Seòmar agus comataidhean

As indicated in the islands communities impact assessment , published in 2020, the introduction of Deposit Return Scheme will not increase the amount of waste that will either arise in island communities or be transported off islands. This is because most waste is currently transported off the islands already. Circularity Scotland and Biffa are developing a solution for the collection of scheme articles on islands which makes use of local supply chains where possible. We expect this solution to be subject to review as more local data becomes available about active return points and exempted return points.

The Scottish Government is working to develop a sustainable healthcare workforce. We continue to look for opportunities to increase levels of recruitment and retention of healthcare staff in rural areas and we will develop a Remote and Rural workforce recruitment strategy by the end of 2024. This will support employers to ensure that the Health and Social Care needs of people who live in remote and rural communities are met.

The £2 billion figure represents the current, combined investment appetite from the private partners. It is an indicative sum, subject to detailed negotiation of investment in specific projects. Detailed financial modelling and risk assessment will be undertaken for each investment before the investors make a firm financial commitment to each project. It is not a cap on investment through this partnership, nor an assessment of the total financing requirements of specific projects, rather it represents the current budget available.

The detailed workings of the project governance board and what role it will have in the approval of investment cases are still to be agreed. This will be agreed by the board later in 2023, prior to investment decisions being taken. Consideration of an investment case for the project in the Scottish Borders is aimed to take place in late 2023/early 2024.

The Scottish Land Commission was asked to run two initial workshops for the project partners in order to inform partners about the policy context, expectations and guidance for community engagement and benefit and consider how these are built into the way the partners will operate. No decisions on community benefit, engagement and ownership have yet been taken as the design phase for each project will engage with relevant local community groups, including those involved locally in ownership of land, to design an approach to community benefit which works for the communities local to each project. This will explore community benefit, community engagement and options for community ownership, where an opportunity for transfer of ownership, or shared ownership, exists. Notes from the workshops can be made available on request.

A number of amendments that sought to introduce a third party right of appeal were considered, and rejected, by the Scottish Parliament during consideration of the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019. We are aware of the communication brought to the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee (ACCC) concerning planning appeal rights in Scotland (ACCC/C/2022/196). A response will be issued to the ACCC in due course.

Scottish Government officials have been assured by NHS Ayrshire and Arran (NHS A&A) that they have the necessary controls, protocols and support in place to protect staff. We will continue to work closely with NHS A&A to monitor the safety and wellbeing of all their staff.

No-one should be the victim of abuse or violence while at work and assaults on NHS staff are completely unacceptable. The courts have extensive powers to deal robustly with those who attack emergency workers and we strongly encourage staff to report all instances of violent and aggressive behaviour through their local reporting systems. If it is a serious incident, then all efforts must be made to escalate to the Police as quickly as possible.

NHSScotland has joined the multi-agency Your Safety Matters (YSM) initiative, led by Police Scotland. YSM aims to minimise incidents of violence and aggression in workplaces, through campaigns, sharing resources and good practice.

The ethical framework will be approved and monitored by the project governance board. NatureScot will make available a draft version to interested parties on request to gather feedback.

Scottish Government officials are not involved in the detail of the individual pilot projects, nor engagement with land managers. In both pilot projects the project team includes local delivery partners such as the Tweed Forum, who will be making introductions to land owners and land managers, not NatureScot.

We welcome NatureScot’s, Scottish Wildcat Action (SWA) – Final Summary Report 2023 and agree that the ultimate goal for wildcat conservation in Scotland must be to establish a long-term, viable population of wildcats that does not require further intervention to secure its viability.

The Scottish wildcat is one of our rarest mammals and the Scottish Government will continue working with SWA through its partnership with NatureScot to achieve the goal set out above. NatureScot has recently approved a licence application from the Saving Wildcats partnership project to release wildcats in the Cairngorms National Park later this year.