Seòmar agus comataidhean

I have not had any meetings with British Glass regarding Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). We engaged frequently with British Glass during the policy-development process for DRS, and the former Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change, and Land Reform met them on 8 January 2020 in advance of laying the regulations to establish the scheme.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07100 on 18 March 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 .

Protecting Scotland’s marine environment is of paramount importance to the Scottish Government. I am aware of the recent trials conducted by the Danish Navy into the deflagration method of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) disposal, and look forward to the data analysis.

The Scottish Government has recently signed a joint interim position statement together with other regulators and statutory nature conservation bodies. This statement sets out the Scottish Government's support for the use of lower noise alternatives to UXO disposal, and the expectation that licensees applying for a marine licence and European Protected Species Licence should prioritise low noise alternatives.

The collection of high quality data, including that from the trials conducted by the Danish Navy, will enable the Scottish Government, with support from NatureScot, to make evidence based decisions and recommendations around the use of alternative technologies.

We are aiming for a non-commercially sensitive contract to be available for publication by Summer 2022, once the necessary administrative work has been completed.

There is a range of action supported by the Scottish Government to deal with insidious behaviour amounting to online bullying and harassment.

Ensuring the criminal law can deal effectively with conduct amounting to threatening or abusive behaviour led to the Scottish Government introducing the offence at section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010. Such behaviour can often arise online and amount to bullying or harassing type behaviour. This offence is capable of dealing with this type of conduct depending on the specific facts and circumstances.

Where bullying and harassment occurs online affecting children and young people, this can be especially harmful. The Scottish Government's 'Respect for All - national approach to anti-bullying' was published in 2017 and is focused on building capacity, resilience and skills in children and young people to prevent and deal with bullying including online.

Regulation of the internet is a reserved area. The UK Government on 17 March 2022 introduced their Online Safety Bill into the UK Parliament. The Scottish Government is committed to work with the UK Government where devolved areas arise relevant to the policy of the Bill.

Police Recorded Crime statistics can only identify the likely presence of a knife for crimes of ‘possessing an article with a blade or point in a public setting’. Tables of the requested data have been placed within the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (BIB number 63223).

There are two measures of possessing an article with a blade or point in a public setting - one for where the weapon was not used in other criminal activity, and one for where it was used in other criminal activity. For the former, data has been presented by local authority for the requested time period of 1999-00 to 2020-21. Data for the latter is only available from 2017-18 onwards, following implementation of a procedural change to the recording of weapon possession crimes.

I welcome Audit Scotland’s review into drug and alcohol services and their recommendations. We agree that more can be done to improve the accessibility and transparency of funding and how it is used.

Currently information on funding allocation is available through various publications including published budgets and I also report to Parliament regularly outlining our progress and funding decisions. We have also recently agreed on eight recommendations with COSLA to implement the Partnership Delivery Framework which underpins the governance of Alcohol and Drug Partnerships, this includes a recommendation requiring Health and Social Care Partnership Chief Finance Officers to be represented at the ADP and provide assurance regarding funding for alcohol and drug services including clear financial reporting. In addition, Public Health Scotland have been tasked with introducing new monitoring to track both the number of and investment in residential rehab placements by ADPs.

These assessments will be undertaken as part of work on the Scottish Government's Islands Connectivity Plan (ICP). Community needs assessments establish the level of transport connectivity required by each island and remote mainland community within scope of ICP and will update assessments undertaken for the Ferries Plan 2013-2022. Market assessments consider whether the required level of transport connectivity can be provided without government intervention.

The exact timescales for these assessments is still to be determined. We aim to make significant progress with these assessments during 2022 and conclude any outstanding work during 2023. Priority is currently being given to assessments required to support the business cases for live vessel and port investment projects.

Transport Scotland has not yet invited tenders for work on any of these assessments. It is expected that the work will be undertaken utilising both internal staff resource and external consultancy.

COVID-19 has reduced the number of flights to/from Scotland and resulted in a sharp decrease in aviation emissions. As we work with the aviation sector to restore and grow the connectivity which is essential to Scotland’s economy, we are committed to doing so without restoring previous levels of emissions.

In the short term, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) have the potential to significantly reduce the environmental impact of aviation. Longer term hydrogen/electric aircraft could play an important role, and we remain committed to working to decarbonise all scheduled flights within Scotland by 2040.

Regarding the implications for Heathrow expansion, it is for the UK Government to respond to the Climate Change Committee recommendations for airports in England. The Scottish Government has been clear that the expansion of the UK’s only global hub airport should deliver economic benefits for all the nations of the UK, which is why the memorandum of understanding remains in place.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-06653 on 17 March 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 .