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Hundreds of millions of pounds of investment to prepare for the launch of the Deposit Return Scheme across a range of businesses and the value of this is now at risk unless an Internal Market Act exclusion is put in place urgently to enable the final preparations for a launch on 1 March 2024.

The exact figures on investment are held by industry themselves but various published estimates suggest that retailers will invest up to £200m, and producers have invested around £100m for the scheme. Alongside this contractors to Circularity Scotland, such as Biffa, will have invested significant funds with some estimating this at around £80m.

We are committed to transparency and openness in our administration of the Deposit Return Scheme. The Scottish Government is carefully considering the recommendations from the latest review, and has committed to sharing the recommendations and its response with the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee in due course.

On 27 April 2023 the National Incident Management Team (NIMT) met to discuss the latest position on COVID-19 in Scotland. In the light of their latest assessment the NIMT has proposed, and the Chief Medical Officer has agreed, that they will no longer meet. As the WHO has made clear, the COVID-19 pandemic is not over but our view is that it does now appear to be in the calmer phase of the pandemic which was discussed in COVID-19 Scotland’s Strategic Framework Update published in February 2022. Scotland no longer produces a separate threat level for COVID, and the UK no longer produces an alert level. Public Health Scotland now reports on COVID-19 alongside its surveillance of other respiratory disease pathogens. Other countries have also recently moved away from emergency responses standing apart from normal measures to protect public health.

COVID-19 has not gone away, and we continue to encourage the Scottish population to take sensible precautions, including taking up the offer of vaccination when invited, to protect themselves and others. As part of our enhanced surveillance system we continue to monitor, assess and be ready to respond to COVID-19 and other threats to the health of the population of Scotland.

I am pleased to announce the publication of the Scottish Government’s fifth Thematic Progress Report on implementation progress following Dame Elish Angiolini’s Final Report.

It shows that 58 of the non-legislative recommendations are now complete leaving only 10 still in progress. A further 2 recommendations will be kept under review and 2 are being progressed in other areas of Scottish Government. This marks the transition of focus from the non-legislative work to those recommendations that require legislation to implement.

These improvements are laying foundations to deliver further transformative change ensuring there are robust, clear and transparent mechanisms in place for investigating complaints or other issues of concern in relation to policing in Scotland.

I commend Police Scotland, the Scottish Police Authority, the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland for their dedication to this important work.

The report can be accessed here: http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781805257912

Attracting more people from a care-experienced background to further and higher education continues to be a priority for Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC). SFC have a National Ambition for Care-Experienced Students for the college and university sectors.

Our vision is to see no difference in the outcomes between care-experienced students and non care-experienced students by 2030. The work we are currently doing is taking us toward that vision. The SFC’s Report on Widening Access reported that in 2020/21 care-experienced students at Scotland’s colleges and universities accounted for 1.9% of Scottish-domiciled entrants to undergraduate courses. That’s up from 1.7% in 2019-20 and represents an increase of 215 students. SFC has an established a Care Experience National Policy Group. The last meeting of that group was 26 January 2023 and included Student Ambassadors.

There are currently no meetings scheduled between Scottish Ministers and the UK Minister for Nuclear and Networks. However, Ms Martin MSP, Minister for Energy, did meet with the UK Minister for Nuclear and Networks on 27 April 2023 to discuss the UK Government's Energy Bill and the track process for carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) projects. We anticipate there will be further engagement on the Energy Bill, for which the UK Minister for Nuclear and Networks is lead. The Bill will enable regulation across a raft of energy policy areas critical for net zero, and we are seeking amendments to ensure the Bill fully meets the needs and interests of Scottish consumers and industry.

I refer the member to the answers to questions S6W-17820 and S6W-17821 on 18 May 2023. 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 on grant giving requires that all grants be completed by default. Therefore, at any one time, there can be a large amount of grants available, all at different stages of their operational cycle. Each grant fund is managed by a specific policy area within the Scottish Government. To ensure fair and transparent application processes, these funds are advertised as appropriate on the gov.scot website or other specific sites to ensure stakeholders and key specific groups are targeted for applications. The SG does not hold central information at the detailed level of individual scheme operation.

I refer the member to Scottish Government’s publication on 28 February 2023 of the timeline and process for securing an Internal Market Act exclusion for the Deposit Return Scheme: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/correspondence/2023/02/internal-market-act-correspondence/documents/timeline-and-process-for-securing-an-internal-market-act-exclusion-for-drs/timeline-and-process-for-securing-an-internal-market-act-exclusion-for-drs/govscot%3Adocument/DRS%2BTimeline%2Band%2BProcess.pdf

Yes. We are committed to transparency and openness in our administration of the Deposit Return Scheme, and will publish this by the end of May 2023.