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The Scottish Government is clear that the desired outcome is that the deposit should not be subject to VAT. Discussions are ongoing with the UK Government to reach a final position on this matter.

Deposit return represents a cost effective mechanism through which businesses will meet their producer responsibility obligations to manage packaging at end of life. In line with the principle of extended producer responsibility, it is for producers rather than Government to meet those costs. The Scottish Government will, however, continue to be engaged around the financing of the scheme as part of the work of the Implementation Advisory Group.

The Scottish Government’s proposals are based on retailers receiving a handling fee to cover their costs. Hospitality businesses will be reimbursed the costs of any consumables required when acting as a return point and will accrue a benefit from having free uplift of materials where they generally have to pay a collection fee at present. The Deposit Return Scheme Full Business Case Stage 1 was published by the Scottish Government on 8 May and provides further detail on the operation of these arrangements.

Where businesses choose to accept automated returns, the Scottish Government is committed to exploring how the financing of reverse vending machines can be supported.

The Scottish Government will shortly publish: a Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment offering an analysis of the costs and benefits to business associated with implementation of a deposit return scheme; an Equality Impact Assessment outlining the impact of deposit return on different groups in society; and a Fairer Scotland Impact Assessment describing the impact of deposit return on inequalities of outcome caused by socio-economic disadvantage.

The Scottish Government has established an Implementation Advisory Group to provide industry advice on the implementation of the deposit return scheme.

The Implementation Advisory Group has established a dedicated Sub-Group to consider the range of existing retail activities and processes which will be affected by the scheme’s introduction.

The Scottish Government published its Deposit Return Scheme Full Business Case Stage 1 on 8 May 2019. That Business Case sets out the cost to producers of operating the scheme once all revenues generated from unredeemed deposits and material sales are accounted for. This is presented in the form of a producer fee.

The Deposit Return Scheme Full Business Case Stage 2 will be progressed over the remainder of this year, providing further technical and commercial detail on the scheme’s operation. As part of this, further information will be gathered in respect of the processing costs per material in order to derive a producer fee by material type.

The turnover of Children & Families Social Work staff is a matter for individual local authorities to address.

The Scottish Government is delivering an overall funding package of £11.2 billion to local authorities in 2019-20 This is a real terms increase of over £310 million on the 2018-19 funding settlement, equivalent to 2.9%, enabling local authorities to deliver essential public services, including Children & Families Social Work services.

Work in progress under Part 2 of the National Health & Social Care Workforce Plan, co-published with COSLA, aims to support workforce planning for health and social services and to help address current recruitment and retention issues in the sector.

Under the , local authorities are responsible for care planning, which includes assessing the immediate and long term needs of every looked after child. The legislation and supporting guidance also make clear the process and timescales by which a Child’s Plan must be developed, monitored and reviewed. As every child is unique, the support, including therapeutic support, should be built around their identified needs.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) has developed guidance and tools to support food businesses, including caterers regarding food allergies, which is freely available on its website. These resources include:

• MenuCal, a free online tool that supports two areas of FSS work in the out of home catering settings: mandatory provision of allergen information and voluntary energy (calorie) labelling.
• Technical guidance developed with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in order to support food businesses (including caterers) with the implementation of the applicable food law. It provides practical guidance on the interpretation and practical application of the specific requirements laid out in the Regulation on allergen information.

In addition, FSS jointly developed an interactive online training tool that covers catering and manufacturing premises and consists of six modules that are specific to allergen information.

FSS alongside the Food Standards Agency (FSA), developed practical guidance on the interpretation and practical application of the specific requirements laid out in the EU Regulation on allergen information.

MenuCal is a free online tool that supports two areas of FSS work in the out of home catering settings: mandatory provision of allergen information and voluntary energy labelling. It is available on the FSS website and is currently being promoted to food businesses via Environmental Health in Scottish LA’s.

The FSS website carries a link to an interactive online training tool that was developed with FSA when it was formerly FSA Scotland. The training material covers catering and manufacturing premises and consists of six modules that are specific to allergen information.