Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05400 on‎ 24 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

NatureScot’s budget allocation for 2022-23 is £49.561 million. This year’s budget settlement represents the best possible outcome against the backdrop of significant pressures on public finances and the level of resources required to deliver statutory functions and agreed Ministerial environmental priorities across 2022-23. The Scottish Government are in dialogue with NatureScot on the specific priorities to be reflected in their forthcoming 2022-23 Operational Plan and next 5 year Corporate Plan. Both these documents are expected to be published in the first quarter of 2022.

Since the start of the pandemic, businesses in Scotland have benefitted from more than £4.4 billion in support. This includes COVID-19 non-domestic rates reliefs which have saved businesses around £1.6 billion in reduced rates bills since 1 April 2020.

The Scottish Budget maintains a generous non-domestic regime in Scotland for 2022-23 and supports a package of reliefs worth an estimated £802 million. This includes for businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors continuing relief at 50% for the first three months of 2022-23, capped at £27,500 per ratepayer. This responds to a key ask from the business community to avoid a cliff edge return to full rates liability for those businesses on 31 March 2022. The property uses eligible for this relief in 2022-23 will be unchanged from 2021-22. Properties used wholly or mainly for news publishing will continue to be eligible for this relief.

The list of organisations interviewed as part of the Gateway Review can be found in Annex C of the report. This report can be accessed here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/deposit-return-scheme-gateway-review-report-june-2021/documents/ .

Organisations listed on p13 of the amended Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment ( https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781802018875 ) but not in the Gateway Review met separately with the Scottish Government to supplement the findings of the review.

The Draft Fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) was laid in Parliament on 10 November 2021. The draft sets out that ‘Local development plans should identify and protect locally, regionally, nationally and internationally valued natural assets, landscapes, species and habitats’. In addition to the parliamentary scrutiny of the draft, a public consultation runs until 31 March 2022 and the Scottish Government welcomes responses and comments being provided to support the production of a finalised NPF4. Further information is available from: www.transformingplanning.scot .

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions attributed to the waste sector in the Climate Change Plan (CCP) include emissions arising from landfill sites, waste water treatment, composting and other waste treatments, including incineration of sewage sludges and clinical wastes (without energy recovery). This is consistent with the international reporting requirements determined by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC).

The biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) landfill ban, which comes into effect in December 2025, will direct BMW to alternative treatment options, including anaerobic digestion (AD), mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) and Energy from Waste (EfW) plants or future Combined Heat and Power (CHP) facilities.

The resulting reduction in biodegradable waste sent to landfill will lead to a decline in GHG emissions, principally methane, from landfill sites; these changes are currently accounted for in the CCP waste sector emissions estimates.

Diversion of BMW from landfill will lead to a rise in GHG emissions from other treatment options, including AD, MBT and EfW plants. Changes in emissions arising from waste treatments without energy recovery (e.g. AD, MBT) are attributed to the waste sector, whilst waste treatment options with energy recovery are attributed to the energy supply sector (e.g. EfW). Overall, there is a net decline in GHG emissions when diverting waste from landfill to other treatment options, principally as a result of the conversion of potential methane release (a highly potent greenhouse gas) to carbon dioxide, which has a lower global warming potential. For example, Zero Waste Scotland estimates that on a per tonne of waste basis the carbon impacts of EfW are on average 27% lower than landfilling waste ( The climate change impacts of burning municipal waste in Scotland ) .

Under the Climate Change Plan, emissions from the disposal of waste via incineration without energy recovery are reported in the waste sector. This mainly comprises Commercial and Industrial Wastes, principally sewage sludges and clinical wastes.

Emissions from incineration with energy recovery are reported in the Energy Supply Sector, consistent with domestic and international reporting requirements determined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The eligibility criteria for direct access to new COVID-19 treatments was developed by an independent expert working group commissioned by the UK Department of Health and Social Care and is based on detailed clinical evidence. The criteria are set out in a UK-wide clinical commissioning policy . The policy targets those higher risk individuals who have the potential to both be least likely to generate a material immune response to vaccines and be at highest risk of disease progression, hospitalisation and death.

From 22 December 2021, adults and children (aged 12 years and above) are eligible to be assessed for their suitability for new COVID-19 treatments if they:

• have received a positive PCR test for COVID-19 in the last five days; and
• have symptoms of COVID-19 that started in the previous five days; and
• are associated with one of the patient groups considered at high risk from coronavirus and with a clinical condition prioritised for treatment.

Further information is available on NHS Inform .

In addition to the direct access arrangements described above for the most vulnerable, coronavirus oral antiviral treatments are being evaluated through a UK-wide study called PANORAMIC, run by the University of Oxford.

The outcomes from the study will enable the NHS to fully understand how best to make use of these treatments in the future.

The results of the current COVID modelling from a range of sources is available in the latest weekly Scottish Government report ( https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-modelling-the-epidemic/ ). In the issue published on 13th January we noted that on 5 January 2022, 91.1% of all PCR tests from Pillar 2 Lighthouse Labs had the S-gene target failure, used as a proxy for Omicron cases. Therefore SG have stopped producing estimates of doubling times of the Omicron variant.

The modelling the epidemic has been published continuously since May 2020 and provides modelling outputs on the current epidemic in Scotland, based on a range of methods. Results of Scottish Government modelling, as well as those of the modelling groups which feed into the SAGE consensus, are provided in these research findings. We apply a variety of analytical methods in order to understand changes in behaviour which could lead to altered transmission rates. For example, we use the Scottish Contact Survey (SCS) to learn about how people’s contact patterns have changed. The findings from the SCS are then used to help us understand the patterns of contacts and informs the current modelling to indicate the likely number of cases in the medium term (the next 2-6 weeks). We included the medium term projection of the number of infections in the most recent weekly modelling the epidemic report of the current modelling ( https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-modelling-the-epidemic/ ).

The UK Government has secured a further 4.25m patient courses of antiviral treatments to reduce the impact of COVID-19 and the Omicron variant across the UK. This includes 2.5 million patient courses of Paxlovid (PF-07321332+ritonavir (co-packaged)) from Pfizer and 1.75 million patient courses of molnupiravir from Merck Sharp and Dohme.

This is in addition to the 730,000 patient courses of these COVID-19 antivirals already secured - 480,000 courses of molnupiravir and 250,000 courses of PF-07321332+ritonavir (co-packaged), as announced on 20 October 2021. These treatments are a further measure to protect against COVID-19, in addition to vaccinations, which remain our best defence against this virus.

The UK Government takes initial receipt of stock, with proportionate supplies distributed to the four UK nations. In Scotland, NHS National Procurement allocates supplies to Health Boards depending on local need. There is sufficient supply to meet this current deployment, in line with need.