The £12.5m Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund is being managed by Creative Scotland on behalf of Scottish Government.

The Fund comprises two strands; £7.5m targeted funding for performing arts venues in Scotland currently in receipt of Regular Funding through Creative Scotland, and a £5m open fund for not-for-profit performing arts venues that are not currently in receipt of Regular Funding.

On 5 August Creative Scotland announced that 20 regularly funded venues across Scotland will receive a total of £7.5m from the first strand of the Fund.

On 24 September Creative Scotland announced that 59 venues across Scotland will receive a total of £4.7m from the open call for applications to the second strand of the Fund.

The following tables sets out (a) the level of funding allocated to each organisation and (b) the latest information on the timing of delivery of these funds to each venue that has been awarded support from the Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund.

Industrial biotechnology sector data are not subject to standard industrial classification and official estimates of the turnover of the sector are not produced as part of the annual national accounts.

The most recent turnover estimate for the industrial biotechnology sector prepared by Scottish Enterprise was published in last year’s refresh of the National Plan for Industrial Biotechnology https://www.lifesciencesscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/
National-Plan-for-IB-2019-PDF.pdf . The plan shows significant turnover growth from £189 million for 2012 to £357 million for 2017, and contains ambitious targets of a £900 million turnover and over 200 companies active in industrial biotechnology by 2025.

Scottish Enterprise collects turnover and projections data by a company survey every three years. This survey based approach will be repeated to coincide with the planned publication of the next plan in 2022.

We know that shielding can have a detrimental impact on people’s lives, families and physical and mental wellbeing. Protecting people who are at the highest risk from COVID-19 is a priority for the Scottish Government. At this time we do not believe that asking people to return to shielding is the best way to protect them. The best way to do so is to reduce the spread of the virus in our communities. We have introduced new measures which must be followed by everyone in society.

Our clinical advisers continue to keep the shielding advice under consideration and any changes will be influenced by many factors such as the range of emerging evidence and the progress of the pandemic in Scotland.

Scottish Ministers will continue to take an evidence-based approach. We continue to engage with the UK Government and other devolved administrations to ensure that we learn from emerging evidence and the measures taken in other parts of Europe and around the world.

This information is not held centrally. Zero Waste Scotland has focused on identifying the potential for establishing biorefining hubs in Scotland that could transform a range of materials. In 2017, a research study was undertaken by Zero Waste Scotland to understand the bioresource arisings and availability for biorefining in Scotland:

https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/sites/default/files/Biorefining%
20Potential%20for%20Scotland%20Final%20report.pdf

The findings of this study have been used by Zero Waste Scotland, the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre and Scottish Enterprise to help inform a number of businesses on the potential to establish biorefining facilities in Scotland. Several businesses have benefitted through this information and are progressing plans to develop facilities in Scotland.

The Biorefinery Roadmap for Scotland – Building a Sustainable Future sets out Scottish Enterprise’s approach to the sector: https://www.sdi.co.uk/media/2092/biorefinery-roadmap-for-scotland-building-a-sustainable-future.pdf .

While we do not hold data centrally on circular economy approaches in public procurement activity, procurement legislation has required public bodies to consider and act on opportunities to improve environmental impact of procurement activity since 2016 and we are aware of a number of instances where reuse and remanufacture form part of what is measured as part of contract management.

For example, the Scottish Government National framework for the supply of desktop and laptop computers requires that all devices meet the Green Electronics Council’s Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool accreditation standards which are designed to reduce the environmental impact of devices across their lifecycle:

https://www.epa.gov/greenerproducts/electronic-product-environmental-assessment-tool-epeat#:~:text=EPEAT%2Dregistered%20products%20must%20meet,life%20management%
20and%20corporate%20performance .

Framework suppliers are required to manage and reduce waste in accordance with the waste hierarchy including minimising the use and environmental impact of packaging. Between July 2019 and July 2020 our national framework for supplier of desktop and laptop computers, have recycled 3,500 devices, refurbished 1,270 devices and recycled around 22 tonnes of packaging.

Sustainable procurement tools and guidance are updated on an ongoing basis in response to policy developments and emerging good practice and so it is not possible to identify all the changes that have been made since 2016. The guidance and tools are available online: www.sustainableprocurementtools.scot .

Through regular dialogue and engagement at UK level, Scottish Ministers worked to ensure the UK position taken forward to EU negotiations properly reflected Scottish priorities, including in relation to the delivery of a more circular economy.

The Scottish Government supports those regulatory changes introduced by the EU to protect our finite natural resources and improve the way we manage products at end of life. We will shortly consult on the introduction of a market restriction on problematic single-use items as part of our efforts to implement the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive, while our ongoing efforts to reform the UK packaging producer responsibility system are a key response to the EU Circular Economy Package.

On 3 September, I met with Virginijus Sinkevicius, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, to discuss a number of matters including the EU Circular Economy Action Plan and forthcoming legislative agenda.

Through regular dialogue and engagement at UK level, Scottish Ministers worked to ensure the UK position taken forward to EU negotiations properly reflected Scottish priorities, including in relation to the delivery of a more circular economy.

The Scottish Government supports those regulatory changes introduced by the EU to protect our finite natural resources and improve the way we manage products at end of life. On 3 September, I met with Virginijus Sinkevicius, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, to discuss a number of matters including the EU Circular Economy Action Plan and forthcoming legislative agenda.

We also carry out engagement through Zero Waste Scotland including providing evidence from the Scottish context, policy research into circular products and packaging design, and contributing to relevant European fora.

This information is not held centrally as there is no specific standard industrial classification of economic activities (SIC) code for remanufacturing activities carried out in the UK or Scotland. Zero Waste Scotland published a report estimating Scottish remanufacturing activities in 2015: https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/RemanufacturingReport . A second, similar study is planned to provide comparable data but the timing of this is yet to be decided.

No detailed analysis of the impact on running costs for landfill operators to provide capacity for biodegradable waste after 2021 has been carried out. However, we engaged widely with stakeholders, including landfill operators and trade associations, before extending the deadline on the ban on municipal waste to landfill from 2021 to 2025, and no concerns around the costs of providing capacity were raised.

This information is not held centrally.

Some data are available for Revolve certified organisations. Revolve is Scotland’s National Reuse Quality Standard and Revolve stores are supported to work to key standards, and are committed to quality.

In 2018-19 sales through Revolve certified community stores reported to Zero Waste Scotland were circa £34 million. There were over 780 full time staff employed and 192,590 volunteer hours from 1,406 volunteers recorded in those same organisations, and approximately 35,000 tonnes of material was estimated to be diverted from landfill.