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We welcome that the unions are sharing their ideas and views. Transport Scotland officials attended the launch of the unions’ publication, and the previous Minister for Transport discussed various subjects covered in that report in his engagements with the unions.

Our focus is currently on the mobilisation of ScotRail Trains Ltd, which will provide passenger services within the public sector, under Scottish Government control, from April. Discussions with rail trade union representatives are underway, ensuring continued engagement, as part of the transition on 1 April 2022 of ScotRail to ScotRail Trains Ltd.

I am keen to meet the unions and advance a constructive dialogue on these matters and, to that end, a meeting is scheduled with all four rail trade unions for 10 February.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities and are entirely separate from the Scottish Government. As long as they act lawfully, it is up to each local authority how it manages its day-to-day business and decision making processes: including decisions on de-risking of net zero projects.

One way in which we are supporting local authorities is through our Green Growth Accelerator programme which will help local authorities reduce the risk of investment in low carbon infrastructure, by providing agreed resource funding based on project outcomes, as well as access to Scottish Government and Scottish Futures Trust advice and support at the development stage of projects.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05860 on 7 February 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

Scottish Government guidance ‘Visiting in Maternity and Neonatal Settings During COVID 19 Pandemic’ is intended to support maternity and neonatal units in developing local guidance for visiting. It sets out that, as a minimum, women may have one supportive person accompanying them to all antenatal appointments, and one additional visitor (adult or child) may also attend subject to local risk assessments and physical distancing. In the event of an active outbreak management scenario, Boards may restrict visiting to essential visits only, which would allowone supportive person to accompany a pregnant mother to the booking scan, 20 week scan and any emergency appointments. These additional restrictions should be time-limited during management of an active outbreak.

The Scottish Government would encourage pregnant mothers to discuss any individual requirements with their midwife who will be able to advise further on local policy.

We already require projects funded as part of our fuel poverty schemes including Local Authority Area Based Schemes, Warmer Homes Scotland and the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund to comply with all relevant building regulations, retrofit standards and guarantee requirements. The PAS 2035 standard has applied since July 2021 and retrofit installers must now work to this specification.

This was further developed in our Heat in Buildings Strategy where we announced our intention to adopt PAS 2035 for all our domestic schemes.

This is an operational matter for Category 1 responders, therefore the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will focus on non-refillable single-use drinks containers. Including refillables in the scheme would add a significant degree of complexity, with the need for industry to agree and operate standard bottle and collection crate designs and put in place bottle washing and refilling facilities in addition to the infrastructure already required for our DRS.

Once our DRS is operational we intend to consider options to expand the scope of the scheme. If there is a case for including refillable containers at this point then we can explore this as part of that work.

Scotland’s DRS will be ambitious by the standards of European schemes, including Latvia’s. I would note that Latvia’s scheme, unlike ours, is intended to exclude wine and spirits and that, while our scheme will reach 90% of containers collected for recycling by 2025, Latvia will not do so until 2030 for plastic and glass, and their target for aluminium is only 60%.

Scottish Government ran a very successful five-week, multi-media marketing campaign last autumn to raise awareness of the new standard. This was supported by over 96,000 leaflets distributed to all libraries in Scotland as well as posters, website and an online campaign toolkit shared with over 500 partners.

Independent analysis showed the campaign reached 95.2% of its target audience and follow-up analysis in December 2021 showed 88% were aware of the new standard.

Furthermore, Scottish Government has published material online through social media and a dedicated website and the Cabinet Secretary has written on several occasions to MSPs with information and FAQs to support their constituents.

We have worked very closely with partners including the SFRS throughout the legislative process and they fully welcome any measures that support fire prevention.

The legislation provides flexibility for people to fit the necessary alarms in due course if they are unable to do so by the February 2022 deadline. The rules place a legal duty on local authorities, not homeowners, to ensure homes are fitted with the correct alarms. A joint SG/ COSLA statement was published on

‎ 21 January, which confirmed that local authorities will be taking a proportionate and measured approach to compliance taking individual circumstances into account as well as reflecting the evolving situation with the Covid 19 pandemic.

No one will be criminalised if they need more time and there are no penalties for non-compliance. However, we would encourage everyone to install these alarms at their earliest opportunity as they can help to save lives.