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The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service utilises the Home Office Incident Recording System (IRS) to capture incident data.

Whilst there is currently no specific category to record incidents caused by lithium-ion batteries, this information can be recorded as “further information” and data can be collected and analysed via keyword search.

Work is ongoing to update the IRS to include more categories to reflect current and future needs in statistical recording and reporting.

While product safety policy remains reserved, the Scottish Government fully recognises the harm that the misuse of lithium-ion batteries can bring to those using electric micro-mobility vehicles.

I met recently with Electrical Safety First and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to discuss the danger that these batteries can cause.

Raising awareness of the risks associated with lithium-ion batteries is particularly important as e-bikes become more popular. The Scottish Government strongly urges consumers to only buy products from reputable retailers that they know and trust.

It is currently illegal in Scotland to use an e-scooter unless on private property.

The Verity House Agreement will better enable local and national government to work together to achieve better outcomes for people and communities across Scotland. The Scottish Government will continue to work in partnership with COSLA to agree a more detailed programme of work, a fiscal framework, and an accountabilities and monitoring framework, to underpin the Verity House Agreement in the coming months.

Decisions on future local government finance settlements will be the subject of negotiations with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities and will be announced as part of the outcome of future Scottish Budgets.

The Scottish Government places great importance on community sports and leisure facilities, such as swimming pools. They are crucial to the wellbeing of all our country and most importantly, for our children and young people to be healthy and active.

We are fully aware that local authorities are facing challenging financial circumstances, particularly in the maintenance and operating of facilities such as swimming pools, largely due to energy costs and other cost of living pressures.

The 2023-24 Local Government settlement of £13.5 billion provides a cash increase in day to day spending of over £793 million, a real terms increase of £376 million. As confirmed this week in the Autumn Budget Revision, all consequentials available from the UK Spring Budget have now been allocated, with the Local Government Settlement increasing by £264 million accordingly.

sportscotland are working with local and national partners to help them assess the impact of any potential facility closures and these discussions will continue over the coming weeks and months. It is vital that all avenues are explored to ensure, where possible, that local clubs and communities have access to sport and leisure facilities.

In addition, sportscotland are supporting Scottish Swimming to undertake the Scottish Swimming Facilities Project. This is a detailed piece of work to accurately understand the current pool provision and life cycle, and to predict the landscape in the short, medium, and long term.

We understand that access to facilities is necessary for a range of sporting activities. That’s why our Programme for Government for 2023 to 2024 sets out our intention to convene a working group, including representatives of sports organisations, community organisations and CoSLA, to explore how community access to community facilities, such as the school estate, can be enhanced. This will be a priority action in our refreshed Active Scotland Delivery Plan.

It is inappropriate to comment on live proceedings or speculate on any possible outcomes and how they will be managed. The Scottish Government’s response to any challenges to Scotland’s Low Emission Zones will be considered on a case by case basis.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with justice partners to ensure effective implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 (‘the Act'); we are working together towards a 1 April 2024 commencement date. This is to provide enough time to allow justice partners to complete a number of key IT change programmes and for the delivery of a robust package of training and guidance for police officers prior to commencement.

Our recently published Hate Crime Strategy for Scotland makes a number of commitments including ensuring improved support for victims, improving data and evidence and developing effective approaches to prevention. It will also support the implementation of the Act. A delivery plan, setting out our immediate and longer term activity, will be published later this year.

In Scotland, we have some instances where test results are available for patients already, including for those remote managing a condition through My Diabetes My Way and Patients Know Best (Renal). Learning from these digital tools will inform the development of the Digital Front Door for Scotland. The Digital Front Door is not currently a live service but will provide people with the ability to access, view and monitor their own information including medical records and test results over time. We expect the Digital Front Door to be available by the end of this parliamentary term.

Resource planning assumptions are only one element of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme budget. Expenditure within a financial year will not correlate directly with approvals, starts and completions as, for example, some projects can span more than one financial year.

The Scottish Government regularly publishes financial information at Autumn and Spring Budget revisions, Provisional Outturn, Final Outturn and Final Accounts. As previously advised in the answer to question S6W-21015 on 20 September 2023, when annual financial year expenditure is concluded and finalised we publish an Affordable Housing Supply Programme annual out-turn report. This reports actual spend compared to original resource planning assumptions alongside wider programme performance information.

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 .

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is responsible for protecting Scotland’s water environment.

On Monday 11 September, SEPA responded to reports it received of large dead fish along a section of the River Spey. SEPA has conducted a range of additional water quality and ecology monitoring of the River Spey along with investigating local regulated activities. However, no water quality issues have been identified, no impact on other aquatic species and smaller fish has been observed, and the cause of the incident has not yet been identified. This would not be expected from a major pollution incident where there would be mortalities in all aquatic species and fish populations.

A multi-agency group has met in response to the incident to consider all potential causes of the incident. SEPA is continuing to work closely with partners, including the Fish Health Inspectorate who lead on fish mortalities. The group is assessing all reports in an effort to identify any possible factors responsible for the fish mortalities.

NHS Grampian and Moray Council are also part of the group providing support on human health aspects. Members of the public who feel acutely unwell after being in contact with the river are being advised to seek medical advice.

We take reports of this kind very seriously and encourage anyone who finds dead fish on or near any watercourse to contact SEPA via our Pollution Hotline 0800 80 70 60 or online at www.sepa.org.uk/report .

(a) Data provided by National Records of Scotland confirms that there have been three deaths in Scotland since 2010 where the underlying cause of death is being ‘bitten or struck by dog’.

(b) The information requested on the number of non-fatal dog attacks on humans is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. However the following table provided by Public Health Scotland shows the number of inpatient and day case admissions to hospital where a diagnosis of dog attack (bite or strike) was recorded, from 2010 to 2022, in Scotland.