Chamber and committees

Eliminating Hepatitis C in Scotland by 2024 remains a priority target for the Scottish Government. The Scottish Health Protection Hepatitis C Network is made up of clinical leads and HCV co-ordinators, local health protection organisations and third sector agencies works to promote and support a ‘once for Scotland approach’. A key principle of the Network is to target specific populations, particularly those most at risk.

Following a recommendation in the last iteration of the Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Framework to introduce opt-out BBV testing within the Scottish Prison Establishment. Specific guidance was produced to support the delivery and monitoring of opt-out BBV testing within prison which is in line with the National guidelines and public health policies. We will continue to build on this progress as we develop the next iteration of the Framework.

Crown Estate Scotland is responsible for the ScotWind seabed leasing process, including setting Option Agreement fees and rent prices. Crown Estate Scotland informed Scottish Government of its pricing structure based on its own evidence gathering and information available at the time. Once projects are under seabed leases and wind farms are generating energy, rental payments are annual – these are separate from the Option Agreement payments.

The recently published report of the Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy recommends that the Scottish Government should develop an indicative cap that declines over time for the amount of residual waste treatment needed as Scotland transitions towards a fully circular economy. We are carefully considering all recommendations made in the report and will set out our initial response in June.

Scottish Ministers have committed to ending the practice of landfilling biodegradable municipal waste by 2025. In the update to our Climate Change Plan, we also committed to extend the ban to include biodegradable non-municipal waste, subject to appropriate consultation and work to provide assurance around some specific waste streams..

The Scottish Government, working with Zero Waste Scotland and local government partners, is providing centrally co-ordinated procurement support for local authorities without a solution in place in preparation for the ban coming into force in 2025. As part of this collaborative procurement programme, we are funding the provision of expert procurement, legal and technical support to local authorities to enable them to secure alternative solutions for their residual waste.

ZWS commissions research and policy reports for a variety of reasons. In some cases ZWS commissions reports which are intentionally aimed at wider public audiences, and in other cases, ZWS commissions reports to inform the development of programmes and interventions, or of Scottish Government policy.

In addition to the reports listed in my answer to S6W-08230, ZWS may have commissioned additional work that was not intended for publication. This includes commercially sensitive work that was undertaken specifically for individual organisations, work solely undertaken in-house by Zero Waste Scotland staff, and data generated to inform input to further published reports or to assist Zero Waste Scotland’s Strategic development.

Crown Estate Scotland (CES) and the Scottish Government were informed of The Crown Estate’s Round 4 results at the same time. These results indicated a significant change in the offshore wind market. As the ScotWind registration and application process had already opened, CES informed Scottish Ministers that it intended to pause the process in order to conduct a rapid review. The Scottish Government provided advice on process and implications for broader offshore wind policies in Scotland. During the review, Scottish Government were kept regularly informed of the review’s progress through to completion as delivery of the review as swiftly as possible was key to keeping the ScotWind process on track.

Crown Estate Scotland have not sold seabed through the ScotWind leasing process. Option Agreements and ultimately leases to use areas of the seabed for offshore wind energy generation have been provided, raising around £700 million in initial fees and potentially many millions more in rent, once these projects are operational. If projects do not proceed to full lease, the option agreements expire. Furthermore, through the Supply Chain Development Statements, ScotWind developers will invest an average of £1.5 billion in Scotland for each project – across the 17 different sites, that could lead to more than £25 billion of investment.

As per S6W-08314 on 7 June 2022, Crown Estate Scotland conducted market testing and evidence gathering to inform option fee levels and this is not information held by Scottish Government. Following the announcement of The Crown Estate’s Round 4 results and a very clear change in the market, Crown Estate Scotland paused and reviewed the ScotWind option fee levels accordingly.

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

We have followed the recommendation of the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent scientific body that advises all four UK nations on screening, that women between the ages of 50 and 70 should be invited for three yearly routine breast screening. That is because there is clear evidence of benefit from screening women of that age group. The UK NSC does not recommend that women over 71 are invited for breast screening because the same evidence of benefit does not yet exist.

Prior to COVID-19, women aged 71 and over had the option to self-refer because there was enough capacity to allow them to do so. While programme capacity remains challenging due to the impacts of COVID-19, there remains a pause on self-referrals for those over the age of 71 to allow appointments to be prioritised for the recommended screening population.

However, in recognition of the anxiety that the pause on self-referrals is causing, work is underway with the National Screening Oversight and the Scottish Breast Screening Programme Board to explore ways to restart the self-referral route by Autumn 2022, in a way that does not unduly impact screening of the eligible cohort.

We continue to emphasise that, regardless of their age, women should remain symptom aware and report any concerns to their GP immediately for these to be investigated and followed up as appropriate.

The National Lottery is reserved to the UK Government.

The Scottish Government were advised that the Gambling Commission’s board had named Allwyn Entertainment Ltd as the preferred applicant in March 2022.

In accordance with relevant legislation, this decision has been made by the Gambling Commission’s Board.

As per the FOI (FOI/202200277291) referred to in the question, CES have already been asked about disclosure of the document and at that time did not consent to it due to the ScotWind clearing process still being underway. Publications of those documents at this time may, unduly, influence the application process. Once the process of granting option agreements is over, CES’s assessment of what can and cannot be released may change .