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Preparatory work by Transport Scotland for the next Clyde and Hebrides Ferries Services contract has begun but remains at an early stage. We are committed to ensure that views and perspectives of key stakeholders and communities are considered, reflected upon and help shape the detail within the next CHFS contract.

The reasons why the Tesla Model 3 Long Range was chosen were:-

1. The vehicles have capacity to transport up to 4 passengers, with sufficient interior space to allow business to be conducted effectively whilst traveling between engagements.

2. The vehicles are fully electric; ensuring that the Scottish Government continues to honour its commitment to decarbonisation.

3. The vehicles, at the time of purchase, had the highest geographical range in the market sector, offering overall value for money.

This information is publically available through the SEPA Recyclate Quality Reporting Tool, which can be accessed here: https://informatics.sepa.org.uk/RecyclateQuality/

The tool presents data from samples taken from material streams entering and exiting material recovery facilities (MFRs). The tool reports the percentage of materials collected that are considered to be ‘target’ materials for recycling.

In October 2020 the Scottish Government published the Mental Health Transition & Recovery Plan. The plan outlined our priorities for mental health, highlighting the importance of community based mental health and wellbeing support.

In February we announced an additional £120 million for a Recovery & Renewal Fund to ensure the delivery of the commitments set out in the Mental Health Transition & Recovery Plan. The Fund will support the development of an integrated culture of mental wellbeing and prevention within local communities and across Scotland, and promote the capacity and role of third sector organisations to deliver this.

We are committed to improving access to community mental health and wellbeing support. This year we have provided local authorities with an additional £15 Million to fund over 200 new and enhanced supports and services for children and young people. In addition the recently published Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party shared policy programme commits to doubling the budget for community based mental wellbeing services for children and young people to £30 million per annum. Ministers are currently considering options to take this forward and will be informed by the work of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board.

The NHS recovery plan published in August also highlighted the importance of community mental health support. The Plan commits to building on the success of our community link worker programme, to ensure the by 2026, every GP Practice will have access to a mental health and wellbeing service, creating 1,000 additional dedicated staff who can help grow community mental health resilience and direct social prescribing.

This information is publically available through the SEPA Waste Discover Data Tool: https://informatics.sepa.org.uk/WasteAllSources/

We are actively working with potential investors in plastic reprocessing capacity in Scotland. Zero Waste Scotland have commissioned work to better understand and forecast the volumes of materials, including plastics, collected for recycling.

Once it goes live, Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme will create a stream of high value plastic which will be attractive to reprocessors. Our £70 million fund to improve recycling infrastructure will also help to improve the quality and quantity of recyclate collected.

In addition, we are working with the other governments of the UK on reform of the packaging producer responsibility system to provide greater incentives for domestic reprocessing.

Information on how many dementia specialist appointments have been held in each year since 2007 is not collected or held centrally. National-level information on the number of referrals into old age psychiatry does not include dementia-specific referrals.

Scotland’s Waste Data Strategy board keeps Scotland’s evidence requirements for waste and materials under constant review.

Previous analyses of the composition of household municipal waste were undertaken in 2009 and 2014-15. Zero Waste Scotland had planned to undertake a further analysis in 2020, however, this was delayed due to Covid-19. Work to develop local authority projects restarted in July 2021 and waste sampling and analysis is planned to start in October 2021.

Zero Waste Scotland has forecast costs of £155,000 in 2021-22. The staff resource allocation for this project is not recorded to this level of detail.

In our draft Heat in Buildings Strategy we committed to developing and implementing a bespoke public engagement strategy for heat in buildings. This will have a focus on raising the profile of energy efficiency and zero emissions heating options so that people are aware of their benefits, as well as enabling people to actively participate in shaping the development of policy, incentives, and local level heat and energy efficiency planning; and promoting the support that is on offer to maximise take up.

The latest figures are from September 2015 and can be found in Zero Waste Scotland’s report: How Much Food Waste Is There in Scotland? , published in 2016, showing that over 1.5 million Scottish households had access to food waste collection.

Officials are continuing work to explore options to introduce RET on all Northern Isles routes. This work was rightly paused in March 2020 while resources were pivoted to respond to the Covid pandemic. Work has however now resumed and we will provide updates to stakeholders and Parliament as soon as it is possible to do so.