Seòmar agus comataidhean

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who reply in writing within 20 days.

The Scottish Government takes a whole population approach to tackling alcohol-related harms, in line with the World Health Organization’s focus on affordability, availability and attractiveness of alcohol. Our 2018 Alcohol Framework contains 20 actions to tackle alcohol related harm.

We want everyone in Scotland to eat well and have a healthy weight to help reduce the impact of a range of diet-related ill health conditions including liver disease. We continue to implement the wide-ranging actions set out in our 2018 Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan . This includes our commitment to restrict less healthy food promotions and improving the availability of healthier options when eating out as outlined in our Out Of Home Action Plan .

We also continue to support NHS boards to deliver adult, children and young people’s weight management services in line with our Type 2 Diabetes Prevention, Early Detection and Intervention Framework and Public Health Scotland’s National Standards .

Observational studies covering Great Britain are carried out on behalf of the Department for Transport every four or five years. The latest of these was undertaken in 2021 and published in July 2022. Mobile phone use by drivers: Great Britain, 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

There is a significant amount of data in the tables but the headline figures are:

Observed mobile phone use (held to ear or held in hand)

Avian influenza in mammals is a notifiable disease and Scottish Ministers have powers to investigate and control the potential spread of influenza of avian origin in non-avian species.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) routinely undertakes diagnostic testing of wild animals found dead under the GB wildlife surveillance scheme. Retrospective and active testing of samples has enabled us to identify and observe clinical signs of influenza of avian origin in mammals and to share this information with official veterinarians to increase their awareness. Samples taken as part of this scheme, since October 2021, have detected the presence of H5N1 influenza in a total of 23 mammals in the UK, of which 5 were detected in Scotland. The detection of the virus does not mean that it was the cause of death of these animals.

The Scottish Government regularly exercises our response to disease outbreaks in collaboration with operational partners and public health colleagues across Great Britain. This includes our response to avian influenza in both birds and mammals.

The infection of mammals with influenza of avian origin remains uncommon, including in humans. Avian influenza viruses remain predominantly a pathogen that affects birds, and globally, given the huge number of kept and wild birds that have been infected, only a small number of findings of naturally acquired Influenza A(H5N1) infections in mammals have been reported.

The Scottish Government is committed to a service design approach to policy making involving user-centred co-development. Appropriate testing and measurement will be applied at each stage of development and following implementation of measures to evaluate their ease, cost and impact against the outcomes of the Scottish Government’s Vision for Agriculture.

Examples underway this month include testing the list of measures published on 10 February directly with farmers who engaged in the Testing Actions for Sustainable Farming survey . This is being done through interviews conducted by professional researchers to understand how stakeholders view the measures and their applicability within future agricultural support mechanisms as well as areas for improvement.

A prisoner serving a determinate sentence cannot be held beyond the end of that sentence.

If a person is given an indeterminate sentence the judge must, by law, set a punishment part of the sentence. This is the minimum time the person must spend in prison before they can be considered for release into the community by the relevant Parole Board.

As of the morning of the 3rd of April 2023:

• 233 (31%) of the 756 serving a life sentence, and
• 168 (75%) of the 224 serving other indeterminate sentences (i.e. Order of Lifelong Restriction or Imprisonment for Public Protection)

remained in custody beyond the period of the punishment part of their sentence.

SPS do not hold information centrally on the reasons why Parole Boards have not recommended release for these individuals.

Due to the small number of prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP), these have been combined with Orders of Lifelong Restriction (OLR) to prevent the identification of individuals.

The Scottish Government's Preparing For Sustainable Farming (PSF) initiative is helping farmers and crofters across Scotland transition to more sustainable and regenerative farming, including carbon auditing and soil testing. Between 1 January and 17 April 2023 there were 987 PSF claims received.

There have been no recent discussions between the Scottish Government Culture and Major Events Directorate (a) ScotRail and (b) Transport Scotland.

However Culture and Major Event Officials, along with relevant transport stakeholders, routinely take part in the multi-agency Events Planning and Operations Group (EPOG) dealing with Summer Events. EPOG is run by the City of Edinburgh Council as the lead planning authority in respect of Summer Events within Edinburgh, such as Edinburgh Festivals.

Outwith Edinburgh, Transport Scotland continue to discuss planning arrangement for major events with transport deliver partners and key stakeholders through quarterly Major Events Planning meetings in addition to regular event specific meetings.

In addition, ScotRail is required under the terms of its grant agreement to use all reasonable endeavours to provide for reallocation of Passenger Carrying Capacity to serve Special Events.

Fourteen beavers have been released in the River Teith catchment and seven beavers have been released in the River Leven (Loch Lomond) catchment since November 2021.

NatureScot engagement with local communities is ongoing on the potential translocation of beavers in the River Beauly catchment (Glen Affric) and in the River Spey catchment.

When applying for grant assistance at tender stage to deliver homes for social rent, grant applicants are required to self-certify that the amount of funding that they are requesting is the minimum required for a project to be financially viable for their organisation whilst ensuring rent affordability.

The Scottish Government will consider any additional costs associated with improved quality standards for homes delivered through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme and those additional costs will be accounted for in the affordable housing investment benchmarks which determine how a project is appraised.