Seòmar agus comataidhean

Up to £5m funding has been made available to local authorities on the basis that they may use it to undertake remedial action in line with guidance on ventilation, with problematic spaces prioritised for action.

As part of the funding arrangements and ongoing work with local authorities on schools/ELC ventilation, the Scottish Government has agreed updated reporting arrangements with local authorities to ensure an appropriate understanding of how and to what extent funding is being used to support remedial action.

Our guidance asks local authorities to complete assessments of ventilation in their schools and to ensure that all day care of children services have access to CO2 monitoring, whether via mobile or fixed devices.

We have empowered local authorities to make their own supply arrangements, and supported them to overcome logistical problems when they have arisen.

The eligibility criteria for the existing Business Ventilation Fund has been widened to include Day Care of children services operated by Private, Voluntary and Independent Sector Nurseries. PVI settings can claim up to £2,500 per eligible premises to support them to improve their ventilation, improve air quality, and help reduce the spread of COVID-19. The £25m Fund is open to applications and will remain open until 31 March 2022 or until funds are exhausted - whichever occurs first. Full details of the eligibility criteria for the Business Ventilation Fund, the costs which can be claimed back, and the application process can be found on the Scottish Government Website.

This information will be published on 15 March 2022 as part of the 'Supplementary Statistics on schools in Scotland' statistical release.

Data on teachers will be published here Teacher census supplementary statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Data on support staff will be published here School support staff statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The informal feedback referenced in the letter related specifically to the percentage of learning, teaching and play spaces local authorities had identified as problematic at the point in time when the fund was being developed. Problematic spaces are defined as those having consistently high CO2 readings (above 1500ppm) despite basic mitigation measures being implemented.

During meetings of the local authority-chaired Scottish Heads of Property Services network, which are attended regularly by Scottish Government officials and Scottish Futures Trust, local authorities indicated that around 2-4% of spaces they were monitoring had proved problematic to date. The upper limit of this band was used to calculate the potential number of spaces requiring further remedial action, to ensure sufficient funding was made available to local authorities.

It is important to note that the precise number of problematic spaces will be dependent on a range of factors over time, such as weather and occupancy levels, and many of the problematic spaces will already have been addressed. The Scottish Government has agreed formal reporting requirements regarding the number of remaining problematic spaces with local authorities.

As was made clear in the letter to the Committee, an undercut of a door was only one element of an example set of remedial measures used to calculate the up-to-£5m fund.

The Scottish Government has not issued any guidance to local authorities recommending the use of door undercuts in specific spaces. Expert local authority teams fully understand that all remedial work undertaken should be in line with guidance on ventilation and based on expert assessment of the ventilation issues in a specific space.

The precise number of problematic spaces will be dependent on a range of factors over time, and many of the problematic spaces will already have been addressed. The Scottish Government has agreed formal reporting requirements regarding the number of remaining problematic spaces with local authorities.

This example scenario was developed with input from the Scottish Futures Trust, and drew on the costings that had already been developed for the Business Ventilation Fund with input from the expert Covid-19 Ventilation Short Life Working Group.

An undercut of a door was only one element of an example scenario set out in my letter to the Education, Children and Young People Committee, used to illustrate the appropriate level of overall additional funding that might be needed to tackle problematic spaces.

Inclusion of the potential for a door undercut in the example is fully in line with expert advice. This makes clear that undercuts (small gaps at the bottom of a door) allow air pressure to be equalised on each side of the door, to ensure that additional force on one side does not make the door difficult to open. This includes cases where the pressure increase caused by mechanical ventilation systems – another key element of the example scenario – could impair the normal safe operation of a door.

A number of Scottish local authorities do offer reuse collection points at Household Waste & Recycling centres for paint. However councils are unable to accept liquid paint for disposal, as liquid wastes are banned from landfill sites in Scotland. Zero Waste Scotland provide further detail on what to with used paint and paint cans here: What to do with used paint | Recycling | How to Waste Less .

This service provision supplements social enterprise and third sector initiatives running paint collection and redistribution reuse networks for waste paint.

However, as the RSC’s report highlights, across all paint re-use or reprocessing options in the UK there are key common challenges to overcome to ensure a sustainable circular economy and waste management provision model.

We are committed to increasing the amount and quality of recyclate collected and reprocessed in Scotland. We are working closely with local government on the development of our route map to deliver our waste, recycling and climate change targets to 2025 and beyond, and are giving due consideration to further steps we can take to drive waste reduction and ensure circular economy approach across a range of waste streams.

I am pleased to see Royal Society of Chemistry highlighting this important issue through its recent report.

The Scottish Government is committed to building a fully circular economy as part of our work to tackle the climate emergency. The shift to a circular economy represents an enormous economic and industrial opportunity for Scotland.

To make the most of this opportunity, we are working with industry, including construction and demolition sectors, local government and environmental groups to develop a route map to deliver our waste, recycling and climate change targets to 2025 and beyond. Through the Route Map and the forthcoming Circular Economy Bill we will consider how best to take forward waste reduction and circular economy across a range of waste streams.

In October 2020, we published our Inward Investment Plan, which identifies the transformation of the chemicals industries as one of Scotland’s nine opportunity areas for inward investment.

Partnering with Scottish Enterprise, the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) supports the advancement of bio-based solutions across all sectors. This includes supporting members of IBioIC to develop sustainable solutions for the paint industry.

Scotland’s chemical sciences R&D is consistently ranked top 3 in the world. R&D expenditure on chemicals & chemical products and pharmaceuticals totalled £192 million in 2019, 13.7% of the Scottish total.

I welcome the reports from Royal Society of Chemistry on making Polymers in Liquid Formulations (PLFs) more sustainable, helping to raise awareness of the complex issues around sustainable paint, and waste management.

Zero Waste Scotland provide further detail on what to with used paint and paint cans here: What to do with used paint | Recycling | How to Waste Less . Zero Waste Scotland also work through Revolve to promote the wider reuse of items and materials and help raise awareness of responsible consumption.

This service provision supplements social enterprise and third sector initiatives running paint collection and redistribution reuse networks for waste paint.