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The Scottish Ambulance Service is required to comply with all relevant road traffic legislation including the need to ensure that its vehicles are mechanically safe.

The Service operates a fleet of over 1,459 vehicles which are maintained through a network of 15 vehicle maintenance facilities across Scotland, as well as a Police Scotland workshop and remote island providers. All vehicles receive an MOT, servicing and safety checks following predetermined schedules reflecting legislative requirements and the most stringent safety inspection regimes as recommended by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency Guide to Maintaining Road Worthiness. Safety checks are carried out on A&E and emergency response vehicles every eight weeks as per industry best practice. Other operational vehicles have safety inspection intervals appropriate to their use.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-05508 on 31 January 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The two Health boards, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and the Scottish Ambulance Service, agreed robust operational protocols for the revised configuration of services and, as we would expect, keep these under review to ensure that they continue to operate effectively.

Additional planning for this winter included the introduction of Hospital Ambulance Liaison Officers, who work on-site with the hospital teams to develop and implement processes which improve patient flow. This, in turn, should improve both Patient Transport Service performance and hospital turnaround times for A&E Departments.

We would expect all ambulances be fully equipped to provide safe, effective and high quality care to patients. The information requested is not held centrally as this is an operational matter for the Scottish Ambulance Service.

The Scottish Ambulance Service's budget for each year since 2007 is provided in the following table.

The decision on how this funding is then allocated to each regional operational division is an operational matter for the Scottish Ambulance Service and the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The Scottish Ambulance Service has a process in place in which all ambulance staff are expected to complete a Vehicle and Equipment Check sheet before the start of their shift. This would include ensuring their kit bag is fully equipped. The Service is currently running a pilot in Edinburgh whereby the first 15 minutes of each shift would be used to ensure the Vehicle and Equipment Check sheet is completed fully.

We would expect all ambulance staff to carry out stock checks of their vehicles at the start of every shift as part of the Scottish Ambulance Service's standard procedure to check the maintenance of vehicles before responding to patients.

The information requested is not held centrally. I would advise the member to contact the Scottish Ambulance Service directly.