Seòmar agus comataidhean

Cabinet Secretary/ Minister

Correspondence Received between 1 May and 31 August 2016 Total added to MACCS Reply not yet issued (%) Interim Reply – no final reply issued (%) Interim Reply – Final reply issued (%)

First Minister	2439	23.0	0.4	1.0
DFM and Education and Skills	674	26.7	3.3	1.2
Finance and Constitution	129	45.7	1.5	1.5
Economy, Jobs and Fair Work	266	29.7	0.4	1.9
Rural Economy and Connectivity	351	39.6	1.1	2.3
Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform	326	28.5	0.3	1.5
Health and Sport	879	23.0	0.1	1.9
Justice	298	34.6	0.3	2.3
Culture, Tourism and External Affairs	264	31.4	0.4	0.7
Communities, Social Security and Equalities	294	20.7	0.3	0.3
Childcare and Early Years	99	31.0	2.0	1.0
Further and Higher Education and Science	81	27.1	0.0	2.5
Parliamentary Business	61	8.2	0.0	1.6
Business Innovation and Energy	196	47.4	0.5	1.5
Employability and Training	89	28.4	0.0	1.1
Transport and Islands	611	19.9	0.0	0.8
Mental Health	121	28.1	0.0	0.8
Public Health and Sport	179	35.8	0.0	2.5
Community Safety and Legal Affairs	33	39.4	3.0	0.0
International Development and Europe	90	20.0	0.0	0.0
Local Government and Housing	272	29.0	0.0	1.1
Social Security	34	64.7	0.0	2.9
Scottish Ministers (general)	1723	12.5	0.3	0.6
All	9509	24.2	0.6	1.1

The Scottish Government does not hold this information, but statistics on the provision of appropriate adults broken down by local authority area can be found on the Scottish Appropriate Adult Network website. This information covers the years 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15. http://www.scottishappropriateadultnetwork.co.uk/reports-statistics#

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. It is a matter for local authorities.

During the passage of the Criminal Justice Bill (now Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016), evidence was provided by the Scottish Appropriate Adult Network (SAAN), Police Scotland and others on the current operation of appropriate adult services in Scotland.

In response to the evidence presented, the Scottish Government committed to continue working with the local authorities, Police Scotland and other interested parties to take the necessary steps to put in place a sustainable model for the long-term delivery of appropriate adult services in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is engaging extensively with relevant stakeholders, including SAAN and Police Scotland, to develop such a model. Given the differing arrangements for the delivery of appropriate adult services across the local authorities, this includes ongoing work to ascertain accurate costs for the provision of the current service.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

The National Tobacco Strategy Work stream has recommended that all Scottish prisons should be smoke-free within a timescale of up to five years.

The smoke-free policy will be comprehensive i.e. smoking will not be permitted indoors or outdoors in Scottish prisons.

SPS will be working closely with NHS Health boards and Scottish Government as well as other partner agencies to develop comprehensive plans in preparation for the change.

Smoking cessation services in prisons are delivered by NHS Health boards. NHS boards do not currently have plans in place for implementation of smoke-free prisons. They will be key stakeholders in the partnership approach with Scottish Government and SPS. Health boards will need sufficient time to model demands on cessation services and required resources (e.g. skilled smoking cessation staff and pharmacotherapy), agree budgets, and put funding in place to expand the service to meet demand.

Implementation of smoke-free prisons will be supported and monitored by a large scale study, which will play a vital role in helping SPS and NHS boards prepare to make changes.

A decision has still to be made on whether e-cigarettes will be allowed. This is being considered by a working group, which includes NHS specialists and leading academics from Scottish universities, to support an informed decision on e-cigarettes.

The decision to deploy Taser conductive energy devices at railway stations in Scotland was an operational policing decision for the British Transport Police Chief Constable. Ministers have been briefed on the changes, which are intended to strengthen security at major stations, but are not in response to any specific threat.

The Scottish Government has not made any formal assessment of the impact of the vicarious liability provisions in the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011. There have been two successful prosecutions under these provisions so far. It is likely that the provisions will have had a positive effect as landowners and their agents have put in place arrangements to ensure that their staff and contractors have appropriate training, and understand and comply with the law in this area.

The Programme for government announced on 6 September 2016 confirmed that the Scottish Government will take forward the implementation of the recommendations of the Wildlife Crime Penalties Review Group as set out in the Scottish Government response: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0049/00494565.pdf

Some of these recommendations will require primary legislation and we are in the process of identifying a legislative vehicle. Relevant discussions are also taking place with other parties.

The Scottish Government review of data relating to satellite-tagged birds of prey is expected in Spring 2017.

This will involve a substantial amount of statistical analysis which will examine information from over 200 tagged golden and white-tailed eagles, hen harriers, red kites and ospreys. Once completed, the results of the analysis will provide us with a far greater insight into where these birds are going missing, and that will help to inform future action.

If fuel prices had only increased in line with inflation since 2002, the fuel poverty rate in Scotland would have been 9.5 per cent in 2014, instead of 35 per cent.

Other factors such as an increased ageing population or those with limiting long term illnesses, which require a higher heating regime under the fuel poverty definition, are also contributing to higher reported fuel poverty rates. Conversely, improvements in the energy efficiency in the housing stock and increases in average household incomes since 2002 are contributing to lower fuel poverty rates. Changes in the technical energy modelling, used to derive fuel poverty, also impact on the estimates.

As a fuel poverty rate of 9.5 per cent is lower than the 13 per cent reported in 2002, the net effect of all other factors combined over the period from 2002 to 2014 was a small decrease in the fuel poverty rate. On this basis, we can attribute all of the increase in fuel poverty rates since the introduction of the fuel poverty target in 2002 to above-inflation energy prices.