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From the 26 July to the 31 December 2021, there were 25 instances where a client submitted more than one application, accounting for 50 applications in total. Of these 50 applications, 20 have been withdrawn and five have been denied.

As set out in Annex F to the amended Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) for our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), published on 15 December 2021, we consider that there is a degree of uncertainty attached to the figures proposed by Circularity Scotland Ltd (CSL) for the number of scheme articles and return points under DRS. For that reason our final and best estimate remains that set out on p19 of the amended BRIA.

Nevertheless, as Annex F shows, even if we were to adopt these two figures there would continue to be a strong economic case for DRS.

We have seen no evidence for higher numbers of RVMs than the roughly 3,000 assumed in the Full Business Case Addendum and I understand that CSL is continuing to work from this figure. That is therefore the figure modelled in the updated Final BRIA that was published in December last year.

Audit Scotland provides advice and support to ensure that public money is spent properly, efficiently, and effectively. Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) is financed and administered by industry under the principles of producer responsibility, therefore Audit Scotland is not involved.

There is not a single offence of modern slavery in Scotland. Several offences fall within the ambit of modern slavery. These offences are listed below.

On 31 May 2016, the Human Trafficking & Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 came into effect.

The 2015 Act introduced new offences and aggravations, which apply to conduct occurring on or after 31 May 2016.

Offences that were in effect prior to the implementation of the 2015 Act continue to apply to conduct occurring before 17 December 2016.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service are able to provide statistical data from 2002/03 onwards. Table 1 details the number of accused persons reported to the Procurator Fiscal, for one or more of the offences listed below, in each financial year since 2002-03.

Table 1

The most recent data for environment protection expenditure is published as part of the Country and regional analysis published by HM Treasury ( Country and regional analysis: 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) ). The relevant information can be found in Table A-15 of the published tables.

Table 1 is taken from the publication and summarises expenditure per head for Scotland, England and Wales for 2020–21.

Table 1

The NHS Recovery Plan, published August 2021, commits an additional £20m for the Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme, to provide greater public awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer and support the development of optimal cancer pathways to improve earlier diagnosis rates. Research is currently being undertaken to better understand the possible barriers and levers to early diagnosis that any new DCE campaigns should focus on, with results expected in April.

A symptom-checker tool is included on our public facing website (getcheckedearly.org) to raise awareness of the early signs and symptoms of cancer, including ovarian cancer. A survivor’s story and a link to the ovarian cancer page on DCE’s website will also be shared on wee c social media pages during Ovarian Cancer Awareness month.

On 30 March, the Scottish Parliament will hold a members business debate for ovarian cancer awareness month to raise awareness of the common symptoms.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission published updated forecasts alongside the 2022-23 Scottish Budget on 9 December 2021.

In line with their forecasts, the Scottish Government is committing £3,949 million to social security assistance in 2022-23, and is investing an additional £2.7 million to uprate eight Scottish benefits by 6% from 1 April, subject to parliamentary approval.

The UK Government Spring Statement was made on 23 March and provided an updated set of Social Security Block Grant Adjustments for 2022-23 which total £3,601 million.

Therefore, the Scottish Government is making an additional investment of over £346 million in the social security benefits in 2022-23.

Social security spending is demand-led which means it is variable and harder to control than other areas of spending. We will manage any variance between actual and forecast expenditure or Block Grant Adjustment, in a competent, responsible and balanced way.

Vaccination policy in Scotland, is based on recommendations from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

Following the Committee’s recommendation, from August 2019 the HPV immunisation programme in Scotland was extended to adolescent boys entering their first year of secondary school (S1).

The JCVI has not recommended a catch up for older boys as evidence suggests they are already benefitting from the indirect protection built up in the population over 10 years of the girls’ HPV vaccination programme.

From 2016 HPV vaccine has been available to men who have sex with men (MSM) up to and including 45 years of age who attend sexual health or HIV clinics. The HPV MSM programme is opportunistic and offers direct protection.

The JCVI keeps its recommendations under review and if the advice on HPV vaccination was to change we would of course give this due consideration.

The legislative framework relating to the reporting duties of the Scottish Tribunals in general, and on the Housing and Property Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland in particular, are outlined in the previous answer to question S6W-06407.

The Scottish Government is content with the legislative framework and relevant reporting duties on the Scottish Tribunals and has no plans to review these at present.

Social Security Scotland conducts an eligibility check with the submission of part 1 of the application, which checks if the child is already in receipt of a Disability Living Allowance for children award. At present, this information is not stored in a way that can be quantified.