Chamber and committees

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.

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.

Homeworking from the onset of the pandemic has been and continues to be part of our wider public health response. By working from home, workers and employers are playing a vital role in helping suppress the virus, and in ensuring that our transport network remains safe.

We know that the vast majority of employers are complying with current homeworking guidance on a voluntary basis and we will continue to monitor this. As we have seen a worrying rise in the rate of transmission over the past few weeks we are considering options for placing a legal duty on employers to allow homeworking where it is possible. The introduction of any such duty would be on the basis of public health advice.

We must continue to limit the opportunity for the virus to spread and one of those measures is the continuation of homeworking.

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.

While we do not hold data centrally on circular economy approaches in public procurement activity, procurement legislation has required public bodies to consider and act on opportunities to improve environmental impact of procurement activity since 2016 and we are aware of a number of instances where reuse and remanufacture form part of what is measured as part of contract management.

For example, the Scottish Government National framework for the supply of desktop and laptop computers requires that all devices meet the Green Electronics Council’s Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool accreditation standards which are designed to reduce the environmental impact of devices across their lifecycle:

https://www.epa.gov/greenerproducts/electronic-product-environmental-assessment-tool-epeat#:~:text=EPEAT%2Dregistered%20products%20must%20meet,life%20management%
20and%20corporate%20performance .

Framework suppliers are required to manage and reduce waste in accordance with the waste hierarchy including minimising the use and environmental impact of packaging. Between July 2019 and July 2020 our national framework for supplier of desktop and laptop computers, have recycled 3,500 devices, refurbished 1,270 devices and recycled around 22 tonnes of packaging.

Sustainable procurement tools and guidance are updated on an ongoing basis in response to policy developments and emerging good practice and so it is not possible to identify all the changes that have been made since 2016. The guidance and tools are available online: www.sustainableprocurementtools.scot .

Funding for community initiatives mainly comes through support from Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS). This includes five Zero Waste Town projects between 2014 and 2020, each receiving £300,000 to pilot place-based approaches to furthering circular economy initiatives at a local level. Zero Waste Dunbar’s re-use pilot, which saw them diverting good quality items directly from recycling centres to a local store, proved so successful they now operate from recycling centres throughout East Lothian and have large re-use superstores in Dunbar, Musselburgh and Edinburgh.

ZWS’s Circular Economy Business support service has worked with over 200 companies, including a number of community organisations, to help them explore more circular ways of doing business. Further details and case study examples can be found here: https://ceaccelerator.zerowastescotland.org.uk/services-tools/business-support-service/

The Circular Economy Investment Fund has provided grants to over 50 companies, including a number of community organisations. A list of the companies and projects funded is available on the Zero Waste Scotland website: https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/content/circular-economy-investment-fund-past-projects

Finally, the Revolve network currently has 137 certified sites from 61 organisations across Scotland, many of which are community based. A wide range of support is available to the Revolve network through Zero Waste Scotland, including training & advice on standards, operational improvements, visual merchandising & customer service, branding & campaign materials. Further details can be found here: https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/revolve#

Other funding includes the Climate Challenge Fund which has provided a wide range of support to community initiatives linked to the circular economy. Details of projects are available here: https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/sustainability-climate-change/climate-challenge-fund/ccf-in-action/funded-projects-map/

Through regular dialogue and engagement at UK level, Scottish Ministers worked to ensure the UK position taken forward to EU negotiations properly reflected Scottish priorities, including in relation to the delivery of a more circular economy.

The Scottish Government supports those regulatory changes introduced by the EU to protect our finite natural resources and improve the way we manage products at end of life. On 3 September, I met with Virginijus Sinkevicius, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, to discuss a number of matters including the EU Circular Economy Action Plan and forthcoming legislative agenda.

We also carry out engagement through Zero Waste Scotland including providing evidence from the Scottish context, policy research into circular products and packaging design, and contributing to relevant European fora.

The information requested is not centrally held by Scottish Government. NHS boards may hold limited information within their Medical Equipment Management Databases. Decommissioning of medical devices and equipment is carried out in line with guidance given in the Section - Decommissioning, Recycling and Disposal of the Guidance on Management of Medical Devices and Equipment in Scotland’s Health and Social Care Services (National Services Scotland 2020) [ http://www.hfs.scot.nhs.uk/publications-/guidance-publications/?show=50&set=1 ] paras 6.128 to 6.147. This includes considering the ethical and sustainable donation of surplus clinically useful medical devices and equipment, as part of the NHS Scotland Global Citizenship Programme or alternatively ethical disposal in line with Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations.

This information is not held centrally.

Some data are available for Revolve certified organisations. Revolve is Scotland’s National Reuse Quality Standard and Revolve stores are supported to work to key standards, and are committed to quality.

In 2018-19 sales through Revolve certified community stores reported to Zero Waste Scotland were circa £34 million. There were over 780 full time staff employed and 192,590 volunteer hours from 1,406 volunteers recorded in those same organisations, and approximately 35,000 tonnes of material was estimated to be diverted from landfill.

The Scottish Institute for Remanufacturing (SIR) officially launched on 21 January 2015. Since 2015, SIR has funded 40 collaborative projects between industry and higher education institutions, at a value of over £800,000 with several projects still in progress. Currently 20 of these are available in case-study format on the SIR website at: https://www.scot-reman.ac.uk/category/case-study/ . Other case studies will be published as projects are completed.