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In line with the principle of industry responsibility for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), it is for retailers (in consultation with the scheme administrator, Circularity Scotland Ltd) to decide how to comply with the obligation to provide a takeback service for scheme articles sold online. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has published guidance to support retailers in complying with their obligations:

https://www.sepa.org.uk/regulations/waste/deposit-return-scheme/retailers/online-retailers/

However, as set out in the answer to S6W-12236 on 1 December 2022, we are considering measures to reduce the burden this obligation places on industry, and are working closely with SEPA to ensure that the guidance is updated if necessary as a result of this work.

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 offshore wind developments included in the estimate of 40GW of potential offshore wind developments in the pipeline, subject to planning and consenting decisions, and finding a route to market, included:

3.8 gigawatts of projects currently under construction or awaiting construction [1]

• Seagreen
• Inch Cape
• Moray West
• Neart na Gaoithe

4.2 gigawatts of projects with lease options [2]

• Berwick Bank
• Pentland Floating Offshore Wind Farm
  
  
• 5.7 gigawatts of estimated capacity for targeted oil and gas decarbonisation projects under the INTOG leasing round [3]
  
  
• 0.5 gigawatts of estimated capacity for Innovation projects under the INTOG leasing round [4]
  
• 27.6 gigawatts from 20 ScotWind projects [5]

[1] Scottish Energy Statistics Hub - Pipeline renewable capacity by planning stage

Scotland, 2022 Q2
‎ Scottish Energy Statistics Hub (shinyapps.io)

[2] Marine Scotland – Marine Projects

Marine Projects | Marine Scotland Information

[3] Scottish Government, Sectoral marine plan – offshore wind for innovation and targeted oil and gas decarbonisation: initial plan framework

Supporting documents - Sectoral marine plan - offshore wind for innovation and targeted oil and gas decarbonisation: initial plan framework - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

[4] Scottish Government, Sectoral marine plan – offshore wind for innovation and targeted oil and gas decarbonisation: initial plan framework

Supporting documents - Sectoral marine plan - offshore wind for innovation and targeted oil and gas decarbonisation: initial plan framework - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

[5] Crown Estate Scotland, “ScotWind Awards with Project Partners November 2022” https://www.crownestatescotland.com/resources/documents/scotwind-awards-with-project-partners-november-2022

The Island Communities Impact Assessment for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme, published on 16 March 2020 and available here: Islands Communities Impact Assessment - Deposit return scheme for Scotland: islands communities impact assessment - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) , considered the impact of online takeback on island communities and concluded that this aspect of the scheme would be vital to ensure access to the scheme for consumers in island areas who were unable to access a physical return point. These considerations also apply to rural areas in terms of ensuring equality of access to DRS.

The £600 million funding set out in the Health and Social Care Winter Resilience Overview 2022-23 includes investment of £170 million for multi-disciplinary teams and £124 million to enhance care at home, supporting people to be treated in the community where clinically appropriate.

We have appointed a National Clinical Lead to drive and support the development and delivery of a new Strategy on Palliative and End of Life Care, supported by a small advisory group and a newly established strategy steering group, both of which include representatives of community and specialist palliative care nurses.

Nurses, amongst many multi-disciplinary staff, are crucial to the delivery of palliative and end of life care within the community.

The Scottish Government does not hold any further information on hen harrier nests broken down by nature reserves on which the nests are located, or on reasons for nest failure other than what was provided by way of an answer to question S5W-26208.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12273 on 5 December 2022. 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 .

CMAL is fully supportive of Scottish Shipbuilding industry and supply chain, both through support to delivery of the vessels at Fergusons and its role in the Scottish Maritime Cluster. Procurements for vessels include consideration of local content but are open to tender on a wider basis than Scottish suppliers.

The Scottish Government has taken forward a range of measures to support the efficient delivery of Scotland’s Redress Scheme, which is survivor led with feedback encouraged and acted upon.

The scheme was established to provide acknowledgement and tangible recognition of the harm that has been caused to those who experienced abuse in care, with the commitment that it would be less adversarial and swifter than civil court action. The redress payment reflects part of that tangible recognition and is not considered compensation in the same way as a sum awarded by a court.

In direct response to feedback about timescales the number of case workers has increased from 12 in December 2021 to 23 in November 2022, and as a result we will see swifter allocation of completed applications to case workers from January.

The operating model was changed in April 2022 to ensure all applications received are initially triaged by the case work team and applicants are then advised what further information is required to progress their application. With applicants consent, case workers make referrals to the Redress Support Service to progress applications where additional information is required. This can include support from organisations specialised in record searches. To date, 834 referrals have been made to this service.

A group has been established which is considering ways in which we might be able to improve the process of applicants accessing care records as it is recognised that some applicants are having challenges in this area.

The Survivor Forum, which was established in March, has reported on its first survey and feedback on the scheme has been provided to both the Scottish Government and Redress Scotland, the independent decision making body. The forum will also increase its activity and engagement with applicants in early 2023, providing further opportunities to provide feedback on what is working well and what could be done better or differently.

The Scottish Government works closely with the SFC and Scottish Universities on an annual basis to review and deliver sustainable funding for universities and the whole tertiary sector when setting the budget allocation. This flexibility allows the numbers of funded places for eligible students to respond to university and student demands, so that in 2022-23 there are 121,917 full-time equivalent funded places, compared to 115,987 for 2019-20, the last academic year prior to the pandemic.

Scottish Universities are autonomous institutions and as such, with the exception of controlled subjects, the Scottish Government and Government Ministers do not direct individual universities on the number of funded places made available for specific subjects for eligible Scottish and EU domicile students. Universities are allocated a finite amount of money and it is then for the universities themselves to decide: how to distribute these places between faculties; the courses they offer; and how many of the total funded places will be available on each course. To give universities additional flexibility in student recruitment, the Scottish Funding Council allows universities to recruit up to 10% above the number of funded places awarded.

The Scottish Government firmly believes that access to university should be based on the ability to learn and not the ability to pay, however there is a need to exert a level of control over the higher education budget, which means that the number of students able to access a funded place is not unlimited. Our commitment to free tuition means that, unlike elsewhere in the UK, Scottish students studying in Scotland do not incur additional debt of up to £27,750, and average student loan debt for Scottish students is the lowest in the UK.

The Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery – Implementation Plan was published in July 2022 and sets out the actions the Scottish Government are taking to improve care and services for people with chronic pain.

The Implementation Plan acknowledges the importance of specialist pain management services and includes a number of specific actions to improve access and quality of care provided by these services. This includes convening an expert working group to review pathways into specialist care and identify opportunities to share and promote best practice as well as piloting new digital pathways to improve how people access specialist services.

As part of this work it is expected that challenges around staffing of specialist services will also be explored. This activity will also be informed by a new national pain service managers network which will help to identify and prioritise key issues affecting the resilience and quality of specialist pain services, including workforce. In addition, the Scottish Government will publish, for the first time, projections of required workforce growth across health and social care as part of the National Workforce Strategy. Once generated these will be reviewed annually.