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A summary of available information on each project is provided in the following table, based on information provided by Zero Waste Scotland.

Circular Economy Business Support (CEBS) is provided by Zero Waste Scotland in order to build capacity, raise the profile of circular economy models and accelerate their adoption. Through CEBS Zero Waste Scotland provide technical support and advice to businesses, not funding, and businesses are under no obligation to report to Zero Waste Scotland. Up to date information on projects’ status is reliant on engagement from businesses, and recipients of previous support do occasionally cease contact. It is therefore not possible to provide a detailed status update for all of the referenced projects.

As this support is primarily provided to early stage or start-up businesses, any impact in terms of job creation and on the environment, including carbon reduction, is dependent on the scale and replication of the supported business model or circular innovation.

No. As a result of the UK Government’s actions and intervention at the 11th hour, we have been left with no other option than to reset the timescale of DRS and delay the launch until October 2025 at the earliest, when the UK Government aims to launch its own scheme. This means that the Action Plan that was developed and which was shared with the Net Zero Energy and Transport Committee on 28 June is now obsolete and therefore an Assurance of Action plan is unnecessary.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), adopted and published on 13 February 2023, sets out that development proposals will be sited and designed to minimise lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions as far as possible.

All national developments designated in NPF4 were subject to an assessment, undertaken by independent consultants, of the likely impact of each proposed national development’s lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions on achieving national greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets.

The Scottish Government has engaged with Zero Waste Scotland and leading experts on whole life emission reporting and the topic will be considered further in the development of Scotland’s next Climate Change Plan.

Where development proposals are likely to generate waste when operational, including residential, commercial, and industrial properties, NPF4 policy 12c) sets out that proposals will set out how much waste is expected to be generated and how it will be managed.

The deposit return scheme is designed to be industry led and managed. The Scottish Government convened and chaired a System Wide Assurance Group with industry representatives to assess system-wide readiness and to monitor and address risks to delivery. Members were responsible for progressing common issues. Following the March 2023 gateway review we established an expanded governance framework which includes representation from a wider group of stakeholders. This includes a Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group, which sits above the already established Executive Oversight Group and Sector Specific Working Groups.

Zero Waste Scotland has advised Scottish Government that the cost of producing the report was £22,522.56.

The budget figures provided in answer S6W-18435 on 14 June 2023, further clarified in response to question S6W-19249, relate to the Scottish Government’s budget for its Zero Waste programmes which, in addition to Deposit Return, supports major circular economy delivery programmes including implementation of Circular Economy Bill and Waste Route Map, Extended Producer Responsibility, incineration research, landfill remediation, recycling, single-use plastics, litter and flytipping, and funding for Zero Waste Scotland to support delivery of Scottish Government objectives.

As per Table 9.12: Environmental Services Spending Plans (Level 3) in the published budgets documents, the Zero Waste budget was £ 40.2m in 2021-22, £43.4m in 2022-23 and £ 47.4m in 2023-24. These figures are inclusive of Scottish Government corporate running costs (CRCs); the amount of CRC has not been revised since the data was published. Annex G of the Scottish Government Budget 2019-20 provides a full explanation of CRCs as this was the first year they were introduced.

Scottish Government provided Zero Waste Scotland with grant awards of £29.6m in 2021-22, £35.6m in 2022-23 and to date, £34.3m, in 2023/24 from the Zero Waste budget.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government does not hold a record of a formal notification of a material change in circumstances in relation to this matter, however as mentioned previously in my response to S6W-18498, the letter and anticipated schedule to which the member refers was in the context of a scheme launch date of July 2022.

Following an independent Gateway Review in June 2021, the Scottish Government confirmed that it would conduct a review of that go live date, with input from Circularity Scotland, industry and independent advice. Issues relating to the design and delivery of the scheme were taken in to account during the review process.

As a result of that review, the Scottish Parliament voted to move the launch date of DRS from July 2022 to August 2023. This decision made the previous request for information irrelevant due to the change in the launch date for the scheme.

The information to be contained in an application for scheme administrator approval is set out in Schedule 2 of the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020 as passed by the Scottish Parliament. The design and operational detail of the scheme is a matter for the scheme administrator. Following the March 2023 gateway review, scoping work was commenced to finalise a Target Operating Model. This work has been paused due to the UK Government’s 11th hour intervention which undermined Scotland’s deposit return scheme.

The Scottish Government has no current plans do so. Following the UK Government’s 11th hour intervention which undermined Scotland’s deposit return scheme, the establishment of any future scheme administrator will be considered in due course.

The SEFARI (Scottish Environment, Food and Agriculture Research Institutions) gateway, who are administering the Specialist Advisory Group on waste emissions on behalf of the Scottish Government, received a number of notes of interest from waste specialists to join the Specialist Advisory Group. However, as of the date of this response, SEFARI have not yet issued contracts for the specialists on the group. We are therefore not able to provide details on the composition of the Specialist Advisory Group until these contracts have been finalised.