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The economic modelling in the amended Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme does not account for any VAT being levied on deposits. That is in line with best practice as set out in HM Treasury’s Green Book ( https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/938046/The_Green_Book_2020.pdf ) because VAT is considered to be a transfer payment that does not affect the output or consumption of resources.

The information presented in the version of the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) published in July 2019 has been superseded.

Please refer to the amended Final BRIA published in December 2021 which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/deposit-return-scheme-scotland-final-business-regulatory-impact-assessment/ .

The centralised BRIA quality assurance services provided by the Better Regulation team has ceased, their last meeting was in February 2018.

The position taken by Circularity Scotland Ltd (CSL) in respect of container and return point numbers, as I understand it, is set out at Annex F of the amended Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) for our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) published in December 2021.

CSL’s position in respect of number of reverse vending machines is that they expect roughly 3,000 of these as set out in the Full Business Case for DRS.

CSL had no sight of the content of the amended BRIA in advance of publication.

Table 1: Number and percentage of heart-related repeat hospital admissions: Years ending 31 March 2017-2021

Table 1: Percentage of repeat alcohol-related hospital admissions by NHS board and financial year.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people living in Scotland with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and person-centred.

While the NHS Recovery Plan is not condition specific, the aim is to effect whole system recovery and support prioritisation and planning. In that respect we would expect this to directly affect neurology services and the experience and outcomes for people with neurological condition, including MS.

There is a commitment to update on the progress of the plan on an annual basis and to review the strategic plan. Work on the first annual review will commence shortly and is expected to be published in the summer of 2022.

In 2019, we published a Neurological Care and Support – National Framework for Action . The aims include improving the provision of co-ordinated health and social care services, developing sustainable workforce models and ensuring high standards of person-centred care for people with neurological conditions.

Through implementation of the framework, we have awarded £1.4m since October 2020 to fund innovative projects working to achieve better outcomes for people living with neurological conditions. Over £300,000 of this has been committed to projects which improve the health and wellbeing of people with MS in Scotland.

The Scottish Government continue to engage with our stakeholders to improve animal welfare and this is an issue we would be open to considering.

The Scottish Government would be content with this suggested change if the UK Government were minded to amend the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill [1] , which is currently at Report Stage in the UK Parliament. The Scottish Government also agreed with the Legislative Consent Motion in relation to the Bill. However, it should be noted that the Bill, should it come into effect, will reduce the number of animals to five per vehicle , as opposed to five per traveller, which will be a significant improvement on the present situation.

Scotland does not have any Pet Travel Scheme (PETS) routes [2] for vehicles entering Scotland directly, but the Scottish Government would wish to retain a consistent GB-wide approach where possible.

[1] Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament

[2] Pet travel: sea and rail routes and companies you can use - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

I have frequent discussions with Ministerial colleagues on a range of matters. We are committed to reforming council tax to make it fairer, working with the Scottish Green Party and COSLA to oversee the development of effective deliberative engagement on sources of local government funding. including Council Tax, that will culminate in a Citizens' Assembly.

Data on local authority debt are published as part of the annual Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics (SLGFS). The latest available data is from SLGFS 2020-21 which was published on 22 March 2022. Figures on General Fund debt by local authority at 31 March 2021, including figures per person, are provided in Table F of the 'Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics (SLGFS) 2020-21 - Additional Analysis - Capital' supporting excel file which can be downloaded at https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-slgfs-2020-21/documents/ .