Chamber and committees

The deposit will be fully returnable and retailers will be required to display information clearly about returns. Under the Deposit Return Scheme it is expected that most people will use returned deposits to cover future deposits on drinks containers.

Further work is currently underway to ensure that the interactions between Minimum Unit Price and the Deposit Return Scheme continue to be understood as the scheme evolves and kept under review, including once DRS launches on 16 August this year.

A range of charges could be relevant, depending on the facts and circumstances of individual cases. For example, 3D-printing of guns and other offensive weapons would potentially be charged and prosecuted under s3(1)(a) and s5(2A)(a) of the Firearms Act 1968 or s141(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988. However, neither the COPFS dataset nor the Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings dataset holds information at the requested level (i.e. 3-D printing).

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many 3D-printed-guns or 3D printers being used for illicit purposes and seized by Police Scotland.

In the previous Parliament, the then Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Michael Matheson, announced on 18 June 2019 that the Cycling Action Plan for Scotland vision that, by 2020, 10% of all journeys in Scotland would be made by bike would not be met. In this Parliamentary term, the Cycling Action Plan for Scotland will be succeeded by the Cycling Framework for Active Travel. A draft version of the cycling framework was put to public consultation in late 2022 and the final version will be published this year. The Framework takes account of the independent review of the previous Cycling Action Plan, which was carried out by Professor Tom Rye in 2020 and which made recommendations for the future priorities for cycling for active travel in Scotland.

Based on the latest Annual Cycling Monitoring Data, the cycling mode share broken down by local authority is as follows:

The number and proportion of telephone calls that are not connected to a Social Security Scotland client advisor are provided in the following table, as well as the average call waiting times for connected calls.

Scottish Government communications have supported individuals with no access to the internet through a number of offline channels.

300,000 copies of the cost of living support leaflet ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/cost-of-living-support-leaflet/ ) were distributed via libraries, GP surgeries, Health Boards and other community channels. This has also been translated in a number of languages and formats such as British Sign Language and Easy read to enhance accessibility. Local and national press features as part of the national marketing campaign have allowed for an offline extension of the campaign across different areas of Scotland.

In addition, key partnerships were secured with Asda and Scotmid across 238 stores, translating to leaflets, posters and radio ads and creative assets were offered to over 600 partners, including local authorities.

Low income families who are struggling to pay for their digital connectivity can find a link to social tariff information on our Cost of Living website.

We do not have the information requested as we are still in the testing and policy development phase of the free bikes programme. In this government’s first 100 days, we established six pilot schemes with a further four running by the end of 2021. Nine of these pilots will run until the end of March 2023, testing different approaches and delivery models, including eligibility, to help inform a national rollout.

We do not record data on these projects at local authority level. However, considering bikes issued and associated training and promotion sessions, free bikes activities have taken place in 20 of 32 local authority areas. The 9 pilots are running across a range of locations including in urban, rural and island communities.

Due to the breadth of this request, and changes made over the requested time period to the way Scottish Government records financial information, it has not been possible to provide the entirety of the information sought. The amounts listed relate to funding provided directly by the unit responsible for sexual health and blood born viruses (SHBBV) work to third sector organisations. It does not include other funding from other areas of Scottish Government to third sector organisations that carry out SHBBV work.

Between 2018-19 and 2020-21, over £800k of funding was provided to third sector organisations for work related to sexual health and blood borne viruses annually.

Information has been provided for 2021-22 until the date of this request. Further payments are anticipated during the course of this financial year.

The published 2023-24 Stage 1 budget showed at level 4, a total investment of over £1.2 billion in Social Care support and NCS delivery. Within the £1.2 billion, there is £60 million notionally earmarked for investment in Fair Work and specific NCS programme costs. While the work is taking place on revising the Financial Memorandum, this will remain flexible to meet priorities, as will other areas. Please see response to S6W-13643 on 19 January 2023 for a breakdown of the
‎ £1.2 billion in relation to social care support.

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 Private Water Supply Grant is a demand led scheme which involves private water supply users and owners making an application to their local authority. The local authority reimbursement claims combine the total for all grants awarded, rather than distinguishing between home and commercial claims. Between the years of 2007 - 2022, the South Scotland region was awarded a total of £3,627,986.80. The breakdown for each year is: