 The next item of business is a statement by Lorna Slater on towards a circular economy. The minister will take questions at the end of her statement, so there should be no interventions or interruptions. I call on Lorna Slater, minister, up to 10 minutes, please. One of the fundamental changes that we need to make to our society and economy to tackle the climate emergency is to transition to a circular economy. That means that instead of an economy where we take, make and dispose, we design to last, reusing and repairing while wasting as little as possible. Finding better ways to deal with the waste that our economy is currently creating and ways to reduce the total amount of waste are key to building a circular economy. I am working on creating a comprehensive vision for how we reduce and manage waste in Scotland. I will give you an update on our progress towards this vision so far. The flagship scheme of this Government for reducing litter and waste and increasing recycling is the introduction of the UK's first deposit return scheme. Parliament passed legislation to establish a deposit return in 2020, with the intention of having the scheme operational in 2022. Unfortunately, as you are all keenly aware, I know, 2020 was an unprecedented year. The global pandemic and Brexit had a major impact on businesses, particularly retailers and those involved in their supply chains, and challenges persist today. Unfortunately, the very businesses that will be most instrumental in making the DRS operate, including hospitality businesses, small convenience stores and small brewers, were and still are badly affected by the pandemic and the mismanagement of Brexit. There have also been unresolved issues, such as a lack of clarity from the UK Government on the VAT treatment of deposits, which adds unnecessary cost, time delay and risk to the project. I have written to the UK Government twice and offered to meet to discuss further, as did the former Cabinet Secretary for the Environment. Industry too has written. However, I only heard yesterday from the financial secretary to the Treasury that they do not see a route to remove VAT from deposits. That is deeply disappointing. The financial secretary has offered to work with my officials and industry on potential VAT adjustments. I understand that this falls well short of what is needed here, but I have tasked my officials to work on this urgently to understand the implications and agree a way forward. The Government is committed to the scheme being operational as soon as practically possible. Roll-out of the DRS is being spearheaded by Circularity Scotland Ltd. A non-profit company set up last February by private sector producers, retailers and wholesalers and approved as a scheme administrator by Scottish ministers in March. I and officials are working hard with them and industry to agree a final time scale and clear milestones for delivery. I will announce the schedule to Parliament in due course. Reducing waste through the implementation of the DRS is just one part of the vision for waste management in Scotland. Another piece is to modernise our infrastructure to boost Scotland's recycling performance by supporting local authorities, which is why I am delighted to announce today that we are making our first investments through our £70 million recycling improvement fund. I can confirm that over £7.1 million has been awarded to local authorities to increase the quantity and quality of recycling. That marks the beginning of one of the biggest investments in recycling in Scotland in a generation. Seven local authorities have successfully bid for support from the first round. Fife, Midlothian, North Ayrshire, Highland Council, East Lothian, Aberdeenshire Council and South Ayrshire. A range of improvements will include more frequent recycling collections, the extension of food and garden waste collections and local service redesigns to align with Scotland's household recycling charter. The funding will also unlock bold innovation in our recycling provision. For example, the investment that is made today will allow Fife Council to become the first local authority in Scotland to locally sort and separate the plastic films that it collects for recycling, enhancing Scotland's ability to deal with this particularly problematic material. That landmark investment will also include funding for improved re-use services. In North Ayrshire, re-use services at household waste recycling centres will be extended and will include a new initiative to re-use bed mattresses in an innovative partnership with the third sector. The landmark investment that I am announcing today has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by 17,200 tonnes each year, the equivalent of taking 9,100 cars off the road. That is just the start of the fund's impact. I hope to provide further updates on investment in Scotland's recycling infrastructure soon. In addition to reducing waste and better recycling, we need to ensure that we are correctly managing the waste that is being produced, even as the total amount of it declines in line with our ambitious waste reduction targets. The Scottish Government is fully committed to ending the practice of landfilling biodegradable municipal waste by 2025. That is an important step in tackling our contribution to climate change. Landfilling biodegradable municipal waste produces methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas that received well-deserved detention at COP26. I am pleased to say that the amount of waste that is going to landfill in Scotland is at its lowest since records began, and we are on track to exceed the 2020 EU target on landfilling biodegradable municipal waste. However, we need to maintain progress beyond 2025, too, and to ensure that how we treat residual waste aligns with our emissions reduction targets. Our programme for government set out a commitment to review the role of incineration in the waste hierarchy in Scotland. In September, I set out our intentions, including that the review will be led by an independent chair. I am