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Circularity Scotland Limited is a private not for profit company set up by industry. As an independent private company, it is not required to report to the Scottish Government. Therefore the Scottish Government does not hold any information on day-to-day expenditure incurred by Circularity Scotland in May and April 2023.

Circularity Scotland Limited is a private not for profit company set up by industry. As an independent private company, it is not required to report to the Scottish Government and is responsible for its own financial planning. Therefore the Scottish Government has not undertaken any planning in relation to Circularity Scotland’s financing.

Circularity Scotland is currently in administration. More information on this can be found at: :

Circularity Scotland Limited is a private not for profit company set up by industry. As an independent private company, it is not required to report to the Scottish Government. Therefore the Scottish Government does not hold any information on expenditure incurred by Circularity Scotland during the financial year 2022-2023. Circularity Scotland is currently in administration. More information on this can be found at: .

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. The respective Enterprise Agencies are best placed to answer this question. This question should be directed to them.

SEPA and Zero Waste Scotland were informed that Circularity Scotland was going in to administration on 20 June 2023.

Given that labelling, including barcodes, is a reserved issue and therefore requirements for barcodes and labels were not part of the regulations covering Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme, we have not previously engaged with GS1 UK, who are a company dealing with barcodes.

However, I have asked officials to reach out to GS1 UK to offer to meet with them.

All Ministerial Engagements, travel and gifts received are proactively published within 3 months in line with the . I refer the member to the following link:

The Minister does not sit on the stakeholder groups however the Minister does receive updates from the groups.

The Minister chairs the Ministerial Strategy Assurance Group, referred to in answers to questions S6W-18537, S6W-18540 and S6W-18541 on 15 June 2023. The Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group’s purpose is to discuss issues which may need escalated following discussions at the stakeholder groups. The Ministerial Strategic Assurance Groups includes representatives who sit on the individual stakeholder groups to ensure these discussions are joined up.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

There are currently three stakeholder groups that are chaired by the Scottish Government, these are; Deposit Return Scheme - Retailers Sector Group Meeting, Deposit Return Scheme - Hospitality Sector Group Meeting, and Deposit Return Scheme - Producer Sector Group Meeting. There are also plans for a separate Local Authority stakeholder group which have been delayed by recent developments.

These groups provide a platform for communication and discussion for stakeholders and maintain relationships to ensure transparent communication and that all stakeholders are inputting into the process.

Decisions remain with organisations that are best placed to make them e.g. if SEPA are responsible they will have their own decision-making process and this will be respected.

During the consultation process for the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy, the Scottish Government convened the inaugural meeting of the Flytipping Forum, of which Police Scotland is a member and the purpose of which is to support co-ordinated action to tackle flytipping.

The National Litter and Flytipping Strategy has been co-designed in partnership with Zero Waste Scotland, Keep Scotland Beautiful and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. Furthermore, during the development of the Strategy, the Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime, chaired by Police Scotland, has been regularly engaged on the strategy’s progress and provided the opportunity to feedback on consultation proposals.

The Strategy will soon be published, following on from which the Flytipping Forum will be convened to discuss the strategy’s content and priority actions.