Chamber and committees

The production company was able to make use of the quarantine exemption provided by the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel) (Scotland) Regulations 2020. Under this exemptions, crew members were able to travel from their accommodation to a production base during the 14-day quarantine period.

a) The Scottish Government did not intervene in the production of Bell Bottom to halt filming work.

b/c)The information requested about Scottish Government agencies and other public bodies is not held centrally.

I last met with a range of hospitality and tourism representatives on 07 October.

I meet regularly with the industry, often through representative bodies such as the Scottish Tourism Alliance, UK Hospitality and others and a wide range of issues are discussed such as funding support, marketing, test and protect, visitor management, business rates, VAT and other issues.

Scottish Government officials also have weekly contact with the same bodies and others through meetings, phone calls and emails and through strategic groups including the Scottish Tourism Emergency Response Group and the Scottish Tourism Recovery Taskforce.

There has been some initial consultation with stakeholders regarding food waste and food surplus reporting within the recent consultation on proposals for legislation in the circular economy bill. It was put forward that there should be a power to enable Scottish Ministers to require mandatory public reporting of unwanted surplus stock and waste of certain materials by Scottish businesses. The full independent analysis of these consultation responses is available on the Scottish Government website .

We remain committed to consulting on the Scottish Government’s proposals for reducing food waste, as set out in the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan, in due course.

The following table provides a projection to the end of 2024. The projection for the year 2025 is currently under review. The projection was based on waste and emissions statistics up to 2017, assumes that key waste and recycling targets are met, and that biodegradable municipal waste being sent to landfill is banned in 2025. The carbon dioxide equivalent emissions are reported using the 100 year global warming potential for methane of 28 as provided in the International Panel on Climate Change 5 th Assessment Report. https://archive.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg1/WG1AR5_Chapter08_FINAL.pdf (p. 731)

Projected methane emissions from biodegradable waste landfilled in Scotland

Factors such as background sound that may lead to raised voices or cause people to lean-in close to others to be heard are a risk factor in the transmission of coronavirus. This is recognised by a wide body of publicly available scientific evidence in relation to the role of aerosols in the transmission of viruses. The current position of no background sound, including low level music and audio from television, is a measured and cautious approach to reduce risk. It is being kept under review and government has engaged with industry experts to consider how guidance can be developed to allow low level background sound to be managed safely when transmission rates are back to a manageable level.

A breakdown of the Scottish Government marketing spend between 2015-16 and 2018-19 is available on the Scottish Government website:

• 2018-19: https://www.gov.scot/publications/marketing-spend-2018-2019/
• 2017-18: https://www.gov.scot/publications/marketing-spend-2017-2018/
• 2016-17: https://www.gov.scot/publications/marketing-spend-2016-2017/
• 2015-16: https://www.gov.scot/publications/advertising-spend-2015-2016/

The majority of funding for recycling and reuse communication initiatives is provided by Zero Waste Scotland. Table 1 contains the funding provided for national level initiatives funded through Zero Waste Scotland or Scottish Government containing communications to promote increased levels of recycling and reuse in each of the last five years.

Table 2 contains a breakdown of the capital grants allocated by Zero Waste Scotland to Local Authorities to promote increased levels of recycling and reuse between 2015-16 and 2019-20. These costs represent the combined costs of technical and communications support. Separate costs for communication initiatives are not available.

Table 1. National level campaigns to promote increased levels of recycling and reuse in each of the last five years

The Scottish Government regularly meets with representatives of the aviation industry including representatives from airports, airlines, Unions and other aviation stakeholders.

The Scottish Government has not instructed its framework suppliers of IT equipment not to deliver equipment and supplies to people working from home.

Scottish public sector organisations using these frameworks can directly engage with suppliers to discuss their specific order, build and delivery requirements. The procurement frameworks have the flexibility to accommodate requests for bespoke delivery, including home delivery.

The Scottish Government has no plans to fund research into the animal welfare impacts of electronic training aids at this time.