Chamber and committees

The role of the Scottish Government is to monitor each of the three deposit schemes for compliance with the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011. This includes being satisfied that the tenancy deposit schemes have clear and substantial processes in place that meet the requirements laid out in the regulations.

The three approved tenancy deposit schemes are private businesses and the Scottish Government is not involved in their business operations. While we encourage employers to be Accredited Living Wage Employers we do not require it.

It is clear that Fair Work, including fair pay, is more important than ever in the context of the cost of living crisis, and we will use all the levers we can to support those most affected.

Our Fair Work First Guidance explains our Fair Work First approach, provides good practice examples to guide employers’ approaches and, importantly, explains the benefits of fair work for workers and organisations.

The total cost of the contract with The Lines Between was £40,000 exclusive of VAT. However, the Scottish Government made no direct payments to Taylor McKenzie or the members of the Panel for this work. The Lines Between allocated £1,700 of this to Taylor Mackenzie for recruitment.

Taylor McKenzie promoted the opportunity to contacts within their research database and additionally promoted the opportunity to participate on 4 August 2022 on their Facebook page. Participant recruitment was not solely carried out on Facebook, which was part of an overall endeavour to broaden lived experience voices in Chronic Pain work.

I refer the member to my answer to S6W-17651.

The Digital Prescribing and Dispending Pathways Programme is currently in the planning and development stage, and I expect to be able to confirm the timetable for full roll out in due course.

I refer the member to the answers to questions S6W-17820 and S6W-17821 on 18 May 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

Discussions between the Scottish Government and COSLA took place in April 2023 regarding the allocation of funding through the Edinburgh Process strand of the Nature Restoration Fund.

The Scottish Government and delivery partners such as Circularity Scotland, SEPA, and Zero Waste Scotland have regularly engaged with businesses on the Deposit Return Scheme. There are a number issues which businesses are working with partners on to ensure all involved are ready for launch on 1 March.

We have taken action to address a number of matters which are within our control and which businesses had raised concerns about. These include, but are not limited to:

• needing more preparation time to ready their business for the launch - we have given businesses an additional six and a half months to prepare for the scheme launch.

• impact on the hospitality industry - we exempted all premises that sell 90% or over of their drinks products for consumption on the premises from acting as a return point.
• impact on small producers – we completely excluded from the scheme products that sells fewer than 5,000 items a year.
• miniatures and other smaller containers may cause problems at return points – we completely excluded from the scheme all drinks containers under 100ml.
• administrative burden for retailers applying for exemptions – we have simplified the online process for retailers to apply for an exemption from operating a return point.

As we continue to prepare for a successful launch of the scheme we continue to wait on the UK Government to take any action to agree an exclusion from the Internal Market Act.

The Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) comprises £65 million for the current Parliamentary term. In 2022-23, the Nature Restoration Fund made its annual allocation of £13.5 million available through two main strands, each of which is further sub-divided, as follows:

• The competitive strand, which is subdivided into;

- ‘ Helping Nature ’ projects less than £250,000 lasting 1-2 years

- ‘ Transforming Nature ’ projects greater than £250,000 lasting 2-4 years

• The Edinburgh Process strand, which is subdivided into;

- Direct allocations to Local Authorities and the National Parks

- A competitive top-up fund open to Local Authorities only

In 2022-23, the competitive strand comprised approximately £7 million (details of which can be found on NatureScot’s website at https://www.nature.scot/funding-and-projects/scottish-government-nature-restoration-fund-nrf ); and a further £6.5 million was distributed through the ‘Edinburgh Process’ strand. I also refer to my answers in response to S6W-17674, S6W-17675, S6W-17677, S6W-17678 and S6W-17679 on 18 May 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 detailed schedules to collect scheme products, and pay deposits and handling fees are a matter for Circularity Scotland, the not-for profit scheme administrator, their logistics partner and return point operators.

Working with partners we have refreshed the system-wide governance for the Deposit Return Scheme in Scotland (DRS) for the implementation stage of the programme. This now includes a Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group which will meet for the first time during May 2023 and sectoral groups representing producers, retailers, hospitality and the public sector, most of which have already had their first meeting.

Hundreds of millions of pounds of investment to prepare for the launch of the Deposit Return Scheme across a range of businesses and the value of this is now at risk unless an Internal Market Act exclusion is put in place urgently to enable the final preparations for a launch on 1 March 2024.

The exact figures on investment are held by industry themselves but various published estimates suggest that retailers will invest up to £200m, and producers have invested around £100m for the scheme. Alongside this contractors to Circularity Scotland, such as Biffa, will have invested significant funds with some estimating this at around £80m.