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Decisions on bike sharing schemes are a matter for local authorities, and therefore also their responsibility to analyse costs and benefits for their local areas. The Scottish Government is supportive of such schemes that increase active travel and make our towns and cities friendly and safer.

I would encourage local authorities to speak to Forth Environment Link who run the Stirling bike sharing scheme which has received funding from Scottish Government and as part of their grant conditions carry out research into the costs and benefits of the scheme. Both Glasgow and Stirling schemes have been very successful in getting people more active. Edinburgh does not yet have a bike sharing scheme but I understand Councillors are considering the different models.

The Scottish Government has not carried out any research on the impact ride-sharing apps could have on reducing CO2 emissions, reducing surface deterioration on congested roads or better facilitation of public services.

Not all of the information requested is held centrally. The Scottish Government has previously published statistics on Racist Incidents Recorded by the Police in Scotland, with the most recent release covering the reporting year of 2013-14 ( http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubRacistIncidents ).

This publication noted the intention to scope out the possibility of replacing this release with a new and broader product on police recorded hate crime. This would include information on other strands of hate crime recorded by the police, in addition to retaining data on hate incidents with a race element. Scottish Government statisticians have been working with Police Scotland as it develops the data it holds on its existing systems. We anticipate an update on the outcome of this work in the near future, and plans for a new publication. This update will be circulated to users through the ScotStat network ( http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/scotstat ).

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) also publish annual statistics on crimes aggravated by race, religious, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity prejudice ( http://www.copfs.gov.uk/publications/equality-and-diversity ). These figures relate to charges reported to the COPFS and includes information on how those charges were proceeded. Information on the faith group, gender, race or country of origin of the victim is not included. Statistics for 2017-18 will be published on 15 June 2018.

Statistics on the number of people convicted for crimes with an aggravator recorded is available in table 12 of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2016-17 publication. The Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database does not hold information on the faith group, gender, race or country of origin of the victim.

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2018/02/7427

The last published estimate of the cost of obesity in Scotland, by the Scottish Government , was for the Obesity Route Map in 2010. This can be found here http://www.gov.scot/resource/doc/302783/0094795.pdf . It is Appendix 2 in the document.

Subsequently SPICE published updated estimates in 2015. http://www.parliament.scot/ResearchBriefingsAndFactsheets/S4/SB_15-01_Obesity_in_Scotland.pdf

This information is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

The Marine Conservation Society's annual Beachwatch programme surveys beach litter. Its 2017 report identified 0.2% of UK beach litter was medical. That included syringes along with other medical items.

The Scottish Government legislated in the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015 to strengthen the taxi and private hire licensing regime, for example by requiring local authorities to appoint civic licensing standards officers, whose role includes supervising compliance. We expect every company and individual to operate within the existing licensing regime, and for all taxi and private hire car drivers, and vehicles, to be licensed. Anyone acting as an unlicensed driver is committing a criminal offence.

While we recognise the potential benefits to taxi and private hire car companies, and to passengers, in using new technology to access services, safety is always of paramount concern. It is clearly not acceptable for users or drivers to suffer from discrimination or violence. Any driver or passenger who believes they may have been the victim of a criminal offence should report the matter to the police, so that the incident can be investigated.

The Scottish Government policy is clear that it has no intention to charge patients who miss appointments. There can be many reasons why a patient may not attend. For example if there was a family emergency. To put a system in place to charge patients for non-attendance is likely to be highly expensive to operate.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting health boards implement policies to reduce missed appointments such as providing reminder services through text, emails and social media. This will allow reminder services to be tailored for patients who are most likely not to attend.

Our analysis has shown that the reduction in the number of ‘planned’ trains was a direct result of forecast severe weather. The Scottish Government and ScotRail placed an absolute priority on the safety of customers and staff.

More specifically, this means:

* The need to avoid running trains where there was a risk to passenger/staff safety, as the Met Office’s “red warning” for snow had advised, and where there was a risk that a train could end up stranded, because of accumulations of snow and snow drifts.

* Drivers and train crew unable to get to their depots because of ice and snow. In fact, during the period for the Met Office Amber and Red Warnings for snow, the advice consistently given by Police Scotland and the Scottish Government was that people should “Avoid Travel unless absolutely necessary”.

* Before services could resume safely, line proving and in some cases significant snow clearance had to be undertaken. In all cases, services were restored as soon as it was safe to do so.