pleased to announce that we have appointed Dr Colin Church to this role. Dr Church brings a wealth of experience from across the waste and environmental sectors. I am particularly conscious that how we treat our residual waste can have wider unwanted impacts on communities and the environment, both the short and long term. That is why the review will include scope to consider the societal impacts of residual waste treatment, including health and community impacts, as well as how emissions from existing incinerators can be reduced. Of course, Dr Church will determine the detailed scope and timings of the review. However, my previous update set out our intention for the scope to include an assessment of the required consideration capacity to ensure, as some members in this chamber have rightly pointed out, that we are not building unnecessary infrastructure that is not in keeping with our ambitious waste reduction targets. In order to alleviate concerns about a rush of planning applications for incinerators before the review has completed its work, we have issued a temporary notification direction today. That asks that planning authorities notify Scottish ministers of new planning applications and notify them when they are minded to grant planning permission for incineration. The notification direction will only be in place for the duration of the review and should not in any way disrupt local authority preparations for the forthcoming ban on sending biodegradable municipal waste to landfill in 2025. We are already taking action to reduce waste in Scotland and reach our targets. Last week, the Scottish Government laid legislation before the Scottish Parliament that bans some of the most problematic single-use plastics. Every year, hundreds of millions of pieces of single-use plastic are wasted in this country. They litter our coasts, pollute our oceans and contribute to the climate emergency. That has to end, and this ban will be another step forward in the fight against plastic waste and our throw-away culture. This is another example of the sort of bold action that is needed if we are to deliver on the commitments that were made at COP26. We recognise that the ban is at risk from the UK Internal Market Act, which effectively exempts any items that are produced in or imported via another part of the UK. However, we continue to work with the other Administrations across the UK to find a way to ensure that the ban in Scotland is not undermined. We also continue to work with the rest of the UK on progressing the packaging extended producer responsibility scheme and ensuring that this fully meets the polluter pays principle and that local authorities benefit from additional funds as a consequence. We are also currently reviewing Scotland's progress in delivering our food waste reduction targets, 33 per cent waste reduction. Those are all building blocks towards a comprehensive vision for waste reduction and management in Scotland, which we will bring more detail to in our route map to meet our 2025 waste and recycling targets, as well as looking ahead to 2030 and beyond. A circular economy is about so much more than waste management. It is also about sharing and repairing. That is why I am delighted that we are providing support for the new national network of community sharing libraries and repair cafes. New business models based around repairing, remanufacturing and recycling will bring opportunities. As I stated earlier, I will return shortly to inform Parliament of the final timeline for the deposit return scheme. I am also looking forward to progressing a transformational circular economy bill as an urgent priority in this parliamentary session. Building a circular economy is a key to tackling the twin prices of climate change and biodiversity loss. I look forward to working with you all to achieve that. The minister will now take questions on the issues raised in her statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes for questions, after which we will move on to the next item of business. It would be helpful if those members who wish to ask a question were to press their request to speak buttons now. I thank the minister for advance sight of her statement. We have just seen the Green Minister again break her promise to ban new incinerators. Unless Lorna Slater can somehow burn and recycle the same waste, how does she expect recycling to improve? Let me turn to deposit return, which the minister has just suggested might not launch as planned. If there is going to be a delay, hopefully ministers at least use the time wisely to improve deposit return. They can do that by ensuring a future proof of open standard system compatible with the rest of the UK, and a digital app allowing home collections is essential to stop disabled and vulnerable groups being effectively excluded. Finally, I want to mention the issue of transparency. Deposit return is shrouded in secrecy, with a multimillion-pound tender process hidden from the public and this Parliament. FOIs will not work because the SNP used a private company to oversee it. We do not need to see the commercial responses, but will the minister release the brief and specification that has been provided to bidders? I thank the member for the question. I will try to cover all the points. On incineration, the Tories and Labour Council in Aberdeinhire are pushing for a new incinerator, so the member's position on that is a bit unclear. However, the notification direction that we have issued today is the same tool as previously used to affect a temporary moratorium on unconventional oil and gas extraction. However, I stress that the notification direction is temporary and does not in any way pre-empt the outcome of the review of the incineration. With respect to the deposit return scheme, I am delighted that the member is so keen for the scheme to be introduced, especially as, during the debate when the legislation was passed in Parliament in 2020, the Tories pushed for a delay to the scheme and then a further delay during that debate. The next point was on