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In January 2016 the Scottish Government announced £24 million for the design and construction of a new grade-separated junction at Laurencekirk as part of a package of additional capital investment alongside the Aberdeen City Region Deal. This additional investment will be used to design, promote and deliver the Laurencekirk Junction Improvement scheme.

The development of the project in 2017-18 forms part of the Motorways and Trunk Roads Capital Land and Works budget of £425.6 million presented within the Scottish Budget 2017-18.

The lateness of ScotRail services is measured using the industry standard of the Public-Performance-Measure (PPM). In the year to mid-August 2017 (period 5), 87.7 percent of trains arrived at Aberdeen within the 5 minutes allowed under the PPM measure. More information on ScotRail’s performance can be found at this weblink:

https://www.scotrail.co.uk/performance-and-reliability

A Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) was released in November 2016. The PIP itself now contains 443 plans, of which 267 have been completed. These plans cover actions across fleet, operations and infrastructure. When the Plan was implemented, ScotRail’s overall performance (moving annual average) was recorded at 89.6%; it has now improved by 1.6%, and currently sits at 91.2% (12 months ended 16^th September 2017). This demonstrates clear evidence the Performance Improvement Plan is working and its contribution to lifting performance should be acknowledged.

The number of trains that have arrived late to their final destination on the Edinburgh-Aberdeen route since 1 April 2016, has been reported as the answer to the question S5W-10939 on 19 September 2017. However, the Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of these services which ran late as a result of a delay at Usan as stated in the answer to question S5W-10940 on 12 September 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 £2m average speed camera system on the 51.5 mile stretch of the A90 between Dundee and Stonehaven is being introduced to make the road safer for everyone travelling along the route.

More than three in every five vehicles speed on the route, with more than one in five exceeding the speed limit by over 10mph.

This system, funded from a combination of existing Transport Scotland budgets and grant funding associated with the Scottish Safety Camera Programme, will encourage better speed limit compliance. This is expected to result in less people being killed or seriously injured, fewer camera detections and ultimately fewer fines for drivers while at the same time improving journey time reliability by reducing the frequency and impact of road incidents.

Further information regarding average speed cameras on the A90 is available at: http://a90road.info/

No.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of services on the Edinburgh to Aberdeen route, which were held for one minute or more at the single track section at Usan.

The Scottish Government (SG) is committed to supporting prisoners to secure appropriate housing on release, and to addressing homelessness amongