Chamber and committees

The Circular Economy and Waste Route Map sets out the Scottish Government’s work to promote reuse and recycling initiatives.

Our reuse initiatives include a variety of actions aimed at increasing the uptake of reusable packaging, taking action on single-use cups, supporting the development of construction material reuse hubs and improving reuse services.

In partnership with the other governments in the UK, the Scottish Government recently introduced extended producer responsibility for packaging. The scheme transfers the net cost of providing an efficient and effective service for managing packaging waste from the taxpayer to producers. It is intended to incentivise a move towards more sustainable packaging and drive local authority recycling performance. Packaging that has been reused is also exempt from fees under the scheme to incentivise reuse. The Scottish Government are considering further measures to promote reuse, including the potential for alignment with measures within the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste

Zero Waste Scotland, as part of a consortium funded by the European Circular Construction Finance project, is developing a model for a regional reuse hub for construction materials and a national roll out plan to maximise coverage. The project will also include consideration of the role of these hubs in reprocessing and recertifying products and materials, addressing some of the barriers to availability of materials. The initiative has significant potential to help businesses navigate rising material costs, achieve net zero ambitions and develop more resilient supply chains.

Scottish Government action to improve local recycling is led by the co-design of the new statutory Code of Practice for household recycling. The Scottish Government held co-design events with local government stakeholders in June and July 2025. The findings from these sessions are being used to inform the planning of wider stakeholder engagement with business, the third sector and citizens in the coming months. The new Code of Practice will be completed by the end of 2026, after which it will be made available for public consultation.

We are also making one of the biggest investments in a generation to modernise recycling in Scotland through the Recycling Improvement Fund. A total of
£66.6 million has now been allocated to 27 local authorities for 48 projects to increase the quantity and quality of recycling across Scotland. We are funding a range of improvements, including more frequent recycling collections, the extension of food and garden waste collections, and boosting Scotland’s capacity to recycle problematic materials like plastic films, which must be collected from households and businesses by 31 March 2027. Local authorities in Scotland will also see around £150 million per year in funding to support collection for household packaging waste through extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging.

On 21 October 2025 we published our draft Circular Economy Strategy for consultation. The draft strategy sets out our vision and outcomes to move from a linear “take, make and dispose” economic model to a circular economy where materials and goods are valued and kept in use for as long as possible, including through reuse and recycling. The consultation will close on 13 January 2026.

The Scottish Government supports and works closely with Food Standards Scotland, who have previously and will again repeat a winter campaign encouraging people to take a daily vitamin D supplement to maintain bone and muscle health.

The campaign primarily focuses on online advertising and social media posts. A campaign toolkit has also been developed and shared with a wide range of stakeholders to help support efforts to raise awareness of vitamin D, with graphics, web text, and social media posts available in nine languages (https://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/publications-and-research/publications/vitamin-d-campaign-toolkit).

Information on vitamin D is also available and promoted through a range of resources. Dedicated public advice on vitamin D is available on NHS Inform, including a general information leaflet highlighting the importance of vitamin D, which is available in a range of formats and languages (https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/food-and-nutrition/eating-well/vitamin-d).

Additional information can be accessed through our Parent Club (https://www.parentclub.scot/articles/eating-well-at-home) and Ready, Steady Baby! (https://www.nhsinform.scot/ready-steady-baby) resources, Food Standards Scotland (https://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/consumers/healthy-eating/nutrition/vitamins-minerals/vitamin-d) website and Eat Well, Your Way (https://www.eatwellyourway.scot/what-is-a-healthy-balanced-diet/vitamin-d/).

In the absence of powers over employment law, the Scottish Government is committed to using the levers we do have to embed Fair Work across the Scottish labour market.

All pre-registration midwifery courses validated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) as meeting the required proficiencies for registration as a midwife include theoretical and practice education in recognising, assessing, planning and responding to pre-existing and emerging complications from alcohol misuse/withdrawal.

The NMC Standards of proficiency for midwives (NMC 2023) are available online at https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/standards/2024/standards-of-proficiency-for-midwives.pdf

Post-registration CPD is a matter for individual NHS Boards. The information requested is not held centrally.

In June 2025, we published our five-year Breastfeeding and Infant feeding framework 2025-2030, which incorporates recommendations from the Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly (BBF) 2019 report, our longer term aims and sets out our detailed delivery plan over the next year.

This framework sets out our ongoing commitment to the Unicef UK Babyfriendly accreditation, and we continue to fund Achieving Sustainability Assessments, foundational training, and the Scottish Lead post.

In 2023-24 the Scottish Government permanently transferred funding to Health Boards for Maternal and Infant Nutrition as part of the Outcomes Framework funding, which covers a wider range of outcomes. The published Scottish Budget for 2025-2026 includes £72.2m within the NHS Boards budget for the Outcomes Framework. It is up to Health Boards to decide how much of this funding to allocate to each outcome. In 2025-26 territorial Health Boards received an overall cash uplift of 3%.

From 2025-26 the Scottish Government is permanently transferring over £0.8 million further investment into the baseline budgets of NHS Boards to provide a sustainable basis for funding for interventions to support breastfeeding, which can include peer support, following an additional investment of over £11 million since 2018.

