Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government remains committed to introducing a high quality and clinically safe thrombectomy service in Scotland. Work is ongoing to establish the most effective means of further expanding the national thrombectomy service, and the appropriate timescales to achieve this. This includes seeking input from National Services Division, to ensure that regional plans are cohesive and maximise access to thrombectomy procedures nationwide.

The budget for thrombectomy and development of a refreshed stroke improvement plan has been increased from £8.6 million for 2022-23 to £12.5 million in 2023-24. Prior to the 2023/24 budget announcement, the delivery of a national thrombectomy service had already received over £16 million of investment.

Our NHS Recovery Plan also invests £1 billion of targeted funding over five years to increase NHS capacity, deliver reform, and ensure everyone has the treatment they need at the right time, in the right place, and as quickly as possible, all in aid of our recovery from the global pandemic, the biggest shock our NHS has faced in its 74 year existence.

There has been no new assessment into the possibility of material switching in light of the recently published producer fees.

The Scottish Government consulted on a Circular Economy Bill and Waste Route Map in summer 2022, setting out proposed actions that must be taken to meet Scotland's waste targets and deliver a circular economy in Scotland. This included a proposal to strengthen the approach to household recycling collection services through new co-designed statutory guidance to provide a clear strategic direction for recycling in Scotland, improve consistency of services for households, and accelerate improvements to both the quality and quantity of recycling collected to help meet our waste and climate change targets .

The analysis of consultation responses to the Bill was published in November 2022. Programme for Government states that the Circular Economy Bill will be introduced in this parliamentary year.

As stated in my answer to S6W-13230, these calculations are based on commercially sensitive data provided in confidence to ZWS by local authorities. Therefore, we will not provide a breakdown by local authority.

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

In relation to the A96 Dualling Inverness to Nairn (including Nairn Bypass) scheme, we continue to progress the preparation stages of the scheme with a view to completing the statutory process. This includes the significant work required to prepare for publication of made Orders, including the Compulsory Purchase Order, in the coming weeks. Subject to no legal challenge being received, the Scottish Ministers will then have the relevant powers to acquire the land necessary to construct the scheme.

Delivery can only commence if approved under the relevant statutory procedures and thereafter a timetable for progress can be set in line with available budgets.

Moray Council attended a series of A96 Corridor Review stakeholder sessions and provided feedback to the public consultation survey undertaken as part of the review during 2022. We will continue to engage with stakeholders including Moray Council as we progress the review.

From 16 August 2023 SEPA will become the enforcement authority for the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland and as part of this will carry out audits, inspections and enforcement activity in relation to the obligations and offences contained within the regulations. Staff have been allocated accordingly.

SEPA is not empowered to investigate and report instances of fraud, but they have a close working relationship with Police Scotland who are the competent authority for this sort of criminality.

The transparent, evidence-based review of the A96 corridor has included a public consultation which received an unprecedented level of engagement, with approximately 4,600 responses, generating more than 11,000 suggestions and potential opportunities for the route.

Given the sheer volume of responses received and the high level of options generated, it has rightly taken Transport Scotland more time than originally anticipated to examine and appraise all these options. However, we have now reported on the Public Consultation and the Initial Appraisal, which were published on 22 December 2022.

Transport Scotland is now pushing forward with the next phase of further detailed work to inform the remaining stages of the Review. These include a robust appraisal of the retained options alongside a Climate Compatibility Assessment, with outcomes expected to be announced in the first half of 2023 for final public consultation, before a final decision on the route can be reached.

Advertising for Winter Heating Payment was initially planned for January 2023 to allow for the associated regulations to have completed the parliamentary process. Due to the low temperatures experienced across Scotland during the early part of December 2022, some of the planned advertising for Winter Heating Payment was brought forward to raise awareness of the changes and to allow people to plan accordingly.

This included:

• National radio campaign - total cost including VAT £10,456.98.
• National print advertising campaign - total cost including VAT £8,743.30.

Information was also shared through a media release and through Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland social media channels including Twitter and Facebook and with stakeholders.

The priority for this recently paid for advertising push, was reaching digitally excluded prospective clients that we are not able to reach through messages shared through Social Security Scotland, Scottish Government and stakeholder social media channels.

Further advertising is planned for this year and Social Security Scotland will select channels based on insight, taking advice from its media buying agency.

We have offered £80 million from our Emerging Energy Technologies Fund to support the deployment of the Scottish Cluster. Due to delays with the UK Government awarding the Scottish Cluster, the offer of financial support was not required and we have re-profiled funding into subsequent years. We remain committed to supporting the Scottish Cluster and continue to urge to UK Government to commit to a concrete timeline and processes to ensure the Track 2 sequencing process commences in 2023.