Chamber and committees

The most recent baseline data is contained within the 2016 Zero Waste Scotland report How Much Food is Wasted in Scotland? | Zero Waste Scotland . This report uses 2013 data and is broken down as follows:

• Household (solid and liquid waste) – 598,946 tonnes (60.6%)
• Food and drink manufacturing – 248,230 tonnes (25.1%)
• Other sectors – 140,714 tonnes (14.2%)
• The total of 987,890 tonnes covers all quantifiable food and drink waste in Scotland and provides a baseline for the Scottish Government’s flagship target to reduce all food waste arising in Scotland by 33% by 2025. Food losses incurred in primary production are currently excluded from the baseline figures. A Waste Composition Analysis, originally planned for 2021 but delayed due to Covid-19, is being carried out by Zero Waste Scotland this year and more detailed information will be available once that work concludes.

I am pleased to confirm today that the Scottish Government will proceed with a four nation approach to introduce mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid. I have agreed with the administrations of the UK (in relation to England), Wales, and Northern Ireland that we will take forward the fortification of non-wholemeal wheat flour on a UK-wide basis, which was the ‘baseline’ option in the consultation.

Scottish Ministers have long advocated for the mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid to reduce the risk of neural tube defects in foetuses. There is strong evidence that many neural tube defects can be prevented by increasing women’s intake of folic acid. Mandatory fortification is an effective way of reaching people with the lowest folate intakes, often younger women from the most socioeconomically deprived areas.

The Scottish Government will now work together with the other administrations of the UK to engage with stakeholders on the details of the fortification and labelling requirements, including on appropriate lead-in times. In order to minimise impacts on industry, this will be co-ordinated as part of a wider review of The Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 and The Bread and Flour (Northern Ireland) Regulations 1998 being undertaken by Defra – alongside the Food Standards Agency in Northern Ireland and Wales, Food Standards Scotland, the UK Government, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Scottish and Welsh Governments.

The full results of the four nation consultation on mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid and our joint policy response will be published as soon as possible.

The target to protect 30% of Scotland’s land for nature by 2030 provides an opportunity to strengthen our existing protected areas network, including Ramsar sites, by improving the connectivity between them. This will give the space for nature to adapt to Scotland’s changing environmental conditions, which is driven by climate change.

We have been working to address supply chain issues in the construction industry since the launch of our Construction Recovery Plan in October last year, working with the industry and the UK Government to fully understand the current supply chain issues, which we recognise are due to a number of factors including the coronavirus pandemic and the impact of EU Exit.

I also established a working group to consider immediate supply issues in more detail and I meet with the group on a weekly basis in order to work with Scottish manufacturers to increase output to meet the shortage challenges. I have been meeting suppliers to discuss the opportunities available for increasing production, and sourcing more supplies from Scottish manufacturers.

The Scottish Government will continue to work hard to address the problems and blockages faced by companies, where it is in our power to do so.

There are currently 51 Ramsar sites in Scotland, all of which are also designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Areas or Special Areas of Conservation.

Ramsar sites are currently afforded a high level of protection in Scotland by virtue of their co-designation as Sites of Scientific Interest, Special Area of Conservation or Special Protection Area. We are committed to producing a new Biodiversity Strategy by autumn 2022. As part of the development of that strategy and the implementation of key commitments such as the protection of 30% of our land for nature by 2030, we will look at how best we can protect and restore nature in Scotland. This will include looking at the levels of protection given to our protected areas.

The Scottish Government believe that our National Parks bring many positive benefits to our environment and our economy, which is why our Programme for Government 2021-22 commits to the creation of at least one new National Park by the end of this Parliament, provided relevant legal conditions can be met.

The process for selecting and establishing new National Park is set out in the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000. That legislation rightly includes a thorough consultation process and Ministers will provide an update on the timings for that in due course.

Our National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) position statement, published November 2020, sets out our intentions that NPF4 will strengthen our approach to protecting and restoring the health and quality of Scotland’s natural environment. We will lay a draft NPF4 in Parliament this autumn, and will carry out extensive public consultation at the same time.

In recognition of importance of reducing flood risk the Scottish Government has, since 2007, provided £42 million each year to local authorities through the general capital grant to invest in flood protection measures. In September 2020, the Programme for Government also committed an additional £150 million over five years from 2021-22 to support flood risk management actions. Reducing flood risk is a priority for this Government and we will continue to support authorities to deliver actions that protect our communities.

The Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 (“the Act”) encourages a co-ordinated, plan-led approach to flood risk management, which runs in six year cycles. As part of the first cycle under the Act, 14 Flood Risk Management Strategies were published in 2015 by SEPA and 14 Local Flood Risk Management Plans (LFRMP) were published in 2016 by local authorities. Actions prioritised to reduce flood risk in Newcastleton are included within the 2016-22 Solway LFRMP; this included a flood study for Newcastleton, which has now been completed by Scottish Borders Council. It is for the Council and other responsible authorities such as Scottish Water to take forward and deliver the actions set out in the Strategies and LFRMPs.

SEPA and local authorities are currently in the process of reviewing and updating the Strategies and LFRMPs for the 2022-28 cycle. Once finalised, the Strategies will be submitted to Scottish Ministers for approval.

We also work closely with key partners to promote community resilience and flood preparedness. We have increased our funding to £195,000 for the Scottish Flood Forum, which provides vital support to communities such as Newcastleton. The Scottish Flood Forum offers advice and information to individuals to help them protect their homes from flooding or to recover from flooding.

Following the announcement from the First Minister of the £500 'thank you' payment for health and social care staff in November 2020, a short-life stakeholder focus group was assembled. This group, including stakeholders from social care provider representative bodies, CoSLA, trade unions, local authorities, Office of the Chief Social Work Adviser and Scottish Government legal officials, met regularly in December 2020 to agree on the eligibility criteria for social care staff to receive the payment. Social care workforce policy officials engaged with stakeholders, remotely due to restrictions, on the complexity of the guidance and sought to ensure that no processes involved would present unreasonable difficulty for stakeholders involved in the process.

For staff in NHS Scotland, it was important to set out clear qualification criteria for the payment, which were agreed in partnership with NHS employer and Trade Union colleagues, and which could be applied fairly and consistently across NHS Scotland Health Boards. The payment applies to staff directly employed by NHS payment and remuneration arrangements, and has also been extended to certain facilities management staff working in Public Finance Initiative and Public Private Partnership Hospitals who work exclusively for NHS Scotland. The Scottish Government does not hold information on all of the contractors working in the Health sector, however, those employed by a private employer and not covered by the specific provisions of PCS(COV)2021/3 are not eligible for the payment.

Scottish Ministers are incredibly grateful for the hard work and dedication of staff working for non-registered support organisations, and for the undoubtedly vital support they provide to people. However, following extensive consultation, it was determined by the stakeholder groups that only those services which were required to register with the Care Inspectorate as delivering adult social care can be considered as frontline social care. Non-registered services were considered to be support services, not delivering frontline social care and therefore not within scope to receive the payment.