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Our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers will include glass bottles, which constitute the largest proportion of glass packaging on the market. The system will be designed to ensure people will be able to return items with the same ease as they bought them, making glass recycling more accessible than it is currently and allowing us to increase glass recycling significantly.

Glass containers not captured through DRS will continue to be collected by local authorities through local recycling services. We intend to host a recycling summit this year to bring together senior leaders across the public and private sectors to identify opportunities to accelerate the pace of progress towards our ambitious recycling targets and ensure a more consistent, efficient and easier to understand approach to recycling.

We want to introduce a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) that is as ambitious as possible to provide maximum environmental and economic benefit for Scotland. Our modelling indicates that there is a clear benefit to including glass. This is primarily from significant increases in recycling, which uses less energy and therefore generates less carbon than producing glass from virgin materials. Furthermore, glass is a dangerous and costly component of litter, particularly when broken, therefore the reduction in glass being littered will offer benefits to local environmental quality.

We want to introduce a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) that is as ambitious as possible to provide maximum environmental and economic benefit for Scotland. Our modelling indicates that there is a clear benefit to including glass. This is primarily from significant increases in recycling, which uses less energy and therefore generates less carbon than producing glass from virgin materials. Furthermore, glass is a dangerous and costly component of litter, particularly when broken, therefore the reduction in glass being littered will offer benefits to local environmental quality.

On 29 August 2019, the Scottish Government announced a new Strategic Partnership between the Scottish Government, including Transport Scotland, Scottish Power Energy Networks and Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, that is intended to ensure that Scotland has access to a world-leading electric vehicle charging network and the electricity network needed to support it. The £7.5 million project is currently in development and it is anticipated that the knowledge and evidence they generate will be of benefit to both Scotland’s urban and rural communities.

We have provided over £30m in grant funding to all 32 of Scotland’s Local Authorities since 2012 to help establish a comprehensive electric vehicle charging network of over 1,000 charge points. Funding is distributed to local authorities based on a methodology agreed with COSLA. That methodology takes into consideration the areas with greater demand for new charging infrastructure, areas where there was pressure on existing charging infrastructure or areas of strategic importance to ensure adequate geographical coverage of charging infrastructure.

70% of publicly available charge points on the ChargePlace Scotland network are out with Scotland’s large urban areas with 40% of the ChargePlace Scotland network serving small towns and rural areas.

Since April 2017 2,055 hectares of woodland have been created by Forest Enterprise Scotland and Forestry and Land Scotland through the New Woodland Investment Programme.

Since 2016 the Scottish Government, through Scotland's Energy Efficiency Programme, has made available the following:

• SEEP Phase 1 (2016-17 – 2017-18) - £9,100,000 was made available
• SEEP Phase 2 (2017-18 – 2018-19) - £11,000,000 was made available
• Transition Phase (2018-19 – 2019-20) - £5,500,000 was made available
• Decarbonisation Fund (2018-19 – 2019-20) - £3,500,000 was made available

This year the Scottish Government has made available a further £3.5 million on this year’s Decarbonisation Fund Phase 2. The deadline for applications to this was the 23rd of August 2019. Funding awards will be made in due course.

Funding which has been awarded to projects from September 2016 till August 2019 totals £17,264,263.29.

Between 2013 and 2016 the Scottish Government invested almost £11 million through the Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund to support the development of wave and tidal energy projects in Scotland.

The Scottish Government continues to support the research, development, innovation and demonstration which will maintain Scotland’s global lead in marine energy. Since 2014 we have invested almost £40 million in our Wave Energy Scotland (WES) programme, which has funded 86 contracts and engaged with 200 separate organisation across 13 different countries, and which will see the deployment of two Scottish wave energy prototypes for testing in real sea conditions in Orkney in the summer of 2020. In February 2019 we launched the £10 million Saltire Tidal Energy Challenge Fund to build on Scotland’s world leading tidal energy projects and accelerate the commercial deployment of tidal technology.

The Scottish Government has made £36 million available through our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) to community groups, rural businesses, and other eligible applicants looking to undertake renewable energy projects across Scotland.

As Scottish Government funding is allocated each financial year, this figure is based on funding made available from financial years 2016-17 to 2019-20.

Independent broadband analysis site, thinkbroadband.com, states that fibre broadband coverage across Scotland has increased from 95% to 97.6% since September 2017, with superfast coverage of 30 Megabits per second and above increasing from 90.9% to 93.8% across the same timeframe. This is, in large part, thanks to the £400 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) roll-out, which has supported over 936,000 premises to date. Our £600 million investment in the procurement phase of our Reaching 100% (R100) programme, which is being 96.5% funded by Scottish Government, will drive extension of superfast broadband access to all non-domestic and domestic premises in Scotland.

We are creating an investment climate in Scotland that supports and accelerates commercial deployment of digital infrastructure. We are offering 10 years non-domestic rates relief on new fibre, in comparison with 5 years relief in England, and are continuing to develop rental Guidance to make it easier for telecommunications operators to access public sector land and buildings.

Scottish Government is continuing to prioritise its extensive programme of surveillance, monitoring, research, and rapid action to help reduce the spread and impact of Phytophthora ramorum on larch. Slowing down the spread is achieved through the felling of diseased larch trees and movement controls to reduce the spread of the disease.

The process followed when tackling Phytophthora ramorum on larch is the same within public and private woodland but depends on location:

• Within the designated “Management Zone” in the South-West of Scotland, where infection and death of larch is already widespread, land managers can request a permission to cover felling operations related to any larch which they wish to remove. In addition, the movement of all potentially infectious material outwith the Management Zone is controlled.
• In the rest of Scotland, once an infection has been confirmed, the land manager will be served with a Statutory Plant Health Notice, requiring the felling of the infected larch stands as well as all larch in a surrounding buffer area. All infected timber from outside the Management Zone must be sent to an approved facility for processing.

These processes are consistent with the Ramorum (on larch) Action Plan for Scotland, and have been agreed with the members of the Scottish Tree Health Advisory Group.