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The independent review of the role of incineration in Scotland’s waste hierarchy made it clear that Scotland does not need additional municipal waste incineration facilities to treat our unavoidable and unrecyclable municipal residual waste, beyond those for which planning permission has already been granted, with very limited exceptions.

That is why we introduced restrictions on energy from waste developments in National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), which came into effect on 13 February 2023. This sets out that development proposals for energy from waste facilities will not be supported except in limited circumstances where a national or local need has been sufficiently demonstrated (e.g. in terms of capacity need or carbon benefits) as part of a strategic approach to residual waste management.

SEPA cannot issue a Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) permit in respect of a waste incineration facility in the absence of planning permission. Introduction of restrictions on developments in NPF4, therefore, also prevent PPC permits being issued for new facilities in line with recommendation 4 of the incineration review, which noted that the Scottish Government should ensure that no further planning permission (i.e. beyond that already in place) is granted to incineration infrastructure within the scope of the Review unless balanced by an equal or greater closure of capacity, with very limited exceptions.

It is crucial that the voices of children and young people are at the heart of developing our next steps on alcohol policy.

Our recent consultation on restricting alcohol advertising and promotion directly references the recommendations of the Young Scot Health Panel. It contains questions on potential restrictions on alcohol sponsorship of events as well as potential restrictions on alcohol-branded merchandise.

The consultation closed on 9 March. An independent contractor will comprehensively analyse the responses and publish a report. We will then further consider possible restrictions.

Our Alcohol Framework (published 20 November 2018) sets out our priorities for preventing alcohol-related harm. There is a strong focus on reducing health inequalities and protecting children and young people from alcohol-related harm.

A key action in the framework is to consult on potential restrictions on alcohol advertising and promotion in Scotland this year to protect children and young people. Our consultation, which has now closed, was informed directly by young people’s voices, gathered through projects by the Children’s Parliament and Young Scot Health Panel.

The consultation will be independently analysed before any potential proposals are put forward for consultation.

The number of bikes distributed per pilot is as follows:

Our ambitious deposit return scheme will start on 16 August and I repeat my commitment to look at proposals from small producers including a grace period.

I am advised that Clause 14.2 of the regulated Track Access Contracts which govern such arrangements between train operating companies and Network Rail require such information to be held confidential during and after the continuance of the contracts.

The regulation of such contracts is the responsibility of the Office of Rail and Road, acting within the UK Government’s railway legislation.

The Scottish Government is working with local government partners on the Additional Support for Learning Project Board to deliver the recommendations of the 2020 additional support for learning review by March 2026. As outlined in our updated action plan published in November 2022, we have committed to undertaking an internal awareness raising programme following a policy mapping exercise. This work will contribute to a positive communications plan to ensure visibility and awareness of additional support for learning and children and young people’s successes and achievements across a range of policies. This work is currently on track and will build upon the existing ongoing engagement across policy portfolios.

Progress can be followed through the published minutes of the Project Board . A further progress update is due to be published in May 2024.

The Scottish Government are committed to working with COSLA, ADES and our partners to deliver improvements in additional support for learning implementation and to ensure meaningful change for children and young people through our Additional Support for Learning Action Plan. The most recent ASL Action Plan progress report published in November 2022 confirms the progress made on the development of the measurement framework, including measures to celebrate the successes and achievements of children and young people with additional support needs. Since the publication of the progress report, a draft of the framework has been considered by the ASL Network and ASL Project Board and officials continue to work with partners to further enhance the framework.

The Scottish Government will continue to report on the progress of implementation of the ASL Action Plan through formal progress reports. The next progress report is due to be published in May 2024.

The Children’s Service, My Rights, My Say is a Scottish Government funded national service which supports children between the age of 12 and 15 years to exercise their rights under the additional support for learning Act.

The free support service comprises of four parts – advice and information, advocacy support, legal representation and a service which independently seeks children’s views to inform decision making.

As a statutory service, it is available to children in every local authority. Therefore, the Additional Support for Learning Act does not also require local authorities to have advocacy services in place.

1. The National Cyber Security Centre advises Government departments to withhold specific information that may provide insight into the likelihood of success of specific cyber techniques and the Scottish Government follows this advice.
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2. The Scottish Government is not a formal reporting agency for cyber incidents or cyber attacks, which means that agencies are not obliged to report any cyber incidents or attacks they experience to us. However, we encourage any Scottish public body that does experience a cyber incident to notify the Scottish Government Cyber Resilience Unit under the voluntary Scottish Public Sector Notifiable Cyber Incident Procedure so that we can ensure that all relevant and necessary support can be provided.
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Between January 2021 and 17 March 2023 we were notified of 26 cyber incidents under this procedure.