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We know that shielding can have a detrimental impact on people’s lives, families and physical and mental wellbeing. Protecting people who are at the highest risk from COVID-19 is a priority for the Scottish Government. At this time we do not believe that asking people to return to shielding is the best way to protect them. The best way to do so is to reduce the spread of the virus in our communities. We have introduced new measures which must be followed by everyone in society.

Our clinical advisers continue to keep the shielding advice under consideration and any changes will be influenced by many factors such as the range of emerging evidence and the progress of the pandemic in Scotland.

Scottish Ministers will continue to take an evidence-based approach. We continue to engage with the UK Government and other devolved administrations to ensure that we learn from emerging evidence and the measures taken in other parts of Europe and around the world.

The Scottish Institute for Remanufacturing (SIR) officially launched on 21 January 2015. Since 2015, SIR has funded 40 collaborative projects between industry and higher education institutions, at a value of over £800,000 with several projects still in progress. Currently 20 of these are available in case-study format on the SIR website at: https://www.scot-reman.ac.uk/category/case-study/ . Other case studies will be published as projects are completed.

We do not underestimate the significant impact this pandemic has had on Scotland’s tourism sector, both outbound and inbound.

We are engaging with the sector in order to better understand the challenges faced by the outbound travel industry, and will continue to do so in order to help support those businesses.

Throughout these unprecedented conditions we have listened closely to businesses and acted quickly to provide appropriate support. The total package now exceeds £2.3 billion, more than £40.5m of which has been awarded to businesses in the tourism and hospitality sectors through targeted funds. We are committed to doing everything in our power to support the tourism sector and will continue to listen to its needs as the situation progresses.

The report of the Tourism Recovery Taskforce, due to be published imminently, will provide a series of recommendations for both the Scottish and UK Governments to consider to support the industry.

The Scottish Government has worked closely with businesses, including those in our night-time economy, to understand their issues and provide appropriate assistance and guidance on reopening. As part of this, Tourism Secretary Fergus Ewing met with Glasgow’s Night-time Economy Commission on 18 June to discuss their ongoing concerns and proposed support measures.

Our total package of support now totals over £2.3 billion. This includes almost £900 million of non-domestic rates relief, a £1.3 billion business grants scheme and a £145 million package of targeted support for SMEs and the self-employed. However, we recognise that some sectors have struggled to access support, or are still not permitted to open, and we have therefore launched two new funds to offer that support where it is needed.

Eligible nightclub operators can apply for a share of a £15 million Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund, which is being administered by Creative Scotland, applications for which opened on 17 September. Businesses in the events industry have also been able to apply to VisitScotland for grants from a £6m fund where they could demonstrate events in Scotland are their primary source of income and they have not received any other Government Covid funding.

We continue to do everything in our power to support the tourism and hospitality industry, however without significant borrowing powers at our disposal this action will always be limited, and so we will also continue to press the UK Government to address ongoing impacts.

Previous analyses of the composition of household municipal waste were undertaken in 2009 and 2014-15. Zero Waste Scotland had planned to undertake a further analysis in 2020 but this has been delayed due to COVID-19. Fieldwork for this analysis is now expected to begin in Spring 2021, and publication of the full results is expected in 2022.

Identification and adoption of appropriate measures to identify scheme articles as part of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), which could include use of a barcode, will be a decision for the businesses with responsibility for implementation of the scheme, including any scheme administrator(s). Accordingly, the DRS Regulations do not mandate that scheme articles carry a barcode nor do they create any powers to enforce use of a barcode.

The Deposit and Return Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2020 require registered producers to submit relevant information to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to support identification of scheme articles; this could include, but is not limited to, any unique codes or marks such as a barcode. SEPA is currently working with industry to design a registration process that will ensure all relevant information is captured.

Regulation 3 of the Deposit and Return Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2020 sets out the conditions under which a drink is a scheme article for the purposes of the Regulations. We will work with industry to ensure that crowlers are treated in a consistent and proportionate manner under the scheme.

I announced on 3 September an initial £4 million funding in financial year 2021-22 towards the establishment of a national "Tech Scaler" network, one of Mr Logan’s key recommendations, which will provide incubation space while also delivering the best available mentoring and training for our company founders.

The Scottish Government will consider issues relating to all travellers within its review.