the home collections. In 2020, Annie Wells said that the Scottish Conservative support delay to the implementation in light of the Covid outbreak, but she did not think that the proposed delay went far enough. I am delighted that you have changed your position and are now supporting the quickest possible implementation of the deposit return scheme. In terms of home collections, online collections are absolutely part of the legislation for the deposit return scheme. The UK has not yet defined its return scheme, so there is nothing yet for us to align to. The Scottish Government is leading the way on this, as with so many things. The question was asked and the minister responded. Before I call the next question, I remind that all members who wish to pose a question, not looking at anybody in particular, press the request and speak with us now. I thank the minister for advance sight of her statement. We recognise that HMRC's position on that is challenging, but VAT deposits have not been a barrier to implementation of deposit return schemes in other European countries. The minister says that the Scottish Government is committed to the scheme being operational as soon as practically possible. Can she confirm that there will be no delay to the July 2022 implementation date? We know how concerned the minister was about industry lobbying, causing delays to the scheme. Can she confirm what discussion she has had with large-scale producers to ensure that it is there and not local authorities who will foot the bill of any delay? We acknowledge that the minister has committed to come back to the chamber to outline the final timeline, but can she confirm today when she will return to the chamber? Thank you very much to the member for the question. Again, I will try to get through all the points. In terms of the date for the deposit return scheme, the deposit return scheme is a very comprehensive one. It involves tens of thousands of collection points around the country. It involves big retailers, small brewers and our hospitality sector. I am currently engaging with all of those stakeholders to figure out what the shortest practical time is possible to implement the scheme, given the challenges around Brexit and the pandemic that is currently still raging. That is constant industry engagement. I also emphasise that Circularity Scotland is a non-profit company set up by private sector producers, retailers and wholesalers. That scheme will be implemented by industry for industry. Industry engagement is at the core of the scheme. That is how the scheme will be implemented. It is based on the producer pay principle. The final question is about when the announcement will be made. A firm date for industry as to when the system will go live is absolutely critical. I will return to the chamber as soon as possible to make that announcement. The on-going work of engaging with industry to make sure that this is on the quickest possible timeline and that we have concrete visible milestones on that timeline so that we can all see active progress on the project is what I am currently working on. I now call Stephanie Callaghan to be followed by Liam Kerr. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Action set out in the statement today will help us to reach our world leading targets for zero emissions by 2045. In Dr Church's review of the role of incineration in the waste hierarchy in Scotland is particularly welcome. Can the minister clarify the impact that this will have on planning applications already submitted to councils for new incinerators, such as the Overwood Farm proposal in South Lanarkshire? Minister. I thank the member for the question. I absolutely agree that moving towards a circular economy using less, reusing and recycling are critical to meet our climate aspirations. With regards to incinerators it would not be appropriate for me to comment on the merits of any individual planning proposals. The notification direction requires that planning authorities make ministers aware of new planning applications that involve incineration facilities and that, if they are minded to grant planning permission for incineration facilities, they must notify ministers. That will ensure that both the review and Scottish ministers are fully aware of any on-going and new planning applications that are submitted during the review process. It will also give ministers the opportunity to decide case by case whether there are national interest at stake, which would merit ministers calling in an application for their own determination or to allow the local authority to issue a decision at local level. The notification direction is the same tool as previously used to give effect to a temporary moratorium on unconventional oil and gas. However, I would stress that the notification direction is temporary and does not, in any way, pre-empt the outcome of the review of incineration. The minister has blamed her Government's latest failure on deposit return on everything except her Government. However, she says that she and her officials have been working hard. Can she tell me what are the projected start-up costs of the scheme and how will this be funded? The scheme is being run by an independent administrator, which is a private company. They are responsible for pulling in the funding and planning it. It is external to Government. It is a separate body. I now call Jenny Minto to be followed by Paul Sweeney. My constituency of Argyll and Bute is a very important renewable energy source, but due to the dispersed nature of communities on islands and remote mainland areas, many of the proposals to achieve a circular economy can be more expensive to implement. Can the minister advise what the Scottish Government is doing to support communities such as those in Argyll and Bute? I understand the different challenges communities across Scotland face in building a circular economy, including island communities such as Argyll and Bute. For example, we are working with local authorities to identify and address specific challenges that authorities with