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On the 13th March 2023, following substantial stakeholder engagement, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released an article; "Green jobs" update current and upcoming work - Office of National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) announcing that ONS will now define a green job as:

Employment in an activity that contributes to protecting or restoring the environment, including those that mitigate or adapt to climate change.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has continued to review the approaches, expectations and challenges of defining and measuring green jobs, supported by a range of research and engagement with stakeholders and users, many of which were open to the public. This has included a public user engagement exercise (Response summary: Defining and measuring green jobs - ons.gov.uk), an interactive workshop, bilateral conversations with several stakeholders, and discussions with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Economic Experts Working Group (EEWG). All ONS engagement was conducted in line with the existing code of practice for statistics and they will continue to engage as they develop the detailed framework behind the definition.

We recently consulted on a range of options to potentially restrict alcohol advertising and promotion in Scotland, in order to protect children and young people.

The consultation closed on 9 March. An independent contractor will comprehensively analyse the responses and publish a report. We will then further consider possible restrictions.

The Scottish Government provides funding to support our local Alcohol and Drug Partnerships who are responsible for the design and delivery of treatment and recovery pathways at the local level. They ensure a full range of recovery services are available such as aftercare, detox, residential rehabilitation and psychosocial treatments.

We acknowledge that alcohol recovery for most people is not a linear process, and for those whose goal is abstinence there is a risk of relapse at various points in their recovery journey, so alcohol services are supportive of people re-engaging after relapse. For others, they may want to consume alcohol but at a lower level. Alcohol services are open to and supportive of these individuals in achieving their goals. Services are also supportive of re-engagement if after meeting a goal an individual relapses into previous drinking patterns or if they want to work towards a new goal regarding their drinking.

The Scottish Government has consulted on restricting alcohol advertising and promotion to protect vulnerable groups, including those in recovery. Evidence suggests that alcohol marketing can be a barrier to successful recovery. Following analysis of responses we will consider possible restrictions.

The data required to make Winter Heating Payments was supplied by the Department for Work and Pensions on 31 January 2023. Following this, Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland carried out internal assurance processes on the around 400,000 records received. To ensure the safety and security of the payments, payments began in small batches.

As of 28 February 2023, 34,261 people had received the Winter Heating Payment and a further 365,303 eligible clients were to be paid. We expect to distribute £20 million in this round of Winter Heating Payments, more than double the £8.3 million provided on average by the Department for Work and Pensions in each of the last seven years of Cold Weather Payment.

A first release of Official Statistics on Winter Heating Payment will be published on 6 June 2023. These will be available at our statistics publication page at:

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/about/statistics/social-security-scotland-statistics-publications.

The Scottish Government has been following the agreed process for excluding the deposit return scheme regulations from the Internal Market Act.

We first raised the issue with the UK Government in 2021, and on 28 February 2023 we published correspondence and a timeline setting out the steps that have been undertaken to secure an exclusion. Internal Market Act: correspondence - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

On 6 March I met with Ministers and Senior Officials from each UK administration at the inter-ministerial group on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to ask for an urgent decision from the UK Government for securing an exclusion from the Internal Market Act.

I will keep Parliament updated on further developments.

As our recent consultation on restricting alcohol advertising and promotion set out, there is evidence that those who drink heavily have increased susceptibility to alcohol marketing and that this can translate into drinking behaviours. For those in recovery, alcohol marketing can be a trigger which threatens their recovery and can be responsible for relapse.

The consultation closed on 9 March. An independent contractor will comprehensively analyse the responses and publish a report. We will then further consider possible restrictions.

Our recent consultation on restricting alcohol advertising and promotion reflects the WHO’s recommended approach and sets out a range of potential options to restrict alcohol advertising and promotion, in order to prevent and reduce alcohol-related harms.

The consultation closed on 9 March. An independent contractor will comprehensively analyse the responses and publish a report. We will then further consider possible restrictions.

The Scottish Government’s public consultation on potential restrictions to alcohol advertising and promotion in Scotland was approved by the Minister for Public Health.

A commitment to consult on such restrictions was agreed by Cabinet in August 2021 as part of the Programme for Government 2021-22. The Cabinet Sub-Committee on Legislation approved the publication of this consultation paper in November 2022.

The Scottish Government has not allocated funding to local authorities specifically for school meal debt since 1 January 2022.

As referenced in the answer to question S6W-15314 on 6 March 2023, the management of debt is an issue for education authorities and their finance departments.

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

Our recent consultation on restricting alcohol advertising and promotion directly references and endorses this threefold rationale as set out below:

The purpose of taking action to restrict alcohol marketing is threefold and summarised by the WHO as:

• to prevent young people from being exposed to alcohol marketing (which is known to influence the decision to start consuming alcohol and to increase alcohol use)
• to reduce the presence of alcohol cues that can induce reactivity and craving in alcohol-dependent persons
• to prevent influence on social norms relating to consumption in general, given the negative public health, economic and social consequences of alcohol use.