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The Scottish Government are in regular contact with NHS Shetland to identify short term options and sustainable long-term solutions to support ophthalmic surgery, including cataract operations, across the North of Scotland.

We are working with all NHS Boards including NHS Shetland to reduce long waiting times. This includes targets announced in July 2022 to address the backlog of long waits and the delivery of the £1 billion NHS Recovery Plan to support sustainable improvements and new models of care, such as the National Treatment Centre Programme.

This is an operational matter for NatureScot. I have asked their Chief Executive to write with the relevant information.

This is an operational matter for NatureScot. I have asked their Chief Executive to write with the relevant information.

The Scottish Government has spent £218,565.83 in setting up the Deposit Return Scheme since 2018. This includes the costs associated with consultation, publication of regulations and associated documents, evaluations, independent reviews and assurance.

The costs associated with the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) are met from the wider Zero Waste budget. For that whole Zero Waste budget the Scottish Government budgeted £40.2m in 2021-22, £42.9m in 2022-23 and £46.9m in 2023-24. DRS is a very small part of those budgets which, as a whole, support major circular economy delivery programmes including implementation of Circular Economy Bill and Waste Route Map, Extended Producer Responsibility, incineration research, landfill remediation, recycling, single-use plastics, litter and flytipping and funding for Zero Waste Scotland to support delivery of SG objectives.

The Cabinet has received regular updates on the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) and last discussed it on 6 June 2023. Cabinet was briefed on the latest position regarding letters exchanged with the UK Government on the Internal Market Act, in particular the UK Government’s refusal to provide a full exclusion despite detailed engagement over almost two years and the evidence that says the biggest benefits, economically, financially and environmentally, are from including glass.

This is an operational matter for NatureScot. I have asked their Chief Executive to write with the relevant information.

Under the Bathing Water (Scotland) Regulations 2008, Scottish Ministers designate bathing waters where they expect a large number of people to bathe, having regard to past trends and infrastructure and facilities provided, or other measures taken to promote bathing. Scottish Ministers have historically asked for information on past usage trends (user surveys and photographs), evidence of relevant infrastructure and facilities and evidence of support from local authorities and land owners in order to consider whether a large number of bathers is expected at a surface water area. Recent proposals have also been voluntarily accompanied by local consultations as an indication of local support.

SEPA’s bathing water guidance has recently been updated to require landowner and local authority letters of support, evidence of local consultation and either aerial or drone footage to be provided alongside a bathing water application. This formalises the process which has been routinely followed by groups submitting proposals, and provides further clarity on the information needed to support Scottish Minister’s decisions under the Regulations.

This is a matter for SEPA. The information requested is not held centrally. SEPA have provided the following information.

Calls to Pollution Hotline in each year since 2019

The Scottish Government and National Records of Scotland do not hold this information. The Home Office publish equivalent figures for the UK, but they are not broken down to individual countries. The latest published data for the UK , from the Home Office, is for the year ending March 2023.

Data is not available from 2007 as there were formerly no records held at a national level at that time. This information has been held on the national recruitment system from 2018 onwards, currently providing 5 years of finalised data and 1 year of provisional data.

In the following table are the number of nominations from Scottish Medical Schools for admission to Foundation training. Nominations are students that the medical school believes will pass finals and be eligible to progress to Foundation training. The data is uploaded in September/October, the year ahead of Foundation training starting, for example, 2022 data is for Foundation training which will start in August 2023. This information does not include those trainees who were withdrawn either by their medical school or by the student themselves.