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The Transport Scotland, Scottish Transport Statistics 2020 reported 66 publicly available electric vehicle charge points in the Dumfries & Galloway Boundary Area. This figure has increased in 2021 to 80 publicly available charge points in the Dumfries & Galloway Boundary Area. The 2022 statistics will be released in January 2023.

We don’t routinely collect or analyse data on a constituency area basis, and there may be additional commercially financed and operated charge points that aren’t routinely captured in the Scottish Transport Statistics.

Domestic Abuse remains a high priority, and Police Scotland are committed to proactively target perpetrators and to protect victims and their families from the harms of domestic abuse. Police Scotland have a well-established National Domestic Abuse Taskforce to target perpetrators and local domestic abuse investigation units are located in the 14 divisions throughout Scotland.

Despite UK Government austerity we have invested over £10 billion in policing since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013, and remain committed to working closely with both the SPA and Police Scotland to ensure we continue to have a safe, protected and resilient Scotland. We have made a total investment across the justice sector of over £3.1 billion in 2022-23 to further strengthen and reform vital services.

Under the implementation of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, the Scottish Government provided £825,000 to support the training of 14,000 police officers and staff, and advanced training of 700 Domestic Abuse Champions to embed training and sustain organisational change. Officers are now much more aware and informed around the dynamics of domestic abuse. Police Scotland are also undertaking Divisional Reviews on their policing response to domestic abuse across the country, which includes partnership and multi-agency engagement.

As of close of business on 20 June 2022 a total of 410,721 cards had been issued under the Young Persons Scheme (YPS) through the National Entitlement Card scheme and Transport Scot Pass Collect mobile application.

The Improvement Service is responsible for the application process and issue of the National Entitlement Cards. They are being supported by Scottish Government to work with local authorities to identify and support improvements to both online and offline processes to maximise the uptake of scheme and increase accessibility for children and young people. I met with the Improvement Service in late April to make clear our expectations for delivery of the scheme and to ensure they continue to streamline the online process. I will shortly be writing to local authorities seeking assurance on their processes for handling offline applications and providing support if needed.

Transport Scotland also launched the Transport Scot Collect App on 28 February which allows existing Young Scot cardholders aged 16 and over to add the free travel product onto their existing card.

ScotRail has not undertaken an economic impact assessment on what is a temporary timetable change. There is positive progress being made on pay negotiations with ASLEF in Scotland, and I am hopeful that additional services will be added in the near future.

The number of passenger complaints received by ScotRail, through their official complaints process, is set out on the following table for the period 1 and 30 April 2022. The complaints may involve accidents that occurred before 1 April 2022.

The average recorded number of complaints per period for previous years is as follows:-

2019-2020 - 1,664 complaints

2018-2019 - 2,064 complaints

The figure of 1,144 complaints for April 2022 is lower than the above period averages.

ScotRail do not record staff complaints and therefore the information is not available.

I am pleased to confirm the publication today of the Scottish Government’s third thematic report on implementation progress following Dame Elish Angiolini’s Final Report.

The thematic progress report shows that 44 recommendations are now complete which represents more than half of the non-legislative recommendations. This demonstrates that partners’ collective actions are laying foundations to deliver transformative change of the complaints, investigations and misconduct framework. This is supplemented by our current live consultation on legislative proposals which is another step in that journey.

I commend Police Scotland, the Scottish Police Authority, the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland for their continuing efforts and progress to date.

The Scottish Government takes seriously the food security of Scotland, and in response to the conflict in Ukraine, Scottish Ministers established a short-life Food Security and Supply Taskforce, jointly with industry.

The purpose of the short life taskforce was to monitor, identify and respond to any potential disruption to the food and drink supply chain resulting from the situation in Ukraine. It also sought to recommend any short, medium and longer term actions that might be taken to mitigate impacts and resolve supply issues.

The work of the Taskforce has now concluded and arrived at a set of recommendations to strengthen food security and supply in Scotland. The full report and its recommendations will be published today https://www.gov.scot/publications/short-life-food-security-and-supply-taskforce-report/ , it reinforces the Scottish Government’s continued commitment to use all powers it has available to support people in Scotland.

This information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The date of March 2023 was chosen to drive progress with NHS Health Boards, reflecting the importance of reducing waiting times and meeting the standard that 90% of patients begin treatment within 18 weeks of referral, while also recognising the operational challenges that Boards have faced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This date was chosen as a challenging target, based on regular engagements with Boards and evidence on performance, published on a regular basis by Public Health Scotland - Publications - Public Health Scotland .

We are working with Boards closely and will continue to monitor their performance against the waiting times standard.

As per answer to S6W-09155 on 23 June 2022, gill netting is a legitimate form of fishing activity permitted within Scottish waters providing the relevant rules, regulations and technical standards are complied with.

We know that a number of gillnet vessels operate in Scottish waters and we understand that additional spatial pressure can occur when vessels using different types of gear are operating in close proximity to one another. The Future Catching Policy consultation, which closed for responses on 7 June, sought views on possible solutions to this and we welcome the input from all stakeholders to help shape next steps.

The Future Catching Policy is also intended to consider additional technical and spatial measures for all types of fishing vessels in order to reduce unwanted catches of fish and bycatch of sensitive marine species such as cetaceans. We are currently analysing the results from the consultation and considering policy options.

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 .