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In the last year, three meetings have been held on the subject of waste zoning with the Resource Management Association Scotland (RMAS) in June, July and August 2022. One meeting on the subject of waste zoning was held with the Scottish Environmental Services Association (SESA) in February 2023. The issue has also been raised in other forums that industry attend and as part of wider engagement regarding proposals for the Circular Economy Bill and Waste Route Map.

There have been no specific meetings on the topic of zoning with local authorities, but it is a topic that has been raised in various regular forums they attend and as part of wider engagement for the Circular Economy Bill and Circular Economy and Waste Route Map.

The data referred to was provided by Zero Waste Scotland, drawing on data made available by WRAP.

WRAP has advised Zero Waste Scotland that the data is drawn from a range of initial efficiency studies undertaken to support the UK wide consultation on packaging extended producer responsibility. Queries on the data and publication status, and any subsequent research, should be directed to WRAP.

We will ensure when commissioning any modelling related to greenhouse gas emissions in the resources and waste sector, the role of biogenic carbon is considered, with a view to informing policy decisions.

The Scottish Government and SEFARI (Scottish Environment, Food and Agriculture Research Institutions) are currently establishing a Specialist Advisory Group to look at waste sector greenhouse gas emissions. As part of its work, the group will consider how biogenic carbon is included in future research on waste sector emissions commissioned by the Scottish Government.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18922 on 22 June 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

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 intends to launch its own scheme. This is a consequence of the decision by the UK Government to impose a partial and temporary exclusion from the Internal Market Act for Scotland’s DRS, forcing a last minute change of its scope and creating new and vague conditions for interoperability with schemes in the rest of the UK which do not exist yet.

The significant environmental benefits associated with the including glass in the DRS will now not be realised unless glass can be included in the DRS when it launches.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18867 on 21 June 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The Scottish Government does not stipulate that private companies have to offset carbon emissions.

As Circularity Scotland is a private company, we therefore did not make any stipulation to them that they must offset any such emissions.

SEPA will ensure that the Official Statistics for household waste which report against the national household waste recycling targets, will include DRS materials once it is implemented.

The DRS scheme has been delayed to October 2025 at the earliest. We are in the process of reviewing the existing guidance with a view to updating it in due course.

In the lead up to the introduction of "Frank's Law" in 2019 there were a number of discussions between Scottish Government officials and stakeholders which covered all aspects of the legislation. At the time of its introduction the Scottish Government issued advice in the form of a Questions and Answers brief which can be found at:

Free personal and nursing care: questions and answers - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

In terms of funding, it was first distributed in the 2019-20 Local Government settlement and then baselined in 2019 it included £29.5 million is to support expansion of Free Personal and Nursing Care for under 65s. With effect from 1 April 2021 the £29.5 million funding was merged into the overall local government finance settlement block grant and as such individual local authority allocations are no longer separately identifiable.

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.

As a result of that review, the Scottish Parliament voted to move the launch date of DRS from July 2022 to August 2023, accounting for the impacts of EU exit and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Circularity Scotland has since published information on returns collections as part of their Blueprint for Return Point Operators and Hospitality Providers . You may wish to review section 9, starting on page 9 which sets out that Return Point Operators (RPOs) will provide details to support collection schedules as part of the DRS registration process. Page 28 provides a sample collection frequency and Circularity Scotland specify that collection frequencies and/or schedules will be agreed following the registration process. Please note that said schedules would be a contractual matter between Circularity Scotland and individual RPOs to manage and that they are not obligated to provide copies of these to the Scottish Government.