Chamber and committees

Our Fisheries Management Strategy contains a range of actions to support more sustainable and responsible fisheries management in Scotland. Policies, such as the Future Catching Policy and the introduction of Remote Electronic Monitoring to key parts of the fishing fleet, will support increased sustainability of practice, and will increase accountability and confidence that we are fishing at sustainable levels. These consultations are open until 07 June 2022.

In addition, the Bute House Agreement aims to deliver on our shared commitment to achieve and maintain good environmental status for all of Scotland’s seas. The agreement includes a commitment to consult on a cap on inshore fishing activity, as well as implementation of Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) which will provide additional protection for some fish nursery areas, both of which will help to improve fish stocks.

As a guiding principle we will follow the scientific advice and take a Precautionary Approach with regards to management of our pressure stocks, in line with the Fisheries Act of 2020.

Finally, we will continue to work closely with our network of Regional Inshore Fisheries Groups, and are already using learning from our Outer Hebrides Inshore Fisheries Pilot which commenced in November 2020. This Pilot is trialling pot limitation in order to inform sustainable management options for other discrete inshore fisheries to ensure that our fish stocks are sustainably managed.

The hospital will specialise in orthopaedics but may carry out other low complexity surgical specialty procedures once open.

In alignment with the clinical model, there will be no HDU or ICU beds within the NTC.

The export of waste is a reserved matter.

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes is the international Convention that governs the movement of hazardous waste, to which the UK is a party. The Convention, as implemented in UK legislation, bans all exports of hazardous waste to developing countries. Control mechanisms on the shipment of other types of waste from Scotland to countries outside the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) are governed by retained European legislation.

While waste export legislation is a matter for the UK Government, we continue to actively discuss waste shipment regulations, in light of our commitment to a truly circular economy, to ensure our environment is protected, and that all waste is managed responsibly and sustainably.

To meet these objectives, we are calling for further action from the UK Government to deliver its existing commitment to ban plastic waste exports to non-OECD countries, and bring forward further measures to influence global markets and reduce imported and exported emissions. This includes making progress on the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendation to “phase out” exports of waste by 2030, which would support Scotland’s transition to a fully circular economy.

The Scottish Government is supporting organisations across Scotland to tackle the climate emergency. This includes, a further £1 million this year for the continued rollout of Green Growth Accelerators to support local authorities to develop low carbon projects and deliver £100 million over the next five years to help businesses via the Green Jobs Fund. Bespoke advice and support for businesses is also available through the enterprise agencies, Zero Waste Scotland, Business Gateway and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency. We are also supporting workers to engage in a just transition through the £100,000 we have provided for union capacity building. Our framework of regional climate action hubs and climate action towns is also enabling communities to engage in collective climate action.

The current business case plans to deliver around 800 joint replacements, 1,200 day cases and 700 local anaesthetic orthopaedic cases.

That information is not held centrally. This data can be obtained from SEPA.

We are committed to ensuring Scotland takes more responsibility for its own waste, maximising its value and reducing the environmental and carbon impact. A large majority of Scotland’s waste is already managed within Scotland, but around 14% is currently processed elsewhere.

International waste export legislation is a reserved matter, and we are calling for further action from the UK Government to deliver existing commitments and bring forward measures to influence global markets and reduce imported and exported emissions. This includes making progress on the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendation to “phase out” exports of waste by 2030, which would support Scotland’s transition to a fully circular economy.

The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to reaching net zero by 2045. The decarbonisation of our infrastructure will be central to this goal.

Our five-year Infrastructure Investment Plan published in February 2021 includes details of around £26 billion of major projects and national programmes with more to be confirmed in future years.

The Plan delivers our National Infrastructure Mission and sets a long-term vision of infrastructure supporting an inclusive, net zero carbon economy in Scotland.

The £26 billion pipeline of major projects and national programmes includes almost £9 billion for environmental sustainability and the transition to net zero emissions, including over £280 million to support 18,000 hectares of forestry and restoring peatlands.

The NTC locations are:

Golden Jubilee, Clydebank – Eye Centre and Surgical Centre

NTC Forth Valley – Forth Valley Royal Hospital, Larbert

NTC Fife – Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy

NTC Highland - Inverness

NTC Grampian - Aberdeen

NTC Tayside – Perth Royal Infirmary

NTC Ayrshire & Arran – Carrick Glen Hospital site

NTC Lanarkshire – Cumbernauld

NTC Lothian – St John’s Hospital

NTC Lothian Eye Centre – Edinburgh Royal Infirmary campus

Public Health Scotland – the National public health body for Scotland is responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of blood borne virus’. This includes collecting data on treatment numbers which, pre-pandemic, was published regularly. Data collection for BBV and HCV has been significantly impacted due to the Covid 19 pandemic, however updated figures will be published later this year within the UK Hepatitis C report.