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Zero Waste Scotland published a report on the Indirect Costs of Litter in Scotland and costs are based on that research and attributable to the proportion, by volume, of DRS materials in the litter stream. This modelling is commercially sensitive and is not published and figures have not been reviewed since publication.

Any consumer that returns a scheme article is eligible for the deposit to be refunded.

This means that the deposit forms part of the consideration for a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) article donated to charity.

It is for the donor to consider whether they wish to charge for the deposit or include as part of the donation.

We are engaging with industry and third sector organisations where there are questions on the flow of deposits. Scotland's DRS is based on similar deposit return schemes which operate in 44 other states or territories worldwide.

NHS patients are eligible to have a free dental check-up every six months if required. The time between check-ups can vary from 3 months to 2 years, depending on the oral health of the patient.

As part of the recovery of NHS dental services, on 1 February 2022 we introduced an enhanced examination fee for all patients, which included for the first time a fee for a child examination. The latest statistics from Public Health Scotland show that over 1.6 million NHS examination appointments were completed between April and October with an average of more than 300,000 courses of treatment per month, meaning we are on course for over 3.5 million contacts in the 2022-23 financial year.

This data is not held by the Scottish Government.

We are working closely with the dental sector to ensure it has the support necessary to offer continuity of NHS care to patients. This includes Scottish Government providing Scottish Dental Access Initiative Grants and Recruitment and Retention Allowances to dentists and dental practices.

Scottish Dental Access Initiative Grants support pays out a potential £100,000 for the first surgery, and £25,000 per additional surgery to practices setting up a new NHS practice, or extending an existing NHS practice. The Recruitment and Retention Allowance provides up to £37,500 across three years to eligible NHS dentists in qualifying areas.

Our recent consultation on restricting alcohol advertising and promotion reflects the WHO’s recommended approach and sets out a range of potential options to restrict alcohol advertising and promotion, in order to prevent and reduce alcohol-related harms.

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.

This Government has already introduced free dental care for young people between 18 and 25 years of age. We have also made a commitment to abolish all NHS dental charges in the lifetime of this parliament.

We continue to support Health Boards to deliver NHS dental services and have put in place additional recruitment and retention incentives in rural and remote areas.

The Scottish Government has been following the agreed process for excluding the deposit return scheme regulations from the Internal Market Act.

We first raised the issue with the UK Government in 2021, and on 28 February 2023 we published correspondence and a timeline setting out the steps that have been undertaken to secure an exclusion. Internal Market Act: correspondence - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

On 6 March I met with Ministers and Senior Officials from each UK administration at the inter-ministerial group on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to ask for an urgent decision from the UK Government for securing an exclusion from the Internal Market Act.

I will keep Parliament updated on further developments.

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

As part of our work under the Additional Support for Learning Action Plan we have considered the impact of the incorporation of UNCRC on the 2004 Act, as well as additional support for learning policy, practice and guidance. We intend to continue to engage with key stakeholders to consider this work further and ensure that children’s rights are embedded and effectively underpin implementation of additional support for learning policy.

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.