- Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jackson Carlaw (on behalf of the SPCB) on 23 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, further to the answer to question S6W-04506 by Jackson Carlaw on 2 December 2021, whether it will provide an update on its considerations regarding the publication of all or part of the central register of interests held by the People and Culture Office.
Answer
The
SPCB undertook to consider this and can advise that the central register of
interests for SPCB staff who are members of the Parliament’s Leadership Group
is now publicly available, as of this week. The register can be found here.
The SPCB considers that publication of declared interests for Leadership Group
members is in the public interest for reasons of transparency and maintaining
trust and confidence. As before, Leadership Group members will be
required, on an annual basis, to review their register of declared interests.
- Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 23 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it uses data from 2014 to estimate the number of pupils claiming free school meals in P1 to P3, and, if so, (a) for what reason and (b) what plans it has to use more up-to-date figures.
Answer
Data from the 2014 Healthy Living Survey was one of the components used to determine 2022-23 Pupil Equity Fund allocations for Primary 1 to 3 pupils.
In 2015 the Scottish Government introduced free school meals for all Primary 1 to 3 pupils. The 2014 Healthy Living Survey therefore represents the last dataset fully capturing how many pupils were registered for FSM on income-based criteria before universal entitlement.
We have listened to headteachers and provided certainty to support long term planning to build on the excellent work we know headteachers are doing by setting PEF allocations for the next four years. In response to fluctuating demand brought on by the pandemic, we have increased allocations to £1225 from £1200.
Officials continue to review possible alternatives to Free School Meal data, and a decision on which datasets will be used will be made at the end of that four-year cycle.
- Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many publicly available electric vehicle (EV) charging points have been created in the Galloway and West Dumfries constituency in the last year.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 23 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what additional support and resources can be provided to Police Scotland to tackle domestic abuse, in light of statistics showing that the force receives a domestic abuse-related call on average every nine minutes.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many eligible young people have received a travel card under the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme, and what action it is taking to ensure that applying for the travel card is made accessible to all.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has carried out of the economic impact of removing 700 ScotRail services.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many complaints from (a) passengers and (b) staff were received by ScotRail services between 1 and 30 April 2022, broken down by the reason for the complaint.
Answer
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.
Complaint Categories | Period 1 2022-23 |
Staff | 272 |
Policy And Product | 206 |
Train Service Performance | 152 |
1st Class | 85 |
Promotions | 77 |
Capacity | 62 |
Environment | 57 |
Ticket Buying Facilities | 44 |
Safety & Security | 36 |
Station Facilities | 29 |
Information Provision | 28 |
Timetable | 25 |
Customer Provisions | 17 |
Assisted Travel | 15 |
Cycles | 13 |
Rail Replacement | 11 |
Smartcard | 10 |
Contact Centre | 3 |
Double Debit | 2 |
Total | 1,144 |
- Asked by: Rona Mackay, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2022
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Current Status:
Initiated by the Scottish Government.
Answered by Keith Brown on 23 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide an update on the progress of implementation of recommendations from Dame Elish Angiolini’s report of the Independent Review of Complaints Handling, Investigations and Misconduct Issues in Relation to Policing.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Jenni Minto, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2022
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Current Status:
Initiated by the Scottish Government.
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 23 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the current global supply chain issues resulting from the conflict in Ukraine, what actions it has taken to strengthen the food security of Scotland.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 23 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many mental health patients from Scotland have been admitted as inpatients to hospitals and other settings in England and Wales in each of the last five years.
Answer
This information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.