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In Scotland, it is already illegal to send waste collected separately for recycling to incineration or landfill. However, we need to make sure that how we treat residual waste, which cannot be reused or recycled, aligns with our emissions reduction targets. That is why we have appointed an independent chair to review the role incineration plays in the waste hierarchy.

We also have a range of measures in train to reduce the amount of waste produced and increase the proportion of waste recycled across Scotland. These include laying Regulations before Parliament that ban some of the most problematic single use plastic products; a £70 million Recycling Improvement Fund for local authorities; and implementation of Scotland’s ambitious deposit return scheme.

The Green Jobs Fund (GJF) is a five year, £100m capital fund offering support to businesses, and their supply chains, to help them better transition to a low carbon economy. In so doing, the GJF will support businesses to create green employment through investment in equipment and premises, and research and development.

During the Just Transition debate on motion S6M-02429, on 7 December 2021, I confirmed that so far, £12.3 million has been awarded through the Green Jobs Fund and this is expected to create and safeguard more than 850 green jobs. As future Green Jobs Fund awards are made, we will continue to update on the progress of the fund and the expected green jobs resulting from this.

This technical guide is an example of Historic Environment Scotland’s important and pioneering work in climate change research. The guide is positive in addressing the common assumption that older buildings are harder to treat, and enables the owners of traditional and historic properties in Scotland to make informed choices about the options available to improve energy efficiency.

Our Fuel Poverty Strategy, published on 23 December, details how we aim to meet our statutory fuel poverty targets, as set out in the Fuel Poverty (Targets, Definition and Strategy) (Scotland) Act 2019 ("the 2019 Act"). The 2019 Act requires us to meet our 2040 targets both nationwide and within each local authority area, so we recognise that local authorities will be key partners in our efforts to achieve our fuel poverty goals.

Local authority fuel poverty and extreme fuel poverty rates are used to determine the funding allocations for our Area Based energy efficiency schemes (ABS), which are delivered in partnership with local authorities, ensuring money is distributed according to need.

Local authorities are currently required to set out their plans for how to tackle fuel poverty in their Local Housing Strategies (LHS). We will be refreshing our guidance on the fuel poverty requirements of the LHS to reflect the approach taken in our Fuel Poverty Strategy. In future local authorities will also be required to produce Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (LHEES), within which they will set out how poor energy efficiency will be removed as a driver of fuel poverty.

The early warning system, referenced in the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce’s Interim Report, is on track to be developed and rolled out by 31 March 2022.

Public Health Scotland is leading the development and will operate this system by working closely with Health Boards to monitor information on drug harms. The early warning system will review evidence of trends or clusters of drug harms or deaths and support early, targeted and intelligence-led action in response. When concerns about clusters or trends in drug harms are identified, a risk assessment will be completed to guide actions and communicate risks where appropriate.

An advisory group will be in place to ensure actions are taken at a local and national level to reduce further harms.

The emergence of new drugs is regularly monitored by Public Health Scotland and, following the alert from Public Health England in 2021, work is underway to incorporate screening for isotonitazene into toxicology procedures for both drug-related deaths and police seizures in Scotland.

In relation to detection of substances, unfortunately we do not hold information broken down to the level of detail requested. Scottish Government publish statistics on the number of drug possession and supply crimes and the quantities seized. These statistics relate to drugs controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The full report can be accessed via this link:

Drug seizures and Offender Characteristics, 2018-2019 and 2019-20 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Psychoactive Substance Act 2016 made it an offence to produce, supply, offer to supply, possess with intent to supply, possess on custodial premises, import or export psychoactive substances. The number of crimes of production, supply or possession in custody of a psychoactive substance was 2 in 2018-19, 10 in 2019-20 and 8 in 2020-21 (source: annex of the above noted report).

The Scottish Government currently provides the most generous non-domestic rates regime for renewable energy generation in the UK. Under the Valuation for Rating (Plant and Machinery) (Scotland) Regulations 2000, solar panels, wind turbines and storage batteries are already exempt from rating where they are used for the generation, storage, transformation or transmission of power, where the power is mainly or exclusively ‘for distribution for sale to consumers’.

The Scottish Budget 2022-23 will expand the Business Growth Accelerator relief for property improvements to include the installation of solar panels as a qualifying improvement. The Business Growth Accelerator is unique in the UK and provides 100% relief on new builds for up to 12 months after first occupation and no rates increases for 12 months after a qualifying property improvement.

Unfortunately, we do not hold the information requested.

National Records of Scotland produce an annual National Statistics publication each year on drug-related deaths in Scotland. The most recent year for which this drug death information is available is 2020. The next report, covering drug-related deaths during 2021, is due to be published in summer 2022.

Public Health Scotland information on hospital activity relating to illicit drug use in Scotland does not identify the substances specified - heroin and methadone are the only opioids with specific ICD-10 diagnostic codes (ICD-10 refers to ‘International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision, the international standard diagnostic classification for all general epidemiological, health management purposes and clinical use).

From September 2021 we have introduced quarterly reporting of suspected drug-related deaths, providing far more timely data on the DRD crisis/situation for the first time. This report uses management information from Police Scotland on suspected drug deaths. The second publication of these suspected figures was in December 2021 and covered the period from July to September 2021 ( Suspected drug deaths in Scotland: July to September 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ). The next report will be published in March 2022 and will cover suspected deaths up to the end of December 2021.

We continue to work with Police Scotland, Public Health Scotland and National Records of Scotland to review the surveillance data we have, review quality and determine whether additional information could be published in the future.

The Scottish Government reconvened the Burial Regulations Working Group (first established in 2016) on 9 December 2021 to continue work to develop burial regulations, as provided for in the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016.

At that meeting the Group reassessed the remit and membership of the Group, progress to date and the approach to take going forward.

The membership of the Group includes both public and private burial authorities, third sector organisations, special interest organisations and funeral sector trade organisations, ensuring views from across the sector are represented.

The Group agreed that the membership be expanded to the wider funeral sector, and invitations to join the Group are being sent to the identified parties. It would not be appropriate to share members’ details until the membership is agreed.

The minutes of the previous meeting will be published on the Scottish Government website once they have been cleared by the Group.