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We are aware of the emerging issues around single-use vaping products. We will be discussing this with our local authority partners, who have responsibility for providing advice on responsible disposal of waste in their area.

The Scottish Government has established the National Strategy for Economic Transformation Delivery Board to oversee the successful implementation of our economic strategy. As part of the Delivery Board’s work, it will engage with key delivery partners like Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) in driving a ‘Team Scotland’ approach to transforming the Scottish economy. A recent example is the involvement of ZWS in the Delivery Board’s Green Economy Jobs deep dive with delivery partners to explore what is being done to secure green jobs in Scotland.

Neither SEPA nor the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service hold any central statistics that would indicate the number of fires caused in waste or recycling facilities by lithium contained within disposable vaping products being crushed.

Scottish Government is aware of this issue, and through our regular sector forum with stakeholders across the Scottish resources and waste sector, discussions are ongoing to look at what more can be done to build understanding and tackle this issue in partnership with the sector.

The Scottish Government is aware of the environmental impact of single-use disposable vapes. Along with the other UK administrations, we are working on reforms to the extended producer responsibility system for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), including vapes, to make it easier for consumers to dispose of WEEE more responsibly.

We have not carried out any specific assessment of the environmental impact of single-use disposable vapes.

The recent BBC investigation was heavily reliant on data sourced from third party websites and limited anecdotal evidence from a very small proportion of the network as opposed to comprehensive, consistent, verified data directly from the CPS operator. The third party website utilised in their investigation does not present accurate up-to-date information and should be treated with caution when used to form the basis of overarching claims about reliability.

CPS network reliability has consistently improved in the last year, with the entire network now up and running at around 95% of the time each month. Furthermore, the vast majority of faults are being closed swiftly and with minimal impact on driver experience with approximately 90% closed within 24-48 hours.

The CPS website now provides the public with ready access to detailed information on the performance of the public charging network, showing each charge point’s reliability levels, fault history and usage. CPS is also working closely with third party EV charging websites to ensure they have access to more up-to-date information.

We are committed to providing a reliable network and an easy charging experience for drivers. Overall reliability across the ChargePlace Scotland network is typically very good with the entire network up and running around 95% of the time each month . Most faults on the network are short-lived and in the majority of cases require no physical intervention or a visit by an engineer. Typically around 90% of faults are resolved within 48 hrs with the ChargePlace Scotland helpdesk often remedying faults remotely.

Please note there are many reason a fault can be reported but these do not always affect the operation of the charge point itself. Some faults may be reported by more than one member of the public and this will be reflected in the figures below.

ChargePlace Scotland has recently published a new Network Performance page on the website which will continuously be updated with ready access to detailed information on the performance of the public charging network.

The following table provides a monthly breakdown of network uptime across the entire ChargePlace Scotland network for the last year with an average uptime of 97.1%.

The Scottish Government do not currently hold this information by Local Authority area for the previous 12 months. However CPS has recently published a new Network Performance page on the website which will continuously be updated with ready access to detailed information on the performance of the public charging network with information such as uptime by Local Authority area.

The Scottish Government does no t hold information dating back to 2016, but we have met COSLA eight times in 2022 to progress the introduction of the Scottish Recommended Allowance for kinship and foster care. We will continue to work closely with them to find a way forward as quickly as possible.

We welcome the valuable input from the First Minister's Environment Council, which we will take into account as part of wider policy development, for example work to develop Scotland's battery technology supply chain.

The Scottish Government has engaged with a wide range of drinks businesses throughout the policy development and implementation stages for our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), including through two stages of consultation (running from 25 June 2018 – 25 September 2018 and 10 September 2019 – 10 December 2019) which any business could participate in. We have not carried out any engagement relating to DRS specifically directed at retailers selling hampers, parcels, or gift sets, but many such retailers would have been captured by this wider engagement.

We are continuing to engage with industry in order to ensure a successful launch of Scotland's DRS in August next year.