions for those offences, which would be determinable on a case-by-case basis.

Organisers of public events, like lantern festivals, are required to ensure waste materials are collected and disposed of in a manner that minimises environmental impact. The Duty of care: code of practice for managing controlled waste provides statutory guidance on the duties that must be complied with by anyone who produces, keeps, imports or manages controlled waste in Scotland.

Organisers of events, including lantern festivals, must comply with the legislation, and will be subject to enforcement if offences are committed. Zero Waste Scotland’s guide “How to Plan and Deliver Environmentally Sustainable Events” provides guidance for event organisers and suppliers. This is available at https://www.visitscotland.org/events/advice-materials/sustainability#sustainable.

Funding for flood resilience is distributed to local authorities through the general capital grant. The allocation mechanism is agreed by Ministers and COSLA Leaders on a national basis.

The current distribution agreement is that 80% of available funding is allocated to a list of prioritised flood protection schemes, and 20% allocated to local authorities to fund other actions within Flood Risk Management Plans.

Since 2008, the Scottish Government has made available £42 million per year to local authorities to invest in flood risk management actions – a commitment that is in place until 2026. The 2020 Programme for Government also committed an extra £150 million for flood risk management.

Whitesands is one of the 31 flood protection schemes eligible to receive this funding, as long as the scheme remains viable. 15 such schemes have already been completed across Scotland, with a further 5 due to be completed in 2024.

Work is underway to deliver the 84 actions in the Scottish Government’s Cleaner Air for Scotland 2 Strategy which runs until 2026, with 65 actions delivered to date. Updates on delivery will be reported in the next annual progress report due to be published in 2025.

Consideration is underway on the impact of the £0.1 million reduction in the Air Quality budget which formed part of a recent savings exercise.

The Offshore Energy Skills Passport is an initiative led and driven by industry.

The most recent statement from the key industry delivery bodies, Renewable UK and Offshore Energies UK, indicates that an initial version of the Passport will be available for workers to access later this year.

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting the Passport’s successful implementation. Ministers last met with Renewable UK and Offshore Energies UK to receive updates on progress on 10 September 2024.

Ministers last discussed the project with the relevant trade union representatives on 17 September 2024.

To support future planning decisions, we accepted the review’s recommendation to develop an indicative capacity cap. It is important that any indicative cap is as robust as possible and developing such a cap is a significant piece of work.

For that reason, we are undertaking work to improve the quality of data on waste to support the development of an indicative cap. This includes, working with other governments of the UK to implement mandatory Digital Waste Tracking from April 2025, which will provide a step-change in the quality of Scottish waste data, and engaging with partners, including ZWS and SEPA, to draw together key waste composition, carbon and environmental impact data insights.

Together, these initiatives will provide invaluable data to support the accurate forecasting of Scotland’s waste infrastructure needs and the development of an indicative cap. Further information on these developments can be found here:

Digital Waste Tracking Consultation Response.

Outcome of the Household Waste Composition Analysis.

Our draft Circular Economy and Waste Route Map, published 18 January 2024, set out further detail and associated timescales on the steps we will take to minimise the environmental and climate impacts of waste, including the development of an indicative capacity cap.

The Scottish Government is aware that chronic pain can impact on an individual's ability to work. While no specific work has been done to consider the impact on employment of any delays to interventions on chronic pain, work continues to improve service delivery. We also continue to work with people with lived experience to understand the impact chronic pain has on daily life, including employment.

The aim of the most recent phase of the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund (ScotZEB 2) is to support the implementation of new, innovative business models into Scotland's bus market, so that zero-emission buses become the default choice for operators, and that public subsidy is no longer required. Bus operating companies have the freedom to choose which manufacturers to purchase buses from, as best suit the needs of their routes and operations. Fair Work sits at the heart of our ambition to move toward a wellbeing economy and is central to supporting economic recovery and renewal, and a just transition to net-zero. UK based employees working on delivering the ScotZEB 2 project must be paid at least the Real Living Wage, and have an effective forum for employees’ voices. Suppliers from different countries will operate within different economic, social and legal contexts. The real Living Wage is UK-specific and cannot be applied to workers based in foreign countries. Scottish Ministers are required to comply with the terms of the Subsidy Control Act which prohibits the favouring of domestic over non-domestic manufacturers when offering public subsidy.

Since 2020 the Scottish Government has made available more than £23 million in R&D grant funding to Alexander Dennis Ltd to support the company’s capacity to secure orders for ultra low emission and zero emission buses.

Communities are at the heart of our renewable energy ambitions, and we are committed to working with partners to ensure the delivery of renewable energy comes with benefits for people in Scotland and contributes to community wealth building (CWB).

Where communities have an ownership stake in energy production, we are seeing surpluses being used to support local employment and other initiatives. For example, in North Tolsta, on Lewis, one of five Scottish Government Community Wealth Building pilot areas, revenue from a community owned wind turbine supports local jobs, provides grants for home energy improvements and offers financial support for young people attending further and higher education.

The Community Energy Generation Growth Fund, through our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES), recently awarded £1.5 million in grants to 19 community groups across Scotland to develop their own renewable energy projects. These communities are able to earn money from their projects, for example by selling excess energy generation.

The Scottish Government is committed to an infrastructure solution to address landslip risks at the A83 Rest and Be Thankful and shares the urgency communities and businesses place on maintaining and improving connectivity of this vital route.

As part of the comprehensive route options assessment process for the permanent solution, five options were assessed, two of which included tunnels. The options were assessed across a range of criteria including Engineering, Environment and Economics along with performance against the Scheme Objectives.

In June 2023, the ‘Brown Option’, consisting of a 1.4km debris flow shelter on the line of the existing A83, was selected as the Preferred Route Option as it improves resilience and operational safety of the trunk road network by reducing the impact of disruption for travel to, from and between Argyll and Bute and the Central Belt of Scotland. The Brown Option performed most favourably across a broad range of environmental criteria including cultural heritage, visual, population and human health, climate, and materials and waste. It also had the greatest potential to be delivered quickly and provides the greatest opportunity to encourage sustainable travel.

While the tunnelling options would equally provide improved resilience and operational safety of the trunk road network, the associated costs for both construction and ongoing operation and maintenance of these options were significantly greater than the preferred route option.

The full assessment can be found in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) Stage 2 Route Options Assessment Report which is available on the Transport Scotland website.

Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) stage two route options assessment report - A83 Access to Argyll and Bute | Transport Scotland

Our new Student Mental Health Action Plan, published on 13 September, seeks to move to a mainstreamed approach to student mental health which will help students better access services.

It is informed by a significant number of research sources, in particular, the Thriving Learners studies published by the Mental Health Foundation in 2021 and 2022 in relation to universities and colleges. In addition, college and university sector input was sought throughout the development of the Action Plan as were the views from NUS Scotland and Think Positive. The Action Plan was also shaped by student voices from the wider Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy consultation last year.

The Scottish Government will publish the required Impact Assessments for the Action Plan in due course.