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A Human Rights Bill will be introduced to Parliament during this Parliamentary session taking forward the recommendations of The National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership’s report. The right to a healthy environment for everyone will be included as part of the proposed Bill.

The Gateway Review into the Deposit Return Scheme began on 14 June 2021. We will provide an update to Parliament on the go-live date following summer recess.

We have invested over £45 million into electric vehicle infrastructure across Scotland. And through our funding programmes we have awarded £3.6 million to Edinburgh City Council to invest in EV infrastructure. The UK Government recently published data that demonstrates Scotland is well ahead of the rest of the UK with 43 chargers per 100,000 of population, compared to around 30 in England.

In addition, we have now made available additional funding to match the UK Government Office for Zero Emission Vehicles On-Street and Residential Charging Scheme, which has the potential to enhance the availability of charging for those without access to off-street parking. Once completed, EV infrastructure projects that are currently approved will see the number of chargers per 100,000 of population in Edinburgh City increase by over 50%.

We are also aware that vehicle registration data can be influenced by centralised registration of company car fleets and may not be a true reflection of where vehicles are ultimately located and used. In addition, fleet vehicles will be included in vehicle registration data but charger numbers relate only to publicly available charge points and do not reflect domestic or business charging units.

Whilst we work towards our net-zero transport targets, we will continue to align support with the vision and priorities set out in the National Transport Strategy 2 and Sustainable Transport Hierarchy. This represents a strong presumption towards enabling and promoting the use of active, sustainable and public transport modes over the use of private cars, regardless of their fuel type. Reflecting on the varied transport challenges and opportunities across Scotland’s urban and rural communities this means we would expect to see car use in our largest cities reduce.

City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) is benefitting from over £2.39 million of funding for its “Edinburgh EV Infrastructure Network Project” through Transport Scotland’s Switched on Towns and Cities challenge fund. Due to the scale of Switched on Towns and Cities projects the programme is delivered as a multi-annual funding stream, with work on-going across all 5 successful projects. City of Edinburgh Council is due to deliver 66 charge points of varying types (equating to 132 parking bays) at various locations across the city for use by residents, the public and also taxis. The project is due to complete later in 2021.

Whilst we work towards our net-zero transport targets, the Scottish Government will continue to align support with the vision and priorities set out in the National Transport Strategy 2 and Sustainable Transport Hierarchy. This represents a strong presumption towards enabling and promoting the use of active, sustainable and public transport modes over the use of private cars, regardless of their fuel type. Reflecting on the varied transport challenges and opportunities across Scotland’s urban and rural communities, this means we would expect to see car use in our largest cities reduce.

Given the importance of sandeels to the wider ecosystem and the subsequent benefit in aiding long-term sustainability and resilience, it remains an overarching Scottish Government position, which is reflected in Scotland’s Fisheries Management Strategy, not to support fishing for sandeels in our waters. During the parliamentary session on the 09 June, I committed to looking at this issue as a matter of urgency and to consider what additional measures we can put in place to manage the North Sea sandeel fisheries in the most sustainable way possible.

There are also a number of measures already in place for the protection of sandeel stocks in the North Sea. The Northeast UK closed area means that that over half the grounds of sandeel area 4 are closed to fishing. In addition, the Scottish Government has made major steps in protecting areas of key importance to sandeel through the designation of a network of Marine Protected Areas focussed on areas important to sandeel populations.

No patient should be discharged from hospital until they are clinically fit. It is the responsibility of the clinician in charge of treatment to decide when an individual patient is fit for discharge, as part of that process a multi-disciplinary team will assess the individuals on-going needs and ensure appropriate care and support is available.

A Human Rights Bill will be introduced to the Scottish Parliament during this Parliamentary session taking forward the recommendations of The National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership’s report.

Luss Bay has a designated Bathing Water and is given special protection to ensure it is safe for people to swim in during the bathing season, which normally runs from 1 June to 15 September. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has determined the current bathing water quality classification at Luss Bay as 'sufficient" and reports that there has not been any significant deterioration in annual trends at this location. The storm rainfall event last summer on 5 August 2020, did result in a poor water quality, but this was predicted by SEPA, and an appropriate poor water quality warning to the public was in place via SEPA’s real time electronic signage.

The public sewerage network in Luss, including Luss Bay, is a relatively small catchment and there are no combined sewer overflows from Scottish Water’s network in this vicinity to Loch Lomond. The Luss public sewerage network drains to Scottish Water’s Waste Water Treatment Works (WwTW). During the bathing season, to protect bathing water quality, Luss WwTW uses ultraviolet treatment to disinfect the sewage effluent. Scottish Water works with SEPA very closely and through regular monitoring has not found issues with respect to its discharge in the area. The final effluent discharge from the WwTW is sampled on a regular basis and Scottish Water is not aware of breaches of its license parameters.

Overall, SEPA classifies the environmental water quality of Loch Lomond as good for the north area and moderate for the south due to impacts from agriculture. Through River Basin Management Planning, carried out by SEPA on behalf of the Scottish Government, measures are planned to address the impacts from agriculture to ensure Loch Lomond can recover to good water quality status. SEPA and Scottish Water have also worked together to inspect the sewer network along the beach area at Luss Bay and no issues have been discovered.

Of course, the Scottish Government will continue to work together with stakeholders to ensure bathing waters reach the best possible status.

The 119 Freephone COVID testing helpline was made available to callers from Scotland on Friday 23 April 2021. The 119 Freephone service provides callers the option to report lateral flow device (LFD) test results, and can also be used to:

• order LFD test kits for home delivery
• provide support when booking a PCR test
• report test kit problems
• provide translation services

This number will run alongside the original 0300 303 2713 helpline number (which charges from some networks) until further notice. Both numbers reach the same call handlers.

LFD test results can also be reported online at GOV.UK. Reporting LFD tests results online or via the 119 service helps us to find community outbreaks, understand infection rates across Scotland and enable contact tracing.

The Out of Home sector has an important role to play in providing access to affordable, healthier food and in helping people make informed choices.

Our 2018 Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan includes specific actions to help families make healthier choices, including when eating out. As part of this, we are considering consulting on mandatory calorie labelling for food and drink purchased out of home.

The Delivery Plan is at https://www.gov.scot/publications/healthier-future-scotlands-diet-healthy-weight-delivery-plan/ .