Chamber and committees

Applications for funding through the Creative Communities programme are currently being assessed. Details of the successful projects and organisations, amount received, purpose and location will be made publicly available on the Inspiring Scotland website shortly.

The Scottish National Investment Bank will be formally established this year, at which point it will be able to make investments. The Bank will be operationally independent and will determine its own investments. The team establishing the Scottish National Investment Bank have made good progress developing a pipeline of potential investment opportunities for the Bank.

There are currently 37 members of staff in the team leading on establishment of the Scottish National Investment Bank. Recruitment for the Bank is ongoing. It is anticipated that there will be approximately 60 members of staff in the Scottish National Investment Bank by the end of its first year of operation. The Bank will assess its future recruitment needs on an ongoing basis.

The £12.5m Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund is being managed by Creative Scotland on behalf of Scottish Government.

The Fund comprises two strands; £7.5m targeted funding for performing arts venues in Scotland currently in receipt of Regular Funding through Creative Scotland, and a £5m open fund for not-for-profit performing arts venues that are not currently in receipt of Regular Funding.

On 5 August Creative Scotland announced that 20 regularly funded venues across Scotland will receive a total of £7.5m from the first strand of the Fund.

On 24 September Creative Scotland announced that 59 venues across Scotland will receive a total of £4.7m from the open call for applications to the second strand of the Fund.

The following tables sets out (a) the level of funding allocated to each organisation and (b) the latest information on the timing of delivery of these funds to each venue that has been awarded support from the Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund.

Industrial biotechnology sector data are not subject to standard industrial classification and official estimates of the turnover of the sector are not produced as part of the annual national accounts.

The most recent turnover estimate for the industrial biotechnology sector prepared by Scottish Enterprise was published in last year’s refresh of the National Plan for Industrial Biotechnology https://www.lifesciencesscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/
National-Plan-for-IB-2019-PDF.pdf . The plan shows significant turnover growth from £189 million for 2012 to £357 million for 2017, and contains ambitious targets of a £900 million turnover and over 200 companies active in industrial biotechnology by 2025.

Scottish Enterprise collects turnover and projections data by a company survey every three years. This survey based approach will be repeated to coincide with the planned publication of the next plan in 2022.

This information is not held centrally. Zero Waste Scotland has focused on identifying the potential for establishing biorefining hubs in Scotland that could transform a range of materials. In 2017, a research study was undertaken by Zero Waste Scotland to understand the bioresource arisings and availability for biorefining in Scotland:

https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/sites/default/files/Biorefining%
20Potential%20for%20Scotland%20Final%20report.pdf

The findings of this study have been used by Zero Waste Scotland, the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre and Scottish Enterprise to help inform a number of businesses on the potential to establish biorefining facilities in Scotland. Several businesses have benefitted through this information and are progressing plans to develop facilities in Scotland.

The Biorefinery Roadmap for Scotland – Building a Sustainable Future sets out Scottish Enterprise’s approach to the sector: https://www.sdi.co.uk/media/2092/biorefinery-roadmap-for-scotland-building-a-sustainable-future.pdf .

The Scottish Government has reviewed its records and found no instances of peat having been purchased by the Scottish Government in the last five years. The Scottish Government is unable to answer on behalf of other public sector organisations. However, the Public Contracts Scotland website (at w ww.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk ) provides the means to search the public record of contracts awarded by all Scottish public sector organisations.

Scottish Government officials currently take part in monthly meetings with officials from the UK, Northern Ireland and Wales governments to discuss producer responsibility. Scottish Ministers have also met twice with their counterparts in the other Governments to discuss deposit return schemes, a form of producer responsibility, since 2016.

We know that shielding can have a detrimental impact on people’s lives, families and physical and mental wellbeing. Protecting people who are at the highest risk from COVID-19 is a priority for the Scottish Government. At this time we do not believe that asking people to return to shielding is the best way to protect them. The best way to do so is to reduce the spread of the virus in our communities. We have introduced new measures which must be followed by everyone in society.

Our clinical advisers continue to keep the shielding advice under consideration and any changes will be influenced by many factors such as the range of emerging evidence and the progress of the pandemic in Scotland.

Scottish Ministers will continue to take an evidence-based approach. We continue to engage with the UK Government and other devolved administrations to ensure that we learn from emerging evidence and the measures taken in other parts of Europe and around the world.

Since 2016, a range of multi-media learning resources have been created by Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) working with over 20 partners. These circular economy education resources and packs have been downloaded over 10,000 times.

ZWS has also trained teachers to champion the circular economy in schools. For example, in the last 3 years 38 teachers have completed the Food Nation General Teaching Council accredited programme.

Through work with Education Scotland ZWS is currently working with over 25 Raising Aspirations in Science Education (RAiSE)/science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) officers and 6 teachers from Angus schools to develop and share resources in schools nationally to champion circular economy education.