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I am pleased to see Royal Society of Chemistry highlighting this important issue through its recent report.

The Scottish Government is committed to building a fully circular economy as part of our work to tackle the climate emergency. The shift to a circular economy represents an enormous economic and industrial opportunity for Scotland.

To make the most of this opportunity, we are working with industry, including construction and demolition sectors, local government and environmental groups to develop a route map to deliver our waste, recycling and climate change targets to 2025 and beyond. Through the Route Map and the forthcoming Circular Economy Bill we will consider how best to take forward waste reduction and circular economy across a range of waste streams.

In October 2020, we published our Inward Investment Plan, which identifies the transformation of the chemicals industries as one of Scotland’s nine opportunity areas for inward investment.

Partnering with Scottish Enterprise, the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) supports the advancement of bio-based solutions across all sectors. This includes supporting members of IBioIC to develop sustainable solutions for the paint industry.

Scotland’s chemical sciences R&D is consistently ranked top 3 in the world. R&D expenditure on chemicals & chemical products and pharmaceuticals totalled £192 million in 2019, 13.7% of the Scottish total.

The original timeframe for the Best Start Implementation Programme Board envisaged a five year implementation timeline, ending in 2022. However the programme has been effectively paused for nearly two years as NHS Boards prioritised the response to COVID-19. I therefore agreed a two year extension to the implementation period for Best Start last year. The expectation is that NHS Boards will have implemented all of the recommendations by mid-2024, with implementation of continuity of carer within the lifetime of this Parliament.

In addition to monitoring of implementation, the Scottish Government is working with Public Health Scotland on the overall evaluation of the Best Start approach.

The Scottish Government works closely with CyberScotland Partners including Police Scotland and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to help protect the public from cyber threats.

The NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA), which works to fight and prevent fraud affecting the NHS have put together guidance and advice to help anyone who may be a target of scams which can be found here .

We encourage anyone who identifies a suspicious email to forward it to report@phishing.gov.uk and to report any suspicious scam websites using the NCSC Scam Website Reporting Service which can be found here . Any victims of online or offline scams should report these to Police Scotland by calling 101. For general advice/support, contact Advice Direct Scotland on 0808 164 6000.

The Scottish Government has committed to increasing public investment in social care by 25 per cent during the current parliamentary session. This is expected to equate to £840 million additional annual investment by the end of this parliament and will support plans for the delivery of commitments relating to social care, including the creation of a National Care Service.

These plans are currently being developed and will be considered by Ministers and by Parliament in due course, taking account responses to the National Care Service Consultation, input from stakeholders and the forthcoming Resource Spending Review to ensure that services are sustainable and best meet the needs of those who access care, and those who deliver care.

Mental Health remains an absolute priority for the Scottish Government, and we are committed to ensuring that everyone who needs support can get access to services that are appropriate to their needs. Through this approach we recognise that long term conditions can impact a person's mental wellbeing. We encourage anyone struggling with their mental health and wellbeing to approach their clinical support team in the first instance, who can advise on appropriate support avenues. Information can also be found on the NHS Inform website.

The Scottish Government is currently developing a new site to support the mental wellbeing of the general public in Scotland. The website will offer tips and advice from mental health experts and related professionals and people with lived experience of mental health issues. The website will include a range of resources that are accessible to people disproportionately affected by mental health problems. The Scottish Government plan to launch these resources by Spring 2022.

Decisions on whether to install defibrillators in schools are a matter for Local Authorities to consider at the local level.

Scottish Government recognises the important role of defibrillators in the chain of survival from Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA). We are a key partner in the Save a Life for Scotland (SALFS) partnership, which published an updated strategy in March 2021: Out of hospital cardiac arrest: strategy 2021 to 2026 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . This includes the aim of increasing the percentage of OHCAs which have a defibrillator applied before the arrival of ambulance service from 8% to 20%.

To achieve this, the strategy’s focus is to ensure that defibrillators are publicly accessible, are registered with the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) so they can be directed to in instances of OHCA, and that people feel empowered to use them. The strategy identifies a number of actions to take in order to achieve these goals.

It is important to support evidence based placement of defibrillators in areas where OHCAs are most likely to occur. To support the OHCA strategy, the Resuscitation Research Group at Edinburgh University are working to develop a tool to show where defibrillators are most likely to be required in order to support organisations and communities with optimal placement.

NHS Scotland is offering 2 doses of the coronavirus vaccine to all children and young people aged 12 to 17 years. The second dose will be offered from 12 weeks after the first dose. Children and young people aged 12 to 15 years have been sent second dose invitation letters. They can also attend drop-in clinics. More information on vaccinating children and young people is available at https://www.nhsinform.scot/covid-19-vaccine/the-vaccines/vaccinating-children-and-young-people-aged-12-to-17-years/

We cannot provide advice on the rules for other countries. Before travelling you should check the up to date entry requirements for the destination country.

The Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) is open and available to crofters that are registered on the Scottish Government’s Rural Payments and Services website.

An important feature of the scheme is a scoring system designed to avoid discrimination against smaller businesses, including crofters. This aims to promote applications by small businesses by awarding points where the application value is less than £20,000 (1 additional point) and more for applications less than £10,000 (3 additional points).

Where an applicant’s business has less than 30 hectares, some beneficiaries are able to access small unit supplementary payments across many of the options over and above the income foregone payments for AECS options. This extends to allow some businesses of less than 30 hectares to access important socio-economic options like native breed cattle introduction and retention.

As we anticipate a decision from the UK National Screening Committee (NSC) in the coming months, we have no current plans to expedite this. This is a complex matter and it is important that time is taken to evaluate all available evidence. The Scottish Government has, however, provided funding to the University of Edinburgh to support an exploratory piece of research into the feasibility of the introduction of lung health checks within Scotland and it is hoped that the findings will support the evidence base being considered by the NSC.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05600 on 10 January 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

It continues to reflect our latest position.