Chamber and committees

The publication of the Housing Statistics for Scotland 2020: Key Trends Summary and associated Excel web tables had been initially planned for September 2020, however was subsequently delayed due to the impacts of COVID-19 on data provision and staff resourcing.

The Housing Statistics team are in the process of collecting, processing and quality assuring data returns from local authorities, covering annual data for both the delayed 2020 Key Trends publication along with more recent annual data covering the 2021 publication period. We are intending to publish a Key Trends Summary and Excel web tables containing both the 2020 and 2021 figures. The statistics will be released as soon as they are considered ready, under the guidance of the Chief Statistician. At this stage we anticipate this will be between October and December 2021.

Once there is more certainty around a publication date this will be pre-announced no later than 4 weeks in advance, in line with the Statistics Code of Practice, on the Scottish Government website: Official statistics: forthcoming publications - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government looks forward to a successful COP26 in November that delivers increased global ambition to net zero in a way that is fair and just. Scottish Ministers have engaged widely on COP26, and will continue to do so in the run up to, during and after the conference.

Between 1 January 2020 and 20 July 2021, all Scottish Ministers (excluding the First Minister) attended a total of 36 meetings in relation to COP26. Between 1 January 2020 and 28 July 2021, the First Minister attended 4 meetings in relation to COP26. The majority of meetings included in these figures are external engagements, including meetings between the previous Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change And Land Reform Ms. Cunningham and the UK Government. Whilst meetings referenced here include those with COP26 as a specified focus of the engagement, a significant amount of climate- related Ministerial meetings since Glasgow was announced as the COP26 host city are likely to have included discussions of COP26 to some extent.

The Scottish Government currently only allows travellers returning from green and amber list countries to use NHS tests, delivered through the UK Government’s contract with the travel management company CTM. These tests are the highest quality with established data flows into NHS boards and samples are sequenced to ensure early detection of variants of concern.

As set out in our update to the Climate Change Plan, we will take steps to improve waste data by working with the UK Government, other devolved governments, and agencies such as SEPA, to develop and implement the electronic waste tracking system. This step change in the quality and timeliness of waste data will support decision-making and underpin the key building blocks required to reduce emissions and drive delivery on existing waste and recycling targets.

A joint consultation is being planned for this summer on behalf of all four nations of the UK. This consultation will seek views on how and when mandatory digital waste tracking should be implemented.

There were 5,902 tonnes of plastic waste produced from the construction and demolition sector in 2018 in Scotland. Waste (from all sources) (sepa.org.uk)

UK official waste figures for Construction and Demolition show that plastic waste is around 0.05% of the total waste stream. The percentage is similar in Scotland.

Zero Waste Scotland has taken a variety of actions to tackle waste in the construction and demolition sector. In 2020-2021, Zero Waste Scotland undertook a packaging project with national housebuilders to drive down the consumption of packaging waste, including plastics, on site.

In 2020-2021, Zero Waste Scotland also commissioned the development of a methodology to measure the true cost of waste on a construction site. Testing this methodology on a new build housing site, 14% of the waste was identified as plastics.

Zero Waste Scotland provides a range of support and advice to help the Construction and Demolition sector to be more circular Circular Construction | Zero Waste Scotland . In 2021-2022 Zero Waste Scotland will be working with the Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA) on the development of a national Onsite Best Practice Guide.

On 2 July 2021 Scottish Government officials met with two representatives of the Society of Independent Brewers to discuss Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). We will consider their views alongside the findings of the Gateway Review into DRS.

The Scottish Government currently only allows travellers returning from green and amber list countries to use NHS tests, arranged through the CTM booking portal, as they are the highest quality with established data flows into NHS boards and samples are sequenced to ensure early detection of variants of concern.

Travellers arriving in other parts of the UK can access the NHS tests, however those arriving in England and Northern Ireland are also able to access private test providers who charge a range of prices.

The Scottish Government is exploring ways to allow private testing for travellers coming to Scotland provided we are confident in the flow of data into contact tracing services and that all positive test results are analysed to identify any variants of concern.

The Covid-19 test kits are home PCR kits provided by NHS Test & Trace. The cost of the kits is set by the UK Government and the process managed through its contract with the travel management company CTM.

Currently, the Scottish Government does not allow use of private test providers for international travellers arriving into Scotland from green and amber list countries.

We are having on-going discussions with the UK government on using private test providers and exploring ways to allow private testing for travellers coming to Scotland provided we are confident in the flow of data into contact tracing services and that all positive test results are analysed to identify any variants of concern.

The latest data cut of 22.07.2021 showed 262 active Cancer Clinical Trials in Scotland. On that date there were 22 Covid-19 suspended Cancer Clinical Trials.

The legislative requirements for an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) are set out on the Road Traffic regulation Act 1984 and the relevant procedures as contained in the Local Authorities' Traffic Orders (Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 1999 (for local roads) or the Secretary of State’s Traffic Orders (Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 1987 (for trunk roads).

If a Roads Authority wish to make an ETRO a permanent Traffic Regulation Order (TRO), the procedures set out in the relevant regulations shown above must be followed.

As part of the ongoing review into TRO procedures we have published a public consultation to gather feedback on some proposed changes to the Experimental Order Procedures and this can be found at Consultation on Traffic Regulation Orders - Scottish Government - Citizen Space ( https://consult.gov.scot)