- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of cases handled by the Aberdeen office of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) resulted in a conviction in each of the last five years.
Answer
In the last 5 years, almost 100,000 charges have been reported to the Aberdeen Office of COPFS.
COPFS uses a live, operational database to manage the processing of reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies throughout Scotland. It is designed to meet business needs in the processing of criminal cases, rather than for statistical analysis. Any data sought in the requested period would encompass convictions for cases reported out with that period. As such, any figures would not accurately reflect numbers of convictions in respect of the cases reported in that period.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of cases handled by the Aberdeen office of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in the last year involved alleged offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
Answer
The following table shows percentage of cases reported to the Aberdeen Procurator Fiscal’s Office containing one or more charge under - Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
Criminal cases reported to COPFS Aberdeen Procurator Fiscal office during the financial year 2023-24 |
| | |
| 2023-24 | |
Percentage of cases reported which contained one or more charge under - Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 | 7% | |
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to inform the public about the change by SEPA to the 24-hour contact system, including how environmental incidents can be reported.
Answer
There is no change to how the public contact SEPA’s 24-7 service. The public are still able to use the same telephone number or online contact form to report incidents.
SEPA’s external website provides clear information on how to contact SEPA and report an incident Contact us | Beta | SEPA | Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much was spent on investigating the creation of a Scottish public energy company.
Answer
The Scottish Government have previously published in an FOI response that £519,842.13 inc VAT was spent on investigating the creation of a Scottish public energy company. This information is available in detail at Public money spent on state run energy company: FOI release - gov.scot.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many mobile community pharmacies there are in the NHS (a) Highland, (b) Grampian, (c) Orkney, (d) Shetland and (e) Western Isles area.
Answer
There are no mobile community pharmacies providing NHS Pharmaceutical Services in any part of Scotland. There are 1248 community pharmacies with fixed locations across the country.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to improve flood risk communication and awareness through enhanced data visualisation tools.
Answer
SEPA is responsible for producing national flood risk maps and operating Scotland’s flood warning system. Both actions are important to communicate flood risk and rely heavily on the use of data and presenting it for greatest impact; both in terms of knowing which places are at risk of flooding and what is the immediate risk during unsettled weather. SEPA keep these processes under review through engagement with stakeholders and customers and are committed to continuous improvement. Recent improvements include work on the Scottish Flood Forecast to deliver a mobile-friendly overview of the flood risk for the next 3 days, an upgraded Floodline messaging system, and improved and more accessible real time water levels webpage.
Improving flood resilience through use of data is a key strand of work from the Flood Resilience Strategy.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what resources are being allocated to SEPA’s flood forecasting and warning services.
Answer
The draft Scottish budget indicates a £52.6m grant in aid allocation to SEPA for 2025-26 and SEPA may determine how to allocate those resources, setting this out in an Annual Operating Plan each year.
The recent budget includes an additional £15m to support the improvement of flood resilience across Scotland.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many medical negligence claims have been settled by the NHS in the last five years, and how many cases are still to be concluded.
Answer
The information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained from Health Boards.
The Annual Reports for the NHS Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme (CNORIS) provide details of the scheme along with the number and value of claims made during each financial year and historical values.
The Annual Reports, which also cover information available in terms of categorisation of claims, are published online at Access annual reports for the scheme | National Services Scotland.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported figures stating that more than £4 million has been spent dealing with infestations of rats, mice, maggots and cockroaches in hospitals and medical facilities, including more than £2 million by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Answer
Spending money on pest control is a necessary part of maintaining any estate, especially one as large as the NHS which is almost the size of the city of Stirling at 1,572 hectares in size.
It would also be useful to note that the figure quoted, £4 million, relates to spend over a six year period.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider including off-site based escapes in its monitoring framework for salmon farms, including escapes from transport crafts.
Answer
It is not currently a legal requirement under the Aquatic Animal Health Regulations (Scotland) 2009 as amended for farmed fish transporters to report farmed fish escapes, however we are considering the issue of reporting and transparency further.