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Scottish Government submission dated 8 October 2021

PE1880/B: Introduce awareness and practical experience of litter picking and waste separation into the school curriculum

Thank you for your correspondence of 24 September 2021 in which you confirmed that the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee has agreed to close the above petition on the basis that:

• the Scottish Government has committed to increasing the prevalence of Learning for Sustainability (LfS) within Curriculum for Excellence; 
• the Scottish Government has stated it believes that individual schools should determine the precise content of their curriculum and how it is applied to the timetable at school-level;   
• the Scottish Government has stated that a new National Litter and Fly-Tipping Strategy is in the process of being developed, with a 12-week public consultation scheduled to take place at the end of this year before a refreshed strategy is published in early 2022; and that   
• the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills has stated her intention to share details of the petition, as well as her response to the Committee, with Education Scotland and Keep Scotland Beautiful, to ensure the issues highlighted are taken into account when exploring whether the current programme on litter and waste management can be strengthened.
• Scottish Government officials contact the petitioners directly to involve them in the new National Litter and Fly-Tipping Strategy consultation
• Scottish Government is made aware of the importance of identifying, promoting and circulating the details of successful projects being delivered in individual schools.

I am therefore writing to confirm that policy officials within the Zero Waste Delivery branch of Scottish Government will be inviting representatives of Cleanup Glasgow to participate in the National Litter and Fly-Tipping Strategy consultation when it launches towards the end of this year. 

I can also confirm that Education Scotland colleagues have committed to identify, promote and circulate details of successful projects currently being delivered in Scottish schools. This will ensure that best practice will be shared across the country.

As intimated in your letter of 24 September, the Cabinet Secretary has shared the petition and her response with Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB). You may therefore be interested to know that we have now received the following from Catherine Gee, KSB’s Deputy Chief Executive: 

“You may be aware that we are working with the Zero Waste Team in the Scottish Government (as well as Zero Waste Scotland) to support the development of a new Litter and Fly-Tipping Strategy for Scotland. As part of this we could also be in a position to develop and facilitate a consultation with young people around the developing strategy. 

"Using our experience of facilitating youth-focused discussions and consultation as part of the 2014 and 2019 consultations on Becoming a Good Food Nation, it would be possible to create an online consultation platform similar to the approach previously used. We will explore the possibility of working on this to develop a series of key questions that related to the main themes of the strategy which would form the basis of the consultation which could then be targeted at schools and youth groups through our existing networks.” 

I hope that the Committee finds the above information useful.