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The export of waste is a reserved matter.

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes is the international Convention that governs the movement of hazardous waste, to which the UK is a party. The Convention, as implemented in UK legislation, bans all exports of hazardous waste to developing countries. Control mechanisms on the shipment of other types of waste from Scotland to countries outside the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) are governed by retained European legislation.

While waste export legislation is a matter for the UK Government, we continue to actively discuss waste shipment regulations, in light of our commitment to a truly circular economy, to ensure our environment is protected, and that all waste is managed responsibly and sustainably.

To meet these objectives, we are calling for further action from the UK Government to deliver its existing commitment to ban plastic waste exports to non-OECD countries, and bring forward further measures to influence global markets and reduce imported and exported emissions. This includes making progress on the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendation to “phase out” exports of waste by 2030, which would support Scotland’s transition to a fully circular economy.

The Scottish Government is supporting organisations across Scotland to tackle the climate emergency. This includes, a further £1 million this year for the continued rollout of Green Growth Accelerators to support local authorities to develop low carbon projects and deliver £100 million over the next five years to help businesses via the Green Jobs Fund. Bespoke advice and support for businesses is also available through the enterprise agencies, Zero Waste Scotland, Business Gateway and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency. We are also supporting workers to engage in a just transition through the £100,000 we have provided for union capacity building. Our framework of regional climate action hubs and climate action towns is also enabling communities to engage in collective climate action.

The current business case plans to deliver around 800 joint replacements, 1,200 day cases and 700 local anaesthetic orthopaedic cases.

That information is not held centrally. This data can be obtained from SEPA.

We are committed to ensuring Scotland takes more responsibility for its own waste, maximising its value and reducing the environmental and carbon impact. A large majority of Scotland’s waste is already managed within Scotland, but around 14% is currently processed elsewhere.

International waste export legislation is a reserved matter, and we are calling for further action from the UK Government to deliver existing commitments and bring forward measures to influence global markets and reduce imported and exported emissions. This includes making progress on the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendation to “phase out” exports of waste by 2030, which would support Scotland’s transition to a fully circular economy.

The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to reaching net zero by 2045. The decarbonisation of our infrastructure will be central to this goal.

Our five-year Infrastructure Investment Plan published in February 2021 includes details of around £26 billion of major projects and national programmes with more to be confirmed in future years.

The Plan delivers our National Infrastructure Mission and sets a long-term vision of infrastructure supporting an inclusive, net zero carbon economy in Scotland.

The £26 billion pipeline of major projects and national programmes includes almost £9 billion for environmental sustainability and the transition to net zero emissions, including over £280 million to support 18,000 hectares of forestry and restoring peatlands.

The NTC locations are:

Golden Jubilee, Clydebank – Eye Centre and Surgical Centre

NTC Forth Valley – Forth Valley Royal Hospital, Larbert

NTC Fife – Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy

NTC Highland - Inverness

NTC Grampian - Aberdeen

NTC Tayside – Perth Royal Infirmary

NTC Ayrshire & Arran – Carrick Glen Hospital site

NTC Lanarkshire – Cumbernauld

NTC Lothian – St John’s Hospital

NTC Lothian Eye Centre – Edinburgh Royal Infirmary campus

Public Health Scotland – the National public health body for Scotland is responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of blood borne virus’. This includes collecting data on treatment numbers which, pre-pandemic, was published regularly. Data collection for BBV and HCV has been significantly impacted due to the Covid 19 pandemic, however updated figures will be published later this year within the UK Hepatitis C report.

Information relating to the number of homes receiving measures from Home Energy Efficiency Programme Scotland (HEEPS) schemes for the last five years has been lodged with the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 63123).

Properties benefitting from an energy efficiency measure delivered as part of our Warmer Homes Scotland or Area Based Schemes will have received a survey. Properties benefitting from measures funded with the support of a Scottish Government loan or cashback will have been recommended for the measure in an Energy Performance Certificate.

The information requested about numbers of surveys completed in support of our Warmer Homes Scotland services has been published as:

Households Warmer Homes Scotland surveyed and delivered energy efficiency measures to: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

For our other Home Energy Efficiency Programme Scotland schemes, we do not collect or collate separate information about the number of properties that may have benefitted from a survey.

We do not collect or collate information for all schemes about the value of the support provided by local authority area. Information about allocations and spending as part of the Area Based Schemes delivered by local authority is published online and can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/home-energy-efficiency-programmes-for-scotland-annual-final-measures-reports/

The National Treatment Centres are all new build centres that are being developed on existing hospital sites as either a new stand-alone facility or as an extension to the existing hospital building. The exception to this is the NTC in Highland that is being built on a new site that is not an existing hospital site.

Carrick Glen is the only NTC that is being developed from a previously independent sector facility.

The workforce plan is still under development but the number of full-time equivalent staff is expected to be in the region of 160.