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Ministers and Scottish Government officials have discussed matters relating to the forthcoming Visitor Levy Bill with a wide range of stakeholders including the Association of Scotland's Self Caterers, UK Hospitality, the Scottish Tourism Alliance, the B&B Association, the Scottish Guesthouse and B&B Alliance, the European Tourism Association, Edinburgh Hotels Association, COSLA and individual councils, Visit Scotland and also a number of other relevant organisations and individuals covering a broad range of interests ranging from companies operating significant visitor attractions to Police Scotland.

We will fulfil our commitment to introduce the Visitor Levy Bill in the current Parliamentary Year.

Social Security Scotland directly employed 3,976 staff (headcount) as at December 2022. There were 3,566 directly employed staff who work in Social Security Scotland's central buildings in Dundee and Glasgow.

Social Security Scotland has adopted hybrid working in its central buildings. All colleagues based in Dundee and Glasgow are expected to spend part of their working week in an office.

Social Security Scotland operates three buildings, forming its headquarters in Dundee: Agnes Husband House, Enterprise House and a part of Dundee House. Social Security Scotland analysis has determined that estates capacity could be reduced, providing a saving to the public purse while continuing to meet the employment commitment made to the city of Dundee.

On this basis, the decision was made to not renew the Occupation Agreement with Dundee City Council for space at Dundee House. From 31 May 2023 Social Security Scotland will occupy Agnes Husband House and Enterprise House. There are currently no plans to reduce the estate further in Dundee.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16876 on 25 April 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The Scottish Government is taking a range of activities to improve circularity within the Scottish economy. This includes consulting on proposals for a Circular Economy Bill Delivering Scotland's circular economy: Proposed Circular Economy Bill - Consultation analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) which we will bring forward before summer recess, and for a Waste Route Map which will be published later this year Delivering Scotland's Circular Economy - route map to 2025 and beyond: consultation analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

We have made one of the biggest investments in a generation to modernise recycling in Scotland through the £70m Recycling Improvement Fund. The Fund is supporting Scottish councils to modernise recycling services and increase both the quantity and the quality of recycling collected. This increases the supply of materials in frequent use and high demand, such as plastics, and helps to ensure availability of materials for businesses whilst reducing waste.

The forthcoming Deposit Return Scheme has already delivered hundreds of millions of pounds of investment across Scotland and is creating over 500 new green jobs.

Last year, we launched a Circular Textiles Fund to improve the circularity of textiles; issued a revised procurement policy note setting out that we expect public bodies to use their public procurement spend to support climate and circular economy ambitions ( Public procurement - taking account of climate and circular economy considerations: SPPN 3/2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot); and launched the Low Carbon Manufacturing Challenge Fund, which will support the development of new business models based on the principles of a circular economy.

We also provide funding to Zero Waste Scotland which has a range of support available for businesses and social enterprises to help them transition to more circular ways of working. Zero Waste Scotland also works in partnership with organisations throughout Scotland to encourage collaboration on circular economy projects between businesses, sectors and communities, for example: with Highlands & Islands Enterprise, South of Scotland Enterprise, Chambers of Commerce, manufacturing and renewable energy industry bodies.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Since January 2022, there have been 20 instances of drone activity being recorded over or inside the prison estate, out of which there were been 6 physical drone recoveries. SPS systems cannot provide information prior to this date as incidents before January 2022 are not categorised to allow this information to be extracted. The rising number of incidents involving drones has now resulted in closer monitoring and recording of these incidents.

We expect all investment to adhere to the Interim Principles for Responsible Investment in Natural Capital as a minimum. The ethical framework that is being developed by NatureScot and its partners to guide investments under the Memorandum of Understanding will support this.

The matters referred to cannot be determined until the ethical framework has been agreed and approved and the project design phase, which includes developing investment cases with land managers, has been completed.

Council Tax is a local tax, and each council is financially and administratively accountable to their electorate.

However, we recognise the desirability of the best practice in council tax collection being adopted by all local authorities. I therefore raised the issue of Council Tax Debt and Recovery, including highlighting the recommendations of the Improvement Service and Stepchange Scotland’s May 2022 report on Collaborative Council Tax Collection, with the COSLA President, Vice President and Resources Spokesperson at a meeting of the ‘Joint Working Group on Sourcing of Local Government Funding and Council Tax Reform’, on 22 March 2023.

The Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents (also known as the ‘Tromsø Convention’) relates to official documents held by public authorities. Whilst the UK is not a signatory to the Convention, the Scottish Government recognises the importance of public access to official information held by Scottish public authorities. However, Circularity Scotland is a private not for profit company, and not a Scottish public authority.