island or rural communities face in delivering the forthcoming ban on biodegradable municipal waste and are providing support through Zero Waste Scotland to enable authorities to secure alternative solutions for their residual waste. Zero Waste Scotland has also made funding available through the island's green recovery programme refillary fund to empower existing small and medium-sized enterprises in island communities to take steps in the war on waste by ditching single-use packaging and moving to reusable options. The recycling improvement fund has been developed in partnership with COSLA and SOLIS to support all local authorities in improving recycling infrastructure. I would urge all local authorities to engage with Zero Waste Scotland to bring forward applications to the fund to help to deliver a step change to modernise our infrastructure and boost Scotland's recycling performance. The rate of increased littering as a result of the lack of implementation of the deposit return scheme runs at a rate of £21 million to guarded bottles and cans a month according to Greenpeace. Will the minister not agree that that externalising of costs to the public sector, the local authorities that have to collect the waste, is not sustainable? If the scheme is going to be continuing to be delayed in its implementation, will the minister be on our side in pushing for local authorities to get the extra money needed to cope with that continued expense of picking up the litter? As with the Scottish Conservatives, I am delighted that Labour has changed its mind about this. At the time of the debate when the deposit return scheme was debated in this chamber in 2020, which was last year, the Labour spokesman said that he felt that this was not the time for a deposit return scheme and asked for a delay to the implementation of such a scheme. So I am delighted that you are on board with having it implemented as soon as possible, and that is what I am working towards every day to implement this scheme as soon as possible. Excuse me, could we listen to the minister, please? We are currently engaging with stakeholders, including landowners and local government, on a new national litter and fly tipping strategy to be launched early next year, and we will consult with the public before the end of the year on actions around littering. Circularity Scotland has produced estimates of the key requirements, requirements that largely determine the overall costs of the proposed deposit return scheme. Their estimates are broadly double, twice that of the Scottish Government estimates, which were then for a total of £2,410 million over 25 years when this Parliament approved the scheme. My questions to the minister are first, what are the total costs now? Have they doubled to around £5,000 million? Second, will she now publish or arrange to be published the Circularity Scotland estimates? Third, in the light of this and other extremely significant challenges, will she instruct an independent review of the proposed scheme, including re-appraisal of all other options, so that the objectives that we all share can be achieved in the most effective, manageable but affordable fashion? My priority is to implement the deposit return scheme as quickly, as practically possible. The costs of the scheme are borne by industry and this is organised by Circularity Scotland, which I reiterate is a private company and it is for them as a private company to decide what information to publish. The full business case addendum is an industry scheme funded by the industry. It is not a publicly funded scheme. The full business case addendum, published last mark, sets out the strong economic case for DRS. There are successful schemes on deposit return all around the world. I have interacted with those in Sweden, where the deposit return machines provide a community hub and people come to shops adding increasing football to and supporting local businesses, who come to return their bottles and cans every day. Successful schemes run all over the world and deliver significant environmental and economic benefits to the public. We are confident that Scotland's DRS will do the same. We are aware that some in industry have been exploring alternative values for some of the assumptions that are set out in the full business case. We have not had the opportunity to assess the evidence for those alternative assumptions in detail, but I understand that industry is suggesting that the number of containers may be higher than anticipated. That is wonderful news for reducing litter and waste in Scotland, that the scheme may be able to collect more containers than previously thought. The more containers captured by DRS that might otherwise be littered or have gone to landfill, the higher the environmental and economic benefits to ensure that they go for recycling. I now call Liam McArthur to be followed by Mark Ruskell. Thank you. That is the second delay. We do not even have a date for introduction. Meanwhile, small businesses, particularly in rural and island areas, lack the information and clarity that they need in order to be able to prepare. Given the international precedents for rolling out deposit return schemes, why is it that the Scottish Government is making such a mess of introducing DRS in Scotland? I thank the member for the question. Again, the Liberal Democrats in 2020 did argue that Willie Rennie, who was the leader of the Liberal Democrats at the time, argued that it was beyond him why we were rushing the scheme through in 2020. I am delighted that the member is on board for has changed her mind and is now on favour of delivering the scheme as quickly as possible. I am absolutely aware of the criticality to industry of a firm delivery date. I will return to the chamber to give a firm delivery date as quickly as possible, because I agree with what the member says. Small businesses have been writing to me asking for delays to the scheme due to problems with Brexit and due to problems with the Covid crisis—the Covid pandemic—because those are exactly the businesses that