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In line with the UK Wide DDRB recommendations, Junior Doctors in Scotland have been awarded a 4.5% pay uplift this year, the same position in Wales. Junior Doctors in England did not receive a 4.5% uplift due to agreeing a previous multi-year deal.

Funding of £18 billion is provided for the health portfolio in 2022-23. This builds on frontline health spending in Scotland that, per head, is 2.2% (£74) higher than in Wales and 10.6% (£323) higher than in England - equivalent to around 10, 000 nurses and 44, 000 nurses, respectively - and takes investment in our frontline NHS Boards to £12.4 billion. This investment supports both existing staff costs and ongoing recruitment, in line with local workforce and service planning.

In addition to this, in October this year funding of £7.98 million was announced to recruit up to 750 nurses, midwives and allied health professionals to offset the up-front recruitment costs of international recruitment by the end of March 2023. Last winter we announced funding to build infrastructure within boards and support international recruitment to recruit at least 200 registered nurses. By the end of August 2022 c.230 nurses have been recruited. Boards may also independently pursue overseas recruitment for specific roles or indeed as part of a campaign and routinely do so.

(a) A breakdown of buildings in the high rise inventory by decade of construction:

Consultation was undertaken on the broad principles of land use change with Scottish Forestry (SF) and RPID, prior to Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) submitting their offer. Officials from FLS would be happy to provide the responses received from SF / RPID.

The First Minister will chair the Investor Panel and has appointed Angus Macpherson, CEO, Noble & Co as co-Chair. Ministers and officials have been working closely with Mr Macpherson to identify suitable Panel members with the knowledge, experience and expertise in global capital investment markets and green finance to drive this work forward. The first meeting of the Panel will take place on‎ 12 December.

The Panel’s primary focus will be on attracting capital investment to the physical infrastructure required for a just transition and to provide advice on how we can create the right conditions to attract private investment to support policy objectives.

A Steering Group comprising staff from NatureScot and Scottish Government is undertaking the goose management policy review.

A six-week stakeholder consultation concluded on 17 October 2022 in which stakeholders were invited to comment on the effectiveness of current national goose policy and its delivery, to identify issues and make suggestions for future national goose policy.

Invitations were extended to individual members of the National Goose Forum and Local Goose Management Groups, and NatureScot’s web pages provided open access to the questionnaire to other interested parties.

257 stakeholders submitted questionnaire responses.

The results from the questionnaire have been summarised and the key themes include concerns around greylag geese, funding and how goose management might be supported in future.

The next steps are: for the Policy Steering Group to engage with Local Goose Management Groups and other stakeholders to share the summary responses with them, to confirm they accurately reflect their views, to ask them which issues are of greatest concern to them, and how they would like their concerns to be addressed through future goose policy. These discussions are ongoing, and will be completed before Christmas.

Production of the report by NatureScot has been delayed slightly due to pressures of the additional work being generated with regard to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). This delay will allow NatureScot to ensure the impacts of HPAI are taken into consideration as part of the review.

Following the completion of the review, NatureScot will produce a report for Scottish Ministers in Spring 2023.

In the meantime, the Steering Group will share a draft report with stakeholders and engage in further stakeholder discussions in February 2023.

As I stated in my response to S6W-12237 on 1 December 2022, it is for retailers (in consultation with the scheme administrator, Circularity Scotland Ltd) to decide how to comply with the obligation to provide a takeback service for scheme articles sold online. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has published guidance to support retailers in complying with their obligations: https://www.sepa.org.uk/regulations/waste/deposit-return-scheme/retailers/online-retailers/

The Scottish Government has engaged with both SEPA and the Royal Environment Health Institute of Scotland regarding the food safety and hygiene aspects of the online takeback element of DRS. Waste materials and fresh food could be carried in the same vehicle as long as there is sufficient separation and a barrier to prevent contamination (both of the waste and the food). We are confident that, with reasonable steps, a retailer will be able to manage this risk.

Furthermore, retailers are permitted to contract third party businesses, such as registered waste carriers, to carry out collections on their behalf.

Further information and guidance on registering as a waste carrier is available from SEPA.

https://www.sepa.org.uk/regulations/waste/waste-carriers-and-brokers/

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 DRS Regulations allow return points to refuse returns where the number of containers is disproportionately greater than the number of containers that retailer would sell in an average single transaction. This will allow food delivery drivers to refuse such requests from customers.

With regard to the safe collection and disposal of dead wild birds suspected of having been infected with this strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), current government disease control guidance is for carcases to be left in situ.

At present there is no scientific evidence that the removal of carcases significantly reduces the risk of onward spread of the current strain of HPAI H5N1 amongst wild birds and a recent veterinary risk assessment carried out by the Centre of Expertise on Animal Disease Outbreaks (EPIC), commissioned by the Scottish Government has supported this position.

Without such evidence, there is no animal disease control reason for the collection and disposal of wild bird carcases and, as such, no additional funds have been, or are planned to be, allocated.

It is recognised by Scottish Government that local authorities may choose, at their own discretion, to collect and dispose of dead wild birds from areas with a high public footfall, and for this reason Scottish Government has provided all local authorities in Scotland with guidance for the safe collection and disposal of dead birds. NatureScot’s guidance reflects this position.

Scottish Government, in partnership with NatureScot and the HPAI task force are currently developing a Scottish Wild Birds Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Contingency Plan for wild birds, which will set out how the Scottish Government and partners will respond to future outbreaks. This plan will include a guidance on the removal of carcases, drawing on the findings of the EPIC risk assessment .

The Scottish Government is taking a range of measures to ensure that young people understand all the available options to them. Skills Development Scotland (SDS) delivers career information, advice and guidance services in all state secondary schools throughout Scotland. The in-school services are delivered face-to-face with at least one dedicated career adviser.

SDS along with the Developing Young Workforce have been working in partnership to facilitate employer engagement within schools especially to senior phase pupils. Both parties work collaboratively to identify and support a young person’s aspirations and create work based learning opportunities to help them prepare for the next step in their journey – whether into employment, training, education or apprenticeships.