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On top of the £1.9 billion provided to support COVID pressures in health and care this year, as set out in the statement, the £300 million represents additional investment to specifically support winter pressures.

This is funded from health and social care consequentials.

To be eligible for National Park Status, under the provisions of the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 the area must meet the following 4 Aims:

(a) to conserve and enhance the natural and cultural heritage of the area,

(b) to promote sustainable use of the natural resources of the area,

(c) to promote understanding and enjoyment (including enjoyment in the form of recreation) of the special qualities of the area by the public, and

(d) to promote sustainable economic and social development of the area’s communities

In addition, the Act specifies 3 Conditions which are to be met before a National Park can be designated:

(a) that the area is of outstanding national importance because of its natural heritage or the combination of its natural and cultural heritage,

(b) that the area has a distinctive character and a coherent identity, and

(c) that designating the area as a National Park would meet the special needs of the area and would be the best means of ensuring that the National Park aims are collectively achieved in relation to the area in a co-ordinated way

Satisfying the Aims and Conditions of National Park will be the first step in identifying the area or areas to be taken forward. Further criterion will be required to evaluate the list of candidate areas. The first step in the process will be to develop and publicise this initial evaluation process.

Under Section 2(3) of the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000, a proposal for a new National Park must identify the area to be designated and the proposed functions of the new National Park Authority. We are aware that several areas may be interested in National Park status, so a fair and transparent bidding and evaluation process will be put in place to identify the area or areas which will be put forward to obtain National Park status and allow the statutory process to begin. We will shortly provide further information on this initial bidding and evaluation process, but given the complex and important nature of the work, we do not think it will be completed by Spring 2022.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04001 on 8 November 2021. 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

Under Zero Waste Scotland’s Revolve certification scheme the number of stores reporting fluctuates year on year which leads to variations in data collated. Zero Waste Scotland do not receive data from all certified stores in a given year.

The data is self-reported by reuse stores, who can update monitoring processes for their unique circumstances over time.

While Zero Waste Scotland collect data on sales income, it does not hold data on the full "economic impact" of the reuse stores which would also include metrics such as other income, services provided, alongside social and employment impact.

Data collected by Zero Waste Scotland is set out in the following table.

Capital and resource funding for SEPA’s programme to plan, track, and deliver the regulator function for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), including development and delivery of a digital producer registration service, is agreed between SEPA and the Scottish Government as part of the annual Budget process.

Once DRS goes live, the annual registration fee paid by producers with a turnover of greater than £85,000 per year will cover the cost of ongoing maintenance of the registration service and regulation of the scheme.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04001 on
‎ 8 November 2021 . 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 Environment Protection Agency is developing guidance for businesses to help them meet their obligations under The Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020. This will include an online toolkit and example scenarios to support producers and retailers to develop takeback services for online sales.

Stakeholder mapping carried out in June 2021 on behalf of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency identified approximately 4,400 retailers selling drinks on the Scottish market. Of these, 2.6% were identified as selling exclusively online. Analysis was not carried out to determine what proportion of retailers operate both online and bricks-and-mortar retail.

The following table below shows the number of directly employed staff on Fixed-Term appointment contracts at 30 June 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, broken down by Directorate. 30 June has been selected for consistency with PQ S6W-03819 on 8 November 2021 which contains 30 June 2021 data.