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The Scottish Government provides funding of £1.34 million annually to Local Authorities for the enforcement of legislation around the sale and purchase of Nicotine Vapour Products (NVP’s).

In addition, through continued funding and regular engagement with the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS), Scottish Government supports strong national and local alliances to tackle the sale of NVPs to under 18s.

The Enhanced Tobacco Sales Enforcement Programme, agreed by Scottish Government and co-ordinated by the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS), provides rigorous enforcement of the legislation on NVPs. Following disruption to visits during the pandemic, Trading Standards are using every tool at their disposal – including test purchasing - to enforce existing legislation.

In October 2022, the Scottish Government wrote to all registered retailers of these products to remind them of their duty of sale and we regularly meet with Trading Standards on enforcement activity. We will also publish our refreshed Tobacco Action Plan later this year, which will include actions to reduce vaping among young people.

The Scottish Government commissioned an expert group to make recommendations on action to reduce the number of people in temporary accommodation and the length of time spent there, with a strong focus on households with children. The Scottish Government is thankful to Alison Watson, Director of Shelter Scotland, and John Mills, Head of Housing for Fife Council, for co-chairing the discussions which informed the group’s recommendations.

The Scottish Government published its response to the Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group report on 19 July 2023. In our response, we have set out how we will prioritise action with partners in local government and across the housing sector on the recommendations that will have the most immediate impact on reducing the number of households in temporary accommodation.

Our national acquisition plan is backed by £60 million and will offer all local authorities, including Dundee, various routes to increase the supply of affordable housing, including through the purchase of privately owned properties. Increasing their supply of larger properties will support local authorities’ efforts to ensure households with children who have lived in temporary accommodation for a number of years are supported into suitable permanent housing.

Recognising that challenges vary from authority to authority, the Scottish Government will work with local authorities to take targeted action to bring about a more rapid reduction in the use of temporary accommodation in the areas where this is concentrated. This could include increased allocations of social homes to homeless households, reducing the number of long-term empty homes and more effective void property management. Large-scale flipping of temporary accommodation to a permanent home could also help to reduce the length of time households spend in temporary accommodation.

We will continue to work with all local authorities, including Dundee, on routes to increase their affordable housing supply, which is key to relieving the pressures on temporary accommodation.

A summary of available information on each project is provided in the following table, based on information provided by Zero Waste Scotland.

Circular Economy Business Support (CEBS) is provided by Zero Waste Scotland in order to build capacity, raise the profile of circular economy models and accelerate their adoption. Through CEBS Zero Waste Scotland provide technical support and advice to businesses, not funding, and businesses are under no obligation to report to Zero Waste Scotland. Up to date information on projects’ status is reliant on engagement from businesses, and recipients of previous support do occasionally cease contact. It is therefore not possible to provide a detailed status update for all of the referenced projects.

As this support is primarily provided to early stage or start-up businesses, any impact in terms of job creation and on the environment, including carbon reduction, is dependent on the scale and replication of the supported business model or circular innovation.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), adopted and published on 13 February 2023, sets out that development proposals will be sited and designed to minimise lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions as far as possible.

All national developments designated in NPF4 were subject to an assessment, undertaken by independent consultants, of the likely impact of each proposed national development’s lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions on achieving national greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets.

The Scottish Government has engaged with Zero Waste Scotland and leading experts on whole life emission reporting and the topic will be considered further in the development of Scotland’s next Climate Change Plan.

Where development proposals are likely to generate waste when operational, including residential, commercial, and industrial properties, NPF4 policy 12c) sets out that proposals will set out how much waste is expected to be generated and how it will be managed.

The Scottish Government does not hold a record of a formal notification of a material change in circumstances in relation to this matter, however as mentioned previously in my response to S6W-18498, the letter and anticipated schedule to which the member refers was in the context of a scheme launch date of July 2022.

Following an independent Gateway Review in June 2021, the Scottish Government confirmed that it would conduct a review of that go live date, with input from Circularity Scotland, industry and independent advice. Issues relating to the design and delivery of the scheme were taken in to account during the review process.

As a result of that review, the Scottish Parliament voted to move the launch date of DRS from July 2022 to August 2023. This decision made the previous request for information irrelevant due to the change in the launch date for the scheme.

No. As a result of the UK Government’s actions and intervention at the 11th hour, we have been left with no other option than to reset the timescale of DRS and delay the launch until October 2025 at the earliest, when the UK Government aims to launch its own scheme. This means that the Action Plan that was developed and which was shared with the Net Zero Energy and Transport Committee on 28 June is now obsolete and therefore an Assurance of Action plan is unnecessary.

The deposit return scheme is designed to be industry led and managed. The Scottish Government convened and chaired a System Wide Assurance Group with industry representatives to assess system-wide readiness and to monitor and address risks to delivery. Members were responsible for progressing common issues. Following the March 2023 gateway review we established an expanded governance framework which includes representation from a wider group of stakeholders. This includes a Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group, which sits above the already established Executive Oversight Group and Sector Specific Working Groups.

Zero Waste Scotland has advised Scottish Government that the cost of producing the report was £22,522.56.

The budget figures provided in answer S6W-18435 on 14 June 2023, further clarified in response to question S6W-19249, relate to the Scottish Government’s budget for its Zero Waste programmes which, in addition to Deposit Return, supports major circular economy delivery programmes including implementation of Circular Economy Bill and Waste Route Map, Extended Producer Responsibility, incineration research, landfill remediation, recycling, single-use plastics, litter and flytipping, and funding for Zero Waste Scotland to support delivery of Scottish Government objectives.

As per Table 9.12: Environmental Services Spending Plans (Level 3) in the documents, the Zero Waste budget was £ 40.2m in 2021-22, £43.4m in 2022-23 and £ 47.4m in 2023-24. These figures are inclusive of Scottish Government corporate running costs (CRCs); the amount of CRC has not been revised since the data was published. Annex G of the provides a full explanation of CRCs as this was the first year they were introduced.

Scottish Government provided Zero Waste Scotland with grant awards of £29.6m in 2021-22, £35.6m in 2022-23 and to date, £34.3m, in 2023/24 from the Zero Waste budget.

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

The Scottish Government, along with the other UK administrations, is carefully considering proposals to reduce the environmental impacts of e-cigarettes as part of the consultation on reforms to the WEEE regulations which will be published later this year.