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I have recently written to the profession about our plans for the recovery of NHS dental services.

Our commitment as a Government is to build back NHS dentistry, and ensure that NHS dental teams are focused on the need to tackle the backlog in routine dental care. Our NHS dental teams have been working hard throughout this pandemic in difficult circumstances, and it’s important that they feel supported by Government and representative bodies.

Which is why we have recently detailed a package of new improvements to support NHS dental teams, including new enhanced examination fees for all patients, both children and adults, with a particular emphasis on children and tackling oral health inequalities. This builds on recent announcements of £7.5m for new dental drills and £5m for ventilation improvements.

We want to build on what has been a hugely successful policy of protecting NHS dentistry during this pandemic period. We have provided £50m of financial support payments, in addition to between £30 and £35m of free PPE since the beginning of the pandemic, to ensure NHS dental services emerge well placed to care for the oral health of the population.

Over the last Parliamentary term, over 6,000 affordable homes were delivered in rural and island areas across Scotland through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP). Between 1 April 2016 and latest published statistics to the end of June 2021, there has been a total of 100 affordable homes delivered through the Rural and Islands Housing Fund (RIHF), which forms part of the wider AHSP.

The fund is demand led and is open to a wide range of potential applicants, including those not able to access traditional funding streams such as community bodies, rural landowners, landlords and private developers. It complements existing investment in affordable housing directed through Registered Social Landlords and Local Authorities, filling gaps in provision.

The following table shows affordable homes delivered through the Rural and Islands Housing Fund in rural and island communities by local authority area.

Affordable homes delivered through the Rural and Islands Housing Fund by Local Authority

The Scottish Government first announced this policy regarding trade support and promotion for fossil fuel goods and services overseas, in January 2021 in Scotland’s Vision for Trade . This was in alignment with the 2019 Program for Government commitment to ensure all support for the Oil and Gas sector is conditional on enabling a sustainable energy transition.

Our policy cover note published on October 15 2021 explains the rationale for the decision to align with the UK Government’s guidance and relevant exemptions. This decision was made following wide stakeholder engagement and responds to strong feedback from stakeholders on the importance of technical alignment in order to avoid any unintended confusion for our agencies and the industry in the practical implementation of this policy.

Through our Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP), nearly £328 million is being made available to the Highland and three Island local authority areas over this Parliamentary term to support the delivery of affordable homes.

Within the AHSP there is a strong focus on enhancing energy efficiency through incentivising delivery of new homes which meet a higher ‘greener’ standard.

We have also committed to new homes delivered by Registered Social Landlords and local authorities being zero emissions homes by 2026.

The Scottish Government only holds data on chargepoint installation on our ChargePlace Scotland network. Data is available by local authority and not at a community or settlement level. The following table sets out the breakdown of charging by local authority as at September 2021.

In November 2020, we announced that the Rural and Island Housing Fund would be extended beyond March 2021 with up to £30 million made available to support development of affordable homes in rural and island areas across Scotland in the current Parliamentary term.

The fund is part of the wider Affordable Housing Supply Programme which supports delivery of affordable homes across Scotland including in rural and island areas.

We engaged closely with islands communities as part of the policy-development process for DRS, culminating in an Islands Communities Impact Assessment ( Deposit return scheme for Scotland: islands communities impact assessment - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ).

We consider that our design for DRS takes full account of the needs of businesses, including retailers, operating in islands communities. In particular, the DRS scheme administrator will be required to collect containers free of charge from retailers to ensure they do not incur costs associated with transporting scheme articles for recycling.

We listened closely to small retailers in designing Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). Under the DRS Regulations, return-point operators including small retailers will be able to claim a reasonable handling fee from the DRS scheme administrator for each container returned. This fee must cover costs including the rental value of space used to collect or store scheme packaging and will ensure small retailers are not out of pocket for operating a return point.

Retailers will also be able to refuse returns where the quantity of material is disproportionately greater than the volume of containers they would usually sell as part of a single transaction.

We are confident that these protections will ensure that small retailers can successfully operate a return point. Nevertheless, the DRS Regulations do allow a retailer to apply to the Scottish Ministers for an exemption from the obligation to operate a return point where they meet certain criteria. Further information is available at: https://depositreturnscheme.zerowastescotland.org.uk/ .

As we set out in our recent Programme for Government, we are committed to delivering the recommendations of the independent Grouse Moor Management Group review (the ‘Werritty Review’) as a matter of urgency.

This will include tighter regulation, including licensing, and oversight of muirburn, and a ban on burning on peatland (expect in very limited cases as part of an approved habitat restoration programme).

We will also undertake a review of the current definition of peatland, taking expert advice on whether it should be revised and a stricter definition imposed.

The timing of the legislation will depend on the future legislative programme for the Parliament, which will be set out in due course.

Paragraphs 13.30-13.35 of our 2020 islands communities impact assessment (ICIA) sets out details on licensing related costs. The ICIA notes that, although operators in island communities may face higher costs in implementing measures to comply with the basic safety standards required by the licensing scheme (compared to mainland operators), these basic standards are required under existing legislation or best practice. Therefore, these are costs that responsible operators will already be incurring.

In addition, further detail on licence fees and compliance costs has been set out in our consultation draft Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA), published on 25 June 2021, which can be found at: Short-term lets - licensing scheme and planning control area legislation: draft business and regulatory impact assessment (BRIA) - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)