In 2023-24 the Scottish Government permanently transferred funding to Health Boards for Maternal and Infant Nutrition as part of the Outcomes Framework funding, which covers a wider range of outcomes. The published Scottish Budget for 2025-2026 includes £72.2m within the NHS Boards budget for the Outcomes Framework. It is up to Health Boards to decide how much of this funding to allocate to each outcome. In 2025-26 territorial Health Boards received an overall cash uplift of 3%.

From 2025-26 the Scottish Government is permanently transferring over £0.8 million further investment into the baseline budgets of NHS Boards to provide a sustainable basis for funding for interventions to support breastfeeding, which can include peer support, following an additional investment of over £11 million since 2018.

The scale and stability of breastfeeding peer support has been strengthened as a result of targeted multi-year funding, optimising breastfeeding peer support in communities through locally driven decision making, strong partnership working and collaborations. In particular localised approaches which are effective in addressing breastfeeding inequalities and accessibility of support, as well as the growth of coverage across the volunteer and peer support landscape to include multiple Third sector organisations and in-house NHS volunteers.

The Scottish Government’s ‘A Fairer Scotland for Older People: framework for action’ contains a dedicated strand focused on activity we are undertaking to ensure people can access public and other services as they age.

We provide funding of £3.2 million over three years, through the Equality and Human Rights Fund, to older people's organisations and age equality projects. This funding is delivering a range of initiatives that tackle inequality, including among older people. A copy of the fund's progress report can be found here Equality & Human Rights Fund Impact Report Final_ Oct 21-Mar25 and provides details on initiatives we are delivering with this funding.

The Scottish Government recognises that an ageing population increases demand for accessible environments and services. Our Disability Equality Plan, supported by a £3 million investment, including a £1.5 million Improving Access Fund aims to improve access for disabled people, including older individuals with mobility or sensory impairments.

We also fund Access Panels across Scotland, which work locally to promote inclusive design and planning. These panels take a pan-disability approach, ensuring older people's needs are considered in accessibility improvements.

The Scottish Government promotes good practice in completing Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs) by conducting them at the earliest stages of developing new policies or revising existing ones. This includes strategies, legislation, guidance, frameworks, training, funding, reviews, and any other activities that affect different groups of people, particularly those with protected characteristics as defined by the Equality Act 2010. This includes consideration of impact on different age groups.

Where individuals have left a coercive and abusive relationship, it is important that protections for their safety are available where needed. As such, there are a range of protective orders available to help ensure the safety of individuals.

Where a partner or ex-partner has been convicted of a domestic abuse criminal offence against their partner or ex-partner, when dealing with the offender the court is required to consider whether to impose a non-harassment order (NHO). If a NHO is not imposed, the court must explain the reasons why. The NHO can have a range of conditions included within it such as refraining from contacting the person against whom the offence has been committed. NHOs are also available for a wider range of offences upon application by the prosecutor. Changes made in the recently passed Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 will, when brought into force, require the court to consider NHOs upon conviction in sexual offence, stalking and intimate images cases.

In addition, a person can take action through the courts to protect themselves against abuse and harassment, and there are a number of civil court orders available. These include an interdict, which is a court order prohibiting someone from doing something. It can cover things such as contacting a particular person or coming within a certain distance of their home. In some cases, breach of an interdict is an offence. A civil NHO can prohibit conduct which causes alarm or distress and again breach is a criminal offence. An exclusion order can provide protection to a spouse or a civil partner (and, in certain circumstances, a cohabitant) where they or a child of the family is at risk of physical or mental injury because of the conduct of the other spouse, civil partner (or cohabitant). The order suspends an individual's rights to occupy the family home, and will come to an end if the court divorce or their civil partnership is dissolved.

Some data on the use of these various orders is available. Under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 and the requirement for the court to always consider imposition of an NHO following conviction for a domestic abuse offence came into force in April 2019, there has been a near quadrupling of the proportion of cases in which NHOs are made (from 10.8% of cases in 2018-19 to 41.8% of cases in 2024-25).

Separately from the availability of protective orders, the Caledonian System is an integrated approach to address the safety of women and children and to improve the lives of women, children and men. The system comprises of a programme for men who have been convicted of domestic abuse related offences with integrated support services for women and children. The men's programme is two years in duration, with a focus on helping men be accountable for their abusive behaviour and reduce the risk of continuing to be abusive. For 2025-26, the total ring-fenced budget allocation to 23 local authorities who operate the Caledonian System was £4,467,666.

These measures are intended to help protect victims of domestic abuse from further offending behaviour.

All NHS Boards employ maternity service staff who are trained to deal with alcohol-related issues.

On 24 January 2023, Scottish Government provided a summary update on progress towards implementing the recommendations in the 2019 Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly (BBF) report to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. At that time, a commitment was made to provide a more detailed report on progress in 2024.

Subsequently, it was decided to incorporate the BBF recommendations within the Breastfeeding and Infant Feeding Strategic Framework 2025-2030 through the overarching strategic goals, and to provide a further update on progress throughout that document. The Health, Social Care and Sport Committee has been informed of this approach.