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Circularity Scotland informed the Scottish Government in March 2023 that a substantial delay to the scheme would pose significant financial challenges for them. This issue was highlighted to the UK Government via a letter to the Prime Minister which urged the UK Government to agree to an exclusion from the Internal Market Act for the deposit return scheme.

Copies of the correspondence between the Scottish Government and UK Government have been published as part of an EIR and can be found on the Scottish Government website .

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 Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that we are able to manage more of our own waste within Scotland. This includes making direct investments through our Recycling Improvement Fund to support greater quantity and quality of recyclate collected. To date, £53 million has been invested via the Fund, expanding domestic recycling provision and facilities. We are also supporting the UK Government to deliver its existing commitment to ban plastic waste exports to non-OECD countries, and calling for this to be extended to all countries.

In addition, to increase transparency and strengthen public confidence in local recycling services and where their recycling goes, the Circular Economy Bill intends to take powers to place a statutory duty upon collecting local authorities to report on the final end destinations of recycling collected.

Electricity network policy and regulation is reserved to the UK Government with the Electricity System Operator responsible for strategic planning of the network. We are therefore continuing to engage with the UK Government, the Electricity System Operator and Ofgem to ensure that the network will be ready to support the delivery of our renewables potential.

The Scottish Government does not have any information on Hong Kong BN(O) visa holders because the Scottish Government is not responsible for the subject. Immigration and asylum matters are reserved to the UK Government. The Home Office are responsible for the UK immigration and asylum systems, and they publish statistics on the operation of these systems.

The invitation to host an Investment Zones was not subject to a bidding or application process, so no expressions of interest were solicited by the UK or Scottish Governments.

The Scottish Government believes that effective and appropriate use of digital technologies, such as mobile phones, can improve educational outcomes.

We encourage local authorities and schools to think carefully about how to incorporate the safe and responsible use of smart and mobile phones into learning and teaching. However, it is a matter for authorities to make their own decisions about the use of mobile phones in their schools, including imposing a ban if they so choose.

The Scottish Government published ‘A Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland’ in 2016. The strategy will help ensure that schools can deploy digital technologies appropriately and effectively and deliver educational improvements.

I met with the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Use and Islands on 27 June to discuss a number of issues which are of mutual interest. We have agreed to take forward further work with officials over the summer.

The total amount of funding that was allocated to support the work of the National Youth Arts Advisory Group in each year since it was established is as follows:

Currently the National Youth Arts Advisory Group comprises ten young people from the following local authority areas: three from Edinburgh and one from each of Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, Highland, Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire and Scottish Borders.