Chamber and committees

Today I am pleased to announce to Parliament the launch of our Vision for Sustainable Aquaculture in Scotland.

This Vision sets out the Scottish Government’s long-term aspirations to 2045 for the finfish, shellfish and seaweed farming sectors, and the wider aquaculture supply chain, with the aim of ensuring our industry is sustainable, diverse, competitive and economically viable.

Scottish Aquaculture produces the UK’s biggest food export – Scottish farmed salmon. The sector is already a significant contributor to our economy through trade, employment and investment in infrastructure such as housing, broadband and harbour facilities. It supports a wide range of highly skilled and well-paid jobs across farming operations, supply chain businesses, research institutes and new innovative enterprises. Many of these jobs are located in some of Scotland’s most fragile rural and island communities where they help to underpin valuable economic development. Aligning with our Blue Economy Vision, our Vision for Sustainable Aquaculture also sets out our aspirations for the growth of other fish, seafood and seaweed aquaculture.

We have consulted widely across the sector and with other stakeholders to develop our Vision and it includes a series of outcomes that will help drive progress in key areas such as the environment and biodiversity, consenting, community benefit, business and health and welfare.

The Scottish Government will work with all stakeholders, including industry, regulators, government, enterprise agencies, academia, NGOs and communities to deliver our positive Vision for a thriving aquaculture sector in Scotland that is globally recognised as innovative, productive, successful and sustainable.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), adopted and published on 13 February 2023, sets out that development proposals will be sited and designed to minimise lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions as far as possible.

All national developments designated in NPF4 were subject to an assessment, undertaken by independent consultants, of the likely impact of each proposed national development’s lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions on achieving national greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets.

The Scottish Government has engaged with Zero Waste Scotland and leading experts on whole life emission reporting and the topic will be considered further in the development of Scotland’s next Climate Change Plan.

Where development proposals are likely to generate waste when operational, including residential, commercial, and industrial properties, NPF4 policy 12c) sets out that proposals will set out how much waste is expected to be generated and how it will be managed.

The imposition of unworkable conditions, including the removal of glass, at the 11th hour by the UK government meant that we had no choice but to delay Scotland’s Deposit Return scheme.

Administrators (Interpath) were appointed on 21 June, and are currently working through the details of the administration process for CSL. The administration process includes the ability for creditors to submit claims for any monies owed to them from CSL.

The Scottish Government remains committed to the delivery of a successful DRS and some investments made to date can be utilised in the future. We will continue to engage with and support industry, and stakeholders to work together, to ensure the scheme is a success when launched.

The deposit return scheme is designed to be industry led and managed. The Scottish Government convened and chaired a System Wide Assurance Group with industry representatives to assess system-wide readiness and to monitor and address risks to delivery. Members were responsible for progressing common issues. Following the March 2023 gateway review we established an expanded governance framework which includes representation from a wider group of stakeholders. This includes a Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group, which sits above the already established Executive Oversight Group and Sector Specific Working Groups.

Zero Waste Scotland has advised Scottish Government that the cost of producing the report was £22,522.56.

As part of deposit return scheme governance, the Scottish Government meets with a range of stakeholders via the Ministerial Assurance Group, Executive Oversight Group and Producer, Retailer and Hospitality Sectoral Groups. Many of these businesses have told us that, because of the 11th hour decision of the UK Government to impose vague and unworkable conditions on Scotland’s scheme and make progress impossible, their businesses have been impacted - both operationally and financially.

The budget figures provided in answer S6W-18435 on 14 June 2023, further clarified in response to question S6W-19249, relate to the Scottish Government’s budget for its Zero Waste programmes which, in addition to Deposit Return, supports major circular economy delivery programmes including implementation of Circular Economy Bill and Waste Route Map, Extended Producer Responsibility, incineration research, landfill remediation, recycling, single-use plastics, litter and flytipping, and funding for Zero Waste Scotland to support delivery of Scottish Government objectives.

As per Table 9.12: Environmental Services Spending Plans (Level 3) in the published budgets documents, the Zero Waste budget was £ 40.2m in 2021-22, £43.4m in 2022-23 and £ 47.4m in 2023-24. These figures are inclusive of Scottish Government corporate running costs (CRCs); the amount of CRC has not been revised since the data was published. Annex G of the Scottish Government Budget 2019-20 provides a full explanation of CRCs as this was the first year they were introduced.

Scottish Government provided Zero Waste Scotland with grant awards of £29.6m in 2021-22, £35.6m in 2022-23 and to date, £34.3m, in 2023/24 from the Zero Waste budget.

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

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that we are able to manage more of our own waste within Scotland. This includes making direct investments through our Recycling Improvement Fund to support greater quantity and quality of recyclate collected. To date, £53 million has been invested via the Fund, expanding domestic recycling provision and facilities. We are also supporting the UK Government to deliver its existing commitment to ban plastic waste exports to non-OECD countries, and calling for this to be extended to all countries.

In addition, to increase transparency and strengthen public confidence in local recycling services and where their recycling goes, the Circular Economy Bill intends to take powers to place a statutory duty upon collecting local authorities to report on the final end destinations of recycling collected.

Ministers and officials did meet with Circularity Scotland in April, May and June. A range of issues were discussed at these meetings including matters relating to operational aspects of the Deposit Return Scheme, milestones and planning, and the impacts of the 11 th hour decision by the UK Government to grant only a partial and temporary exclusion to the Internal Market Act. All Ministerial engagements are published on the Scottish Government website .

The purpose of the desktop review was to assess which properties should be investigated for the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).

In response to part (a), the desktop review identified that 254 buildings have two or more characteristics which are consistent with the presence of RAAC and that these should be further investigated to determine whether RAAC is actually present.

NHS Scotland Assure is leading on the national RAAC survey programme for NHS Scotland and has prepared options on how to proceed with discovery surveys of these properties, which are under consideration by the Scottish Government.

In response to part (b), a list of the Health Board properties which have been assessed as requiring further investigation has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 64387).

Completion of the discovery surveys will provide an accurate assessment of how many, and which, of these properties contain RAAC.