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The Local Environmental Audit and Management System (LEAMS) methodology is currently used to assess litter levels on annual basis, this is used by local authorities and validated by Keep Scotland Beautiful. Results are published annually in the Local Government Benchmarking Framework Report .

A new monitoring system is being developed by Zero Waste Scotland and various partners on behalf of Scottish Government that will provide a spatial tool for monitoring litter and flytipping levels in Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-32339 on 10 November 2020. The Scottish Government 2018-19 ‘Food Waste Gone Bad’ campaign has most recently been evaluated. This campaign generated awareness of 47% and most notably, 76% of people who saw the campaign took action as a result, with a corresponding increase of 4 percentage points in the proportion of the target audience recycling food waste at ‘every opportunity’.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

There is no single dataset of all flytipping incidents in Scotland, as there is no legal requirement for duty bodies or landowners to report on flytipping externally. The figures provided below represent incidents reported via the voluntary reporting options Flymapper, Dumb Dumpers and Flytipping & Litter Monitoring System (F&LMS).

It is clear that the data varies significantly from year to year but it is not possible to deduce whether this relates to variations in incidents or variations in reporting by relevant bodies.

The Waste Data Strategy Board’s action plan includes key components of waste data monitoring and reporting. The plan includes the development of a national food waste monitoring and measuring plan to align with Food Waste Reduction Action Plan, and an update of the national food waste estimates.

We remain committed to consulting on proposals for enhancing food waste monitoring and measurement, as set out in the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan, in due course. As part of this future work, the Waste Data Strategy Board will work closely with the Scottish Government and Zero Waste Scotland to develop a detailed monitoring and reporting timeline. A full review of the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan progress is scheduled for 2021.

The planned consultation on the range of commitments identified in the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan, has been delayed by a number of factors, including the recent Covid-19 crisis. We remain committed to consulting on the Scottish Government’s proposals for an obligation for food retail sites over a certain size to redistribute edible food in due course.

Zero Waste Scotland has carried out a mapping of the redistribution landscape in Scotland, including analysis of the challenges and barriers facing redistribution activities and engagement with stakeholders on the potential solutions and support needs.

We also remain committed to consulting on the Scottish Government’s proposals for an obligation for food retail sites over a certain size to ensure that they redistribute edible products in due course that will inform the development and scope of what an advice and support service for community redistribution projects could deliver and how.

Requests for assessments under the Food Waste Reduction Business Support Service have significantly reduced compared to the previous year due to the impact of COVID-19.

However next year we hope to increase the support to the hospitality sector, increasing opportunities for staff training and providing more bespoke support in measuring and monitoring of waste, supporting behaviour change. The advice and support service will offer support to non-SMEs, whereas in previous years support was SME-focused.

Towards a litter free Scotland was reviewed in 2019-20 by a steering group of organisations. The key findings were as follows:

• The focus should move to a more holistic approach, tackling throwaway culture by setting prevention within the context of the circular economy and linking to wider policy areas such as marine litter, climate change and biodiversity loss.
• Improving the collection and use of data is vital to inform action and measure the impacts.
• Future work should be led by a steering group to ensure ownership by a range of stakeholders, reflecting the need to work together across geography and sectors.

Further work on the review is planned for 2021 and will take into account the impacts of COVID-19 on littering and littering behaviours.

The Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Fair Work and Culture set out further details on how the Young Person's Guarantee would be delivered, including details on the £60m of additional funding and how young people would be supported, in her statement to Parliament on 5 November.

The Scottish Government is supporting the commitment set out by Sandy Begbie, that within 2 years every 16-24 year old in Scotland will either be in paid employment for a period of between 12 and 24 months, enrolled in education, actively involved on an apprenticeship or training programme, or engaged on a formal volunteering or supported activity programme. As the Guarantee includes a range of existing interventions and will include new offers it is not yet possible to aggregate the total number of young people who have received support.

The Scottish Government has engaged young people and the organisations who represent them on an ongoing basis. We published the reports from the work Young Scot and Intercultural Youth Scotland took forward alongside our implementation plan.

A range of employers have already signalled their willingness to support the Young Person’s Guarantee such as Cap Gemini, SSE, Lothian Health Board and the Scottish Government. We will continue to build broad support by engaging with a range of stakeholders including employers, young people, Unions and third sector organisations.

In order to support the delivery of the Young Person's Guarantee a new Division has been created in the Economy Directorate. The division currently has 24 members of staff who are coordinating the work to support the Guarantee across the Scottish Government and its agencies as well as supporting other related areas of policy, including Developing the Young Workforce, Apprenticeships and Careers Information Advice and Guidance.

The latest data available are from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and go up to and including the academic year 2018-19 and pre-date the establishment of new funding streams designed to support the green recovery from the Coronavirus pandemic. The data cover training relating to energy or low carbon sectors.