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The Scottish Landfill Tax is a cornerstone of Scotland’s Zero Waste Plan, encouraging the prevention, reuse and recycling of waste and helping keep valuable resources circulating in the Scottish economy. Exemptions are available in several circumstances including when clearing up illegally or improperly deposited material.

The Scottish Landfill Tax (Exemption Certificates) Order 2015 states that exemption certificates are available to the following bodies/persons:

• waste regulators, in the case of Scotland this is SEPA;
• waste collection authorities, such as a local government council or local authority; or
• any other body or person, insofar as the body or person exercises waste removal powers under any other enactment.

Community groups can work with any of these eligible bodies to apply for an exemption certificate for collected marine litter provided they:

• exhaust all avenues to identify and retrieve costs from the responsible person who made the original unauthorised disposal; and
• are satisfied that there are no practical alternatives to landfill for the material.

The details of the application can be provided by the community group, as per the requirements detailed on the Revenue Scotland website, and emailed to Revenue Scotland by a partnered eligible body.

The expansion of offshore wind presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create thousands of high-quality jobs. While employment law is reserved, we will continue to use the levers at our disposal to promote fair work practices across the labour market in Scotland.

The STUC is a member of the Scottish Energy Advisory Board and has also been invited to sit on the Offshore Wind Skills Short-Life Working Group being convened by the Scottish Government. This involvement ensures that the STUC can contribute to shaping the development of the offshore wind sector and its alignment with fair work and just transition principles.

We welcome this important research by the Scottish Trades Union Congress and will carefully consider its findings.

The information requested is complex and not held centrally.

All information on prescribed and dispensed items are published and categorised by the British National Formulary chapter, in both monthly open data files and as part of the annual Dispenser Payments and Prescription Cost Analysis which was last released on 8 October 2024. This can be accessed on the Public Health Scotland website at Dispenser payments and prescription cost analysis - Financial year 2023 to 2024 - Dispenser payments and prescription cost analysis - Publications - Public Health Scotland.

There is no record that Scottish Government has had any correspondence with Hampton Group International, Pitch@Palace or the UK Chinese Business Association, nor with Mr Yang Tengbo, in the last 12 years.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people living in Scotland with musculoskeletal conditions can access the best possible care and support.

We expect health care professionals and NHS Boards to deliver high quality person-centred care to those living with musculoskeletal conditions in line with best practice guidance. The NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) clinical guidelines on management of musculoskeletal conditions is available on its website and can be found at: Musculoskeletal conditions | Guidance and guideline topic | NICE . The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guideline on management of musculoskeletal conditions is available on its website at: www.sign.ac.uk and at following search link: Search Results.

The Scottish Government has commissioned the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) to manage a Rheumatology Specialty Delivery Group, which includes nominated multi-disciplinary representation from all Health Boards providing Rheumatology services.

Scottish Government officials and the CfSD national planned care team meet monthly with the Chief Operating Officer and Acute Directors from all mainland Health Boards to review performance and delivery across all Planned Care specialities, including rheumatology. Meetings with the island health boards are generally on a bimonthly basis.

Individual Scottish Government strategies and policies are periodically reviewed, taking account of progress towards objectives. Strategies and policies with environmental goals can be found on the Scottish Government’s website at https://www.gov.scot/environment-and-climate-change/.There are many sources of monitoring data on environmental outcomes in Scotland, an overview can be found at https://data.gov.scot/environment/.Environmental Standards Scotland is an independent body that promotes the effectiveness of environmental law through its work, and information on its investigations and monitoring can found on its website https://environmentalstandards.scot/our-work/.

The UK Government has stated its commitment to providing an update as soon as possible, and my officials continue to engage regularly with their UK Government counterparts regarding their plans. Additionally, I recently wrote to the UK Government to request a meeting to gain further insight into the options they are considering in relation to the report.

The Scottish Government remains dedicated to keeping the Scottish Parliament informed of any significant developments.

We also reaffirm our previous apology to all those who have been directly affected by pelvic mesh and sodium valproate, as well as to their caregivers.

The Scottish Government made a written statement to Parliament on 19 November 2024 on the effectiveness of environmental governance arrangements, following an earlier report and consultation. As stated in those documents, the Scottish Government does not see any strong argument for a change in the balance of parliamentary, administrative and judicial roles in decision making on environmental matters, or for the creation of a specialist court. Therefore, there are no plans to conduct any additional analysis of any potential efficiency savings in the judicial system from the creation of an environment court.

As shown in Scottish Water’s Long Term Strategy which was published on 4 February 2025, resolving water deficits is a matter for everyone not simply Scottish Water. At 180 litres per person per day Scotland has one of the highest rates of water consumption, compared to 125 litres in Germany and 105 litres in Denmark. As set out in its Strategy, it is important that Scottish Water continues to reduce rates of leakage, support demand reduction by customers and invest in new water sources and water treatment works.

Scottish Water will publish its draft business plan for the 2027-33 period this summer which will set out prioritised investment proposals to reduce the number of zones in deficit and secure supplies for customers. Each zone is unique and will have its own set of measures to put in place to secure supplies for customers.

In April 2023, the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer (CPO) announced an Independent Medicines Homecare Review in response to reports of failings in the standards of care provided across Scotland and the increasing demand for medicines homecare provision.

The CPO will be publishing the Homecare Medicines Review before the end of March. In terms of next steps, the CPO has met with NHS National Procurement to discuss what actions can be taken forward within their remit and what actions require further consideration through a task and finish group. The group will be established shortly and will be chaired by a Director of Pharmacy and a Director of Nursing. The Group will help to outline the next steps and timescales around this.