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The Scottish Government is working with the other UK administrations to introduce extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging. How much producers pay for a particular type of packaging will depend on its environmental impact. This will create a powerful incentive to adopt more recyclable packaging.

The Scottish Government has laid regulations before Parliament that ban some types of packaging products such as expanded polystyrene cups and food containers that, if incorrectly disposed of, contaminate kerbside recycling bins.

I recently announced the first £20 million of landmark investments from the Recycling Improvement Fund, to increase the quantity and quality of recycling. We are funding a range of improvements to improve the quality of recyclate, including local service redesigns to align with Scotland’s Household Recycling Charter, and new ‘in cab’ updates to help councils tackle contamination. New funding will also enable Fife Council to become the first local authority in Scotland to locally sort and separate the plastic films it collects for recycling, and boost Scotland’s capacity to recycle this problematic material. This will allow the council to accept flexible plastics and films for recycling within the existing kerbside schemes.

We are working with industry, local government and environmental groups to develop a route map to deliver our waste, recycling and climate change targets. This work will include consideration of recyclate capture and quality. We will also introduce a Circular Economy Bill this parliamentary session which will include measures to encourage reuse of products and the reduction of waste.

Including self-referrals, a total of 1157 referrals were made to the Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland long COVID Support Service from April to December 2021. The Scottish Government does not hold this information broken down by month.

NHS National Services Division is establishing a Strategic Network bringing together clinical experts, NHS Boards and lived experience to support the ongoing development, resourcing and implementation of services for people with long COVID. When established, the Strategic Network will have a key role in identifying and ensuring that the £10m long COVID Support Fund is targeted at areas where support is most needed and can make the biggest impact.

We anticipate that the long COVID Support Fund will be allocated and spent over the next three financial years, providing Boards with additional resource to respond in a flexible and tailored manner to the needs of people with long COVID.

For this financial year, 2021-22, total health portfolio funding exceeds £16 billion, with a further £1.9 billion provided to address pressures related to COVID-19. This substantial investment is already benefiting a range of NHS services which are supporting the needs of people living with long COVID.

The recommendation that fertility treatment for unvaccinated patients be deferred at the current time was made on the grounds of safety. There is robust published evidence of increased risks of morbidity, risk of severe illness and poorer outcomes from COVID-19 for unvaccinated pregnant women and their babies (including preterm birth and stillbirth), increasing virus incidence and uncertainties about the Omicron variant on pregnant women. The lead Clinicians in the NHS Assisted Conception Units in Scotland had also raised their concerns.

All patients currently having treatment temporarily deferred will have the deferral time added back on to their treatment journey to ensure that no patient loses out on treatment. We recognise this is particularly important for women who are approaching the upper end of the age limit for IVF treatment.

With the exception of a short period of time at the beginning of the pandemic when, on the instruction of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA - the UK fertility regulator), fertility treatment was ‘paused’ in all NHS and private facilities across the UK as a precautionary measure, all four NHS Assisted Conception Units in Scotland have remained open throughout the pandemic. All patients on the waiting list while treatment was paused had an additional 6 months added to their treatment journey. This ensured that women close to the upper age limit for NHS IVF treatment were not disadvantaged.

At the present time there are 20 patients from Scotland who are awaiting a lung transplant. Due to the very small numbers of patients who have an underlying diagnosis of Cystic Fibrosis who meet the criteria for listing for transplantation, to prevent inadvertent patient identification the most specific answer that can be given is that this is fewer than five individuals. These patients are being managed jointly by the Scottish Cystic Fibrosis Specialist Centres and the transplant clinical team in Newcastle.

The Scottish Government is committed to working to improve outcomes for people with rare conditions, including cystic fibrosis. We are developing an Scottish Action Plan for Rare Disease based on the four priorities of the UK Rare Disease Framework: faster diagnoses, increased awareness, better care co-ordination, and access to specialist treatments and care.

Following the urgent roundtable meeting I chaired on 4 November, I met with partners and representatives from across the sector on 8 December. The key outcomes were a focus on training and prevention, with the Violence Reduction Unit supporting Police Scotland and Night Time Economy Partners to continue to roll out bystander training to raise awareness for staff to help keep people safe.

Police Scotland’s Strategic Gold Command continues to monitor the situation, and are working closely with third sector and partner organisations, looking into further protective and preventative measures to combat drink spiking, including a public awareness campaign focused on bystanders and perpetrators. We want people to report if they see something suspicious and to step in if they think someone may be at risk or see someone behaving suspiciously.

I would encourage anyone who believes they have had their drink spiked or been assaulted in this way to contact Police Scotland on 101 or in an emergency 999.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05094 on 5 January 2022. 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 lead investigators on the 9 projects funded through the long term effects of COVID-19 infection call were notified on 22nd December 2020 that their projects had been successful in obtaining funding.

Provisional funding letters were issued in January 2021, with the start of transfer of funds as per the payment profile dependent on the receipt by the Chief Scientist Office of a Start Certificate issued by the host institution Finance Office.

Start certificates were returned for all 9 projects, with confirmation of start dates for individual projects of between 01-02-21 and 01-05-2021.

Post award monitoring is through 6 and 12 month progress reports. In addition, a final report for each project is to be submitted on completion of the project. These final reports will be made publicly available on the Chief Scientist Office website.

The end dates for the 9 projects are:

COV/LTE/20/04 HUNT

28.02.2023

COV/LTE/20/06 PELL

28.02.2023

COV/LTE/20/08 SCULTHORPE

31.03.2023

COV/LTE/20/10 BERRY

31.01.2023

COV/LTE/20/15 SHEIKH

28.02.2023

COV/LTE/20/26 CARSON

31.03.2023

COV/LTE/20/28 LINDSAY

31.01.2023

COV/LTE/20/29 COOPER/DUNCAN

30.04.2023

COV/LTE/20/32 TORRANCE/GRANT

28.02.2023

For reference, details of the 9 above projects are available from the Chief Scientist Office website

Long Covid Call – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)