Chamber and committees

Scotland's Household Recycling Charter currently lists acceptance of cartons within recycling services as an essential requirement of a consistent collection model.

Though the Scottish Government currently has no plans for a specific mandatory carton recycling target, as part of our Programme for Government commitments, we are reviewing Scotland’s Household Recycling Charter’s Code of Practice. The Charter and Code of Practice are designed to make it easier for people to recycle the right things, and the review will help develop a future model of recycling collections, aligning with Scotland’s new deposit return scheme to drive further consistency.

In May we will publish our consultations for a circular economy bill and waste route map, which will set out further proposals to facilitate Scotland’s transition to a zero waste and circular economy, and meet our waste, recycling and emissions targets.

In 2020, the Scottish Government made a promise to thousands of care experienced children and adults to Keep The Promise by 2030.

As part of this will be working with partners to review and improve adoption services across Scotland.

Heat networks have an important role to play in meeting the targets set out in our Heat in Buildings Strategy, including contributing to ensuring that at least 1 million homes and the equivalent of 50,000 non-domestic buildings are connected to zero emission heating systems by 2030. Our climate change targets are supported by the Heat Networks (Scotland) Act 2021, which sets out a target of supplying 6 terawatt hours of thermal energy through heat networks by 2030.

Funded by the Scottish Government and West Dunbartonshire Council, the Queens Quay District Heat Network is already being held up as an excellent example, having won multiple industry awards. It’s important that the lessons learned and successes are carried forward to future heat network projects by the partners and contractors involved, including the Scottish Government. However, we should also remain open to other types of heating systems utilising other sources of heat, such as recovering waste heat, to ensure our heat networks are as efficient and affordable as possible.

We are providing a platform for this by increasing our investment in heat networks with the launch of the £300 million Scotland’s Heat Network Fund. The Fund offers long-term support to enable the rollout of new zero emission heat networks and aims to stimulate investment. We have recently launched Scotland’s Heat in Building Development Funding Invitation, making £1 million of pre-capital support available. This will close to new applications on 31 st May 2022. We recognise the importance of providing this development support and will establish a fuller heat network support unit later this year.

We recognise that our targets for heat network deployment will require a substantial growth in supply chains. Our significant investment through the Heat Network Fund will help kick start the supply chain in Scotland, creating high quality and green jobs.

The Heat Networks Delivery Plan, published March 2022, outlines further steps that the Scottish Government will take to accelerate the development of heat networks across Scotland. We will work with local government to put in place Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies which identify areas particularly suitable for heat networks, and to designate heat network zones for development. We will also implement the Heat Networks (Scotland) Act 2021, putting in place a functioning regulatory regime by early 2024.

SEPA’s most critical services, including flood forecasting and warning service and its 24-hour pollution hotline, were restored on the day of the attack. SEPA maintained its ability to receive reports of and to attend environmental incidents, prioritising those with highest potential impacts on the environment and/or communities. SEPA continues to monitor compliance with environmental laws and continues to take enforcement action where necessary.

In the 15 months since the attack, SEPA has issued 317 flood warnings, provided information on bathing water quality throughout the 2021 season and has issued fixed monetary penalties, required enforcement undertakings and has successfully prosecuted those that break environmental laws.

SEPA remains impacted by the attack and significant work is ongoing to build back. Latest information on current service status and recovery of SEPA, is available to all stakeholders and updated weekly, which outlines progress and level of service to expect: https://regulatoryapproach.sepa.org.uk/cyber-attack-service-status

SEPA will shortly publish a Regulatory Report outlining its regulatory work in 2020 and 2021 and which will provide information about compliance during the period covered by both the pandemic and the cyber-attack.

SEPA continue to play a vital role in Scotland’s response to the challenges faced from Climate Emergency and Biodiversity loss.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of day services to adults with learning disabilities, their families and carers. Last year, I wrote to local authorities, encouraging services to re-open in line with Covid-19 guidance as soon as possible.

Decisions about individual services are made, and service-level data is held, by local authorities. The Scottish Government maintains regular contact with local authorities to encourage and support the re-opening of services.

Further to a recent meeting with representatives of unpaid carers, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care has undertaken to write to COSLA to ask for an audit of adult day care and respite services in every local authority i.e. which services have re-opened, which have only partially opened (or opened with reduced capacity), and why.

The Scottish Government responded quickly to provide support to enable SEPA to meet its highest priority and immediate requirements. This included provision of 120 laptops to enable staff delivering the most critical services to communicate easily and securely to maintain those services. The Scottish Government also authorised additional funding amounting to £2.5m to assist SEPA’s recovery efforts in the immediate aftermath of the attack, although this facility was not required and SEPA operated within its budget allocation.

Responsibility for financial support to foster carers registered with Glasgow City Council is a matter for Glasgow City Council. Consideration of the introduction of an annual and consistent increase is a matter for them to consider.

No final funding decisions have been made about actions or schemes proposed in the Flood Risk Management Plans published by SEPA in January 2021.

A joint Scottish Government/COSLA Flood Risk Management Working Group has been set up and is considering funding arrangements for flood risk management actions going forward. It will put recommendations to the joint Scottish Government/COSLA officers’ Settlement Distribution Group with Ministers and Council Leaders’ subsequently being provided with advice later in 2022.

The local flood risk management plans, which are due to be published by December 2022, will provide more detail on how the actions set out in the flood risk management plans for 2022-2028 will be delivered including who will lead them and how the actions will be coordinated with other organisations. They will also provide further information on when the actions will take place and how they will be funded.

Proposals for the schemes set out in the Flood Risk Management Plans are still at an early stage and it is not possible to provide a total projected cost at present. Costs are revised over time as designs are finalised and more detailed investigations are carried out, and as new information emerges.

The following schemes are under construction.