Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government recognised the impact on businesses of measures to control Omicron including licensed clubs. As such they were eligible for hospitality funding including the Hospitality: December and January Business Support Top Up Fund and the Hospitality and Leisure: January Business Support Top Up Fund. These funds closed to applications on the 31 January 2022.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-06441 on 28 February 2022. 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

Annex F of the updated Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), which we published alongside the draft DRS Regulations on 15 December 2021, provides a sensitivity analysis of the economic case for DRS by analysing two assumptions for key scheme parameters raised by industry: a figure of 2.7bn containers per year placed on the market (compared to the 2.2bn originally modelled) and a figure of 37,000 return points (compared to the 17,000 originally modelled).

Although the original assumptions published in Table 3 of the same BRIA remain our final, and best, estimate of the costs and benefits associated with DRS, we analysed the impact on the 25-year net present value (NPV) based on these two figures suggested by industry.

Annex F, Table 2 sets out an overall NPV of £583m if the two industry assumptions are taken into account, and provides a breakdown of this figure by sector. The overall figure of £583m has been re-validated and is correct. However, a manual error was made in copying over some of the data cells in this table. The corrected figures are set out in the table below. It is important to note that the error does not affect the overall findings of the BRIA; nor does it change the overall net present value that was presented in Table 2, Annex F.

When we were notified of this error we immediately corrected it by writing to the Convener of the Net Zero, Energy, and Transport Committee. We have amended the published Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment on the Scottish Government website. To provide further reassurance following the detection of this error, all other data presented in the BRIA have been re-validated and confirmed to be correct.

A number of Scottish local authorities do offer reuse collection points at Household Waste & Recycling centres for paint. However councils are unable to accept liquid paint for disposal, as liquid wastes are banned from landfill sites in Scotland. Zero Waste Scotland provide further detail on what to with used paint and paint cans here: What to do with used paint | Recycling | How to Waste Less .

This service provision supplements social enterprise and third sector initiatives running paint collection and redistribution reuse networks for waste paint.

However, as the RSC’s report highlights, across all paint re-use or reprocessing options in the UK there are key common challenges to overcome to ensure a sustainable circular economy and waste management provision model.

We are committed to increasing the amount and quality of recyclate collected and reprocessed in Scotland. We are working closely with local government on the development of our route map to deliver our waste, recycling and climate change targets to 2025 and beyond, and are giving due consideration to further steps we can take to drive waste reduction and ensure circular economy approach across a range of waste streams.

The Scottish Government works closely with CyberScotland Partners including Police Scotland and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to help protect the public from cyber threats.

The NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA), which works to fight and prevent fraud affecting the NHS have put together guidance and advice to help anyone who may be a target of scams which can be found here .

We encourage anyone who identifies a suspicious email to forward it to [email protected] and to report any suspicious scam websites using the NCSC Scam Website Reporting Service which can be found here . Any victims of online or offline scams should report these to Police Scotland by calling 101. For general advice/support, contact Advice Direct Scotland on 0808 164 6000.

Scottish Government officials are continually engaging with NHS Boards and Health and Social Partnerships (HSCPs) to identify particular areas of concern. Aberdeenshire HSCP, which has operational responsibility for delivering services at Chalmers Hospital in Banff, advises that it is working closely with the staff group to develop a sustainable model of service delivery for the Banff community.

We have announced a substantial new investment of over £300 million in hospital and community care to support the NHS and social care system. The new funding will support a range of measures to maximise capacity in hospitals and primary care, reduce delayed discharges and ensure those in the community who need support receive effective and responsive care. NHS Grampian is receiving a share of direct workforce investments introduced through this plan including the recruitment of 1,000 additional healthcare support staff to support patients in hospitals and in community health teams.

Over and above this funding we have provided NHS Grampian with £1.1 million to support two new specialist programmes – Interface Care and Discharge without Delay – which will speed up the hospital discharge process or provide an alternative to hospital care altogether. This work is currently underway and we are working collaboratively with the Board to ensure robust actions are in place which support the reduction of long delays and improve patient care.

In addition, Grampian has received a £944K share of a further £10 million which has been allocated to Health Boards to support the delivery of timeous and optimal care. This will support Health Boards to put in place a range of measures including ensuring appropriate levels of staffing are in place across the system to facilitate efficient and effective patient care.

The original timeframe for the Best Start Implementation Programme Board envisaged a five year implementation timeline, ending in 2022. However the programme has been effectively paused for nearly two years as NHS Boards prioritised the response to COVID-19. I therefore agreed a two year extension to the implementation period for Best Start last year. The expectation is that NHS Boards will have implemented all of the recommendations by mid-2024, with implementation of continuity of carer within the lifetime of this Parliament.

In addition to monitoring of implementation, the Scottish Government is working with Public Health Scotland on the overall evaluation of the Best Start approach.

I am pleased to see Royal Society of Chemistry highlighting this important issue through its recent report.

The Scottish Government is committed to building a fully circular economy as part of our work to tackle the climate emergency. The shift to a circular economy represents an enormous economic and industrial opportunity for Scotland.

To make the most of this opportunity, we are working with industry, including construction and demolition sectors, local government and environmental groups to develop a route map to deliver our waste, recycling and climate change targets to 2025 and beyond. Through the Route Map and the forthcoming Circular Economy Bill we will consider how best to take forward waste reduction and circular economy across a range of waste streams.

In October 2020, we published our Inward Investment Plan, which identifies the transformation of the chemicals industries as one of Scotland’s nine opportunity areas for inward investment.

Partnering with Scottish Enterprise, the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) supports the advancement of bio-based solutions across all sectors. This includes supporting members of IBioIC to develop sustainable solutions for the paint industry.

Scotland’s chemical sciences R&D is consistently ranked top 3 in the world. R&D expenditure on chemicals & chemical products and pharmaceuticals totalled £192 million in 2019, 13.7% of the Scottish total.

In light of the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, the wellbeing of our health workforce, wherever they work, remains a key priority. The 2021/22 pay uplift saw staff receive an average 4% pay rise, the highest in the UK. The Scottish Government is committed to ensure that NHS Scotland nursing staff continue to benefit from the best pay and conditions in the UK.

In 2021-22, the Scottish Government made £12 million available to support the wellbeing of the workforce. This includes £8 million from the NHS Recovery Plan to provide ongoing wellbeing support for the workforce alongside an additional £4 million to provide further support to address winter pressures.

To complement this at a local level, we also have a range of resources including the National Wellbeing Hub, a 24/7 National Wellbeing Helpline, confidential mental health treatment the Workforce Specialist Service and funding for additional local psychological support. We are also providing further support for practical measures to aid rest and recuperation alongside additional resources such as Coaching for Wellbeing and grief and bereavement support.

Nursing and midwifery staffing is also at a record high, up by 13.1% since September 2006.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03956 on 15 November 2021. 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