have been most badly affected. I am listening to those small businesses. I am engaging with big retailers. I have been speaking to some of the biggest retailers in Scotland, including bottle producers and NGOs this week, to find a route map for the scheme that is as quickly as possible and takes into account the concerns of those businesses that the member mentions today. In terms of other countries, there are schemes in other countries around the world. Many of those schemes are less ambitious than the scheme that Scotland is proposing, and do not, for example, involve small businesses. Although, in Scotland, we want to support small businesses because we believe that that will increase footfall and improve the outlook for small businesses. Before I call Mark Ruskell, I make two points. One could be of less chintering from a seven-to-position. If the minister has asked a question, we need to hear how she responds. Second, if we could have perhaps more succinct answers, we would get in those members who are seeking to pose a question. Mark Ruskell, do we follow by Stuart McMillan? It is great to see momentum building behind the circular economy. While I share some of the frustrations about the delay to DRS, can I welcome the minister's commitment to deliver the most ambitious scheme at a timescale that will set the model for the rest of the UK to follow rather than Scotland following a weak UK scheme that has been watered down by vested interests? The VAT treatment of deposits is of considerable concern to industry, and the latest decision from the Treasury will no doubt be ringing alarm bells. Can the minister explain the latest position and how she and the Scottish Government have been consulted by the UK Government on this issue? I must confess that our interaction with the UK Government on this has been very frustrating. I have written two letters to the UK Government and asked for a meeting on this. They have been very slow in coming back to me. They came back to me yesterday saying that they would not implement what industry has requested them to do to make sure that the VAT returns on the deposits for this scheme are handled in a way that is best suited to get the scheme up and running quickly and as cheaply as possible. There are still many unresolved questions around the VAT, the details that the industry needs to be able to implement this scheme, so I will continue to work with the UK Government and with industry to figure out the details of all these matters around VAT because it is quite a complicated issue, but it is frustrating that the UK Government is so slow to come back to us on this scheme and appears to be dragging its feet. The members to my left could definitely support the system by speaking with their colleagues in Westminster about getting the VAT matters sorted out in a timely fashion to enable this deposit return scheme to be delivered as soon as possible. I thank the minister for providing an update on the plan to introduce a charge on the single use drinks cups. In 2019, Scotland became the first country in the UK to ban plastic-stemmed cotton buds, and we have taken further action this year by banning more problematic single-use plastic items such as cutlery, straws, plates and expanded polystyrene food and drink containers. We will now take further steps to consult on a charge for single-use disposable beverage cups in line with recommendations from the expert panel on environmental charging and other measures. According to the industry, the scheme will need an estimated 10,000 reverse vending machines. Will the minister be constructed here in Scotland, and will all materials collected within the scheme be recycled here in Scotland? I thank the member for that question. That is a matter that is on-going for the industry to look at. The matter of purchasing 10,000 reverse vending machines is a very exciting opportunity. As you can imagine, in the short timescale that we have to implement this deposit return scheme, there is a question about how quickly we can scale up to build the reverse vending machines. I am absolutely hopeful and confident that, as many as possible, we will be built in Scotland, but to meet the ambitious targets for getting the scheme implemented, the industry will have to do what it can to implement those. I am a very much a supporter of building and manufacturing in Scotland. Can the minister further elaborate on how the £70 million five-year recycling improvement fund will help us to accelerate progress towards Scotland's ambitious waste and recycling targets and fulfil our net zero commitments? Today's announcement marks the beginning of one of the biggest investments in recycling in Scotland in a generation. Across Scotland, the funding will be transformational, making it easier for households to recycle more and helping to deliver the rates of recycling needed to meet Scotland's ambitious climate targets. It will support local authorities in improving recycling and reuse infrastructure, help with aligning recycling collections to Scotland's household recycling charter and maximise the quality and quantity of recycling. The investment will also help local authorities to get ready for future developments, including the deposit return scheme and the reform of packaging producer responsibility systems. The first £7.1 million of funding has been announced today and will enable a range of improvements across Scotland, including more frequent recycling collections, extension of food and garden waste collections, replacing litter bins with recycling bins and local service redesigns to align with Scotland's household recycling charter. That investment has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by 17,200 tonnes each year, the equivalent of taking 9,100 cars off the road. That concludes the statement on towards a circular economy. Before moving directly on to the next item of business, I remind members of the Covid-related measures that are in place and that face coverings should be worn when moving around the chamber and across the Holyrood campus.