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The 2025-26 budget provides local government in Scotland with record funding of over £15.1 billion, a real terms increase of 5.5% and the Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently.

As such, the vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them. This includes for waste services on the balance of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Scottish Government is working in partnership with local government representatives to design the methodology for the co-design of the Code of Practice. This collaborative work will help to ensure that the project draws on best available evidence whilst also being deliverable and affordable.

This partnership working will also ensure that any new commitments or changes to existing policy that have a financial cost for local government, will be considered and approved through the formal financial governance process. This requires agreed recommendations from the joint Scottish Government and COSLA Officers’ Settlement and Distribution Group (SDG) and political agreement from Scottish Ministers and COSLA political Leaders.

The Scottish Government is working to support the development of markets for recycled plastic flexibles and films through a combination of policy commitments and infrastructure investment.

As part of its broader strategy to enhance recycling services, the Scottish Government has committed to introducing household collections for recyclable plastic film and flexible packaging by 31 March 2027. This initiative aims to increase the availability of recyclable materials and increase demand for recycled products.

To bolster recycling capabilities, the Scottish Government has provided funding through the Recycling Improvement Fund. For instance, Fife Council received £470,000 to develop plastic film recycling services locally. This assisted in the installation of advanced sorting equipment, allowing the council to accept flexible plastics at the kerbside and process them into high-quality materials for the market.

Scottish Enterprise would also consider supporting growing businesses in this area, particularly if they are directly aligned with their mission to boost capital investment.

The Energy Skills Passport is an industry-led project, with Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) and RenewableUK (RUK) as the lead bodies.

The latest information available to Scottish Government regarding uptake, which covers the period from launch in January to April 2025, is that around 390 user profiles have been set up on the Passport’s digital system. The website received around 2,300 views during its first month and now averages around 900 views per month. More than 50% of the of the activity on the system has come from users based in Scotland.

For the most up to date figures, we recommend contacting OEUK and RUK directly.

At present, 30 local authorities are ready to comply and support the implementation of the ban on biodegradable municipal waste to landfill, with the remaining two continuing to finalise their plans.

As noted in my answer to S6W-37468 the Scottish Government are taking forward work as part of our Tobacco and Vapes Framework to review the impact and potential implementation of further place based restrictions alongside a review of the implementation of restrictions on hospital grounds.

ASH Scotland are carrying out that review, with engagement having been undertaken with a broad range of stakeholders across Scotland including academics, trading standards, environmental health and NHS facilities managers.

The report will be published later this year and I look forward to receiving it. I will consider the recommendations on next steps, alongside other evidence as part of identifying options for consultation.

Scottish Government officials engage regularly with waste industry stakeholders to ensure clarity and avoid misunderstanding of Scottish waste legislation and to assist with any changes in regulatory approach.

In terms of strategy, the Scottish Government published Scotland’s Circular Economy and Waste Route Map to 2030 in December 2024, following extensive collaboration and consultation with a wide range of stakeholders. The Route Map sets out how we will deliver priority actions to accelerate more sustainable use of our resources across the waste hierarchy. It takes a whole system approach to deliver coordinated, properly sequenced actions, designed to deliver cumulative impact and wider benefits to Scotland.

The Route Map can be viewed at the following link - Scotland's circular economy and waste route map to 2030 - gov.scot

Following the fire at the WEEE Solutions site in Linwood in June 2024, I asked my officials to consider the safety of these sites and battery energy storage (BESS) sites. In particular, this was to examine whether existing safety provisions and regulations are sufficiently robust, whilst also considering compliance and enforcement aspects.

This concluded that the current legislative and regulatory framework is sufficiently robust, recognising however that it is complex and requires inter-agency cooperation to be effective. Moreover, responsibility also lies with the operators of waste, recycling and BESS sites to ensure that they have effective and robust arrangements in place to minimise the fire risk involved with the disposal and storage of batteries.

Also, on 4 April Siobhian Brown MSP, Minister for Victims and Community Safety, wrote to all MSPs and MPs to highlight the recent work that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has undertaken recently concerning public safety awareness on the use of lithium-ion batteries.

Moving forward, Scottish Government officials are working with sector partners to host a workshop in the near future in order to further explore these issues and to identify if any potential changes can be made to reduce the risk of fire at recycling centres.

Given the nature of operating a refinery, significant regular operational expenditure would be required, alongside frequent capital expenditure, to enable the asset to continue operating - and we continue to urge the UK Government to leave no stone unturned when it comes to securing the future and the workforce of the site.

The public and business community should be confident that the Scottish Government is committed to attracting and securing investment in Grangemouth’s future, underpinned by our £25 million Grangemouth Just Transition Fund which will be utilised to support near term low carbon opportunities identified by the Grangemouth Investment Taskforce and Project Willow.

From May 2021 to date, £9,419,808 has been spent on the provision, maintenance and servicing of free bikes. This figure includes the cost of accessories such as locks, lights and helmets, and includes the total cost of the project associated with free bike provision. This includes bikes distributed under the Free Bikes for School Children pilot programme between August 2021 and March 2023, the Free Bikes Partnership in financial year 2023-24, and under the Regional Transport Partnership-led People and Place programme in financial year 2024-25.

Due to reporting schedules, the final evaluation of the People and Place programme for financial year 2024-25 has not been completed at the time of writing. The free bikes data for 2024-25 may therefore be subject to change.

The Scottish Government does not collect this information. The local councils are independent corporate bodies, separate from the Scottish Government, and it is up to each council how it manages its risks. Under the Strategic Framework for a Cyber Resilient Scotland (2021), the Scottish Government strongly encourages all public bodies to seek appropriate and regular independent assurance of their critical technical controls.