Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has undertaken extensive analysis of the impact of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme on recycling rates of both glass and plastic.

Scotland’s DRS will target a recycling rate of 90% of scheme articles by the third year of DRS being operational for both plastic and glass. Current recycling rates are around 50% for PET plastic and 63% for glass.

We expect to collect an extra 14,500 tonnes per year of plastic resulting in a CO2eq saving of 31,000 tonnes of carbon when the scheme launches. The UK Government’s intervention through the Internal Market Act Exclusion will delay these benefits by at least 19 months.

NTCs require an appropriate mix of new and experienced staff to operate safely and efficiently. Management information provided by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) shows that at 31 March 2023, 502 people were employed in an NTC. This figure excludes those staff delivering pre-existing NHS services which have been relocated to NTC sites. 130 (26%) are new entrants meaning they are undertaking their first role in NHS Scotland. Whilst these figures from NES are classed as management information at this stage, NES will continue to work with data providers to develop these as Official Statistics. The next step in this process will be to release these statistics within the NHS Scotland workforce publication as Experimental Statistics in December 2023. NTC workforce data will be reported every six months thereafter.

From the cohort of ScotGEM students who graduated in academic year 2021-22, 10 accepted a Foundation Priority Place post within NHS Dumfries and Galloway. Of those expected to graduate later this summer one ScotGEM student, subject to qualification, has so far accepted a Foundation Priority Place post in NHS Dumfries and Galloway.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18596 on 15 June 2023. 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 supporting the mental health and wellbeing of all students in Scotland. We will shortly be publishing Scotland’s new Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and, thereafter, actions to support students.

The budget for the Individual Training Accounts has been confirmed and the scheme is due to reopen on 19 June.

Fares on the Northern Isles Ferry Services network have been frozen until the end of September 2023 to help combat the ongoing cost of living crisis facing communities across Scotland.

I appreciate the need to get bookings released so that businesses and individuals can plan ahead, and aim to confirm all fares and open bookings beyond 30 September as soon as possible.

Charge points on the ChargePlace Scotland network are owned by a range of local authorities, businesses and third sector organisations. These organisations are responsible for procurement, maintenance and commercial decisions relating to their own charge point assets The ChargePlace Scotland contract provides ‘back office’ functions for these chargers, and has the option to run until at least 2025.

Scotland’s public EV charging network will evolve over the coming years to be less focussed on ChargePlace Scotland, while retaining the ability for drivers to seamlessly travel across a more diverse charging network with greater charging opportunities and offering an exemplar driver experience.

Our draft Vision for the future of public charging emphasises the need to attract greater private investment to deliver infrastructure at scale and pace, as the public sector cannot deliver this alone. The organisations who own charge points on ChargePlace Scotland will ultimately determine which future delivery models are most appropriate to them.

Through our Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund we are supporting local authorities to develop public electric vehicle charging strategies and expansion plans. As part of the development of these plans, local authorities are considering the opportunities to roll existing ChargePlace Scotland charge points into alternative models of delivery.

In January 2022 the Scottish Government published its draft vision for Scotland’s future public electric vehicle charging network that meets the needs of the people of Scotland and which supports a just transition and the delivery of our climate commitments. It recognises the need to attract private sector capital, skills and resources to grow the public charging network at scale and pace. A range of public bodies and other organisations, including COSLA, have been engaged over the past year as part of our work to finalise the Vision.

COSLA have also been engaged throughout the development of the EV Infrastructure Fund through which Transport Scotland is supporting Local Authorities to develop public electric vehicle charging strategies and expansion plans. These plans will help to identify future public charging needs, investment requirements and operating models for existing and new local authority owned public charging points.

There is an established and growing number of well-capitalised private charge point operators in Scotland and across the UK. Transport Scotland’s joint report published with Scottish Futures Trust in July 2021 indicated that investment costs in growing Scotland’s public charging network could reach £100 million per annum by 2030. It is encouraging, therefore, to hear the recent pledge from industry body Charge UK that its members will invest £6 billion in public charging infrastructure across the UK by 2030. Our focus is on encouraging that investment to spread across all of Scotland. That’s why our Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund aims to draw in £60 million of public and private investment to double the size of the public charging network to 6,000 charge points by 2026, including areas of the network where private investment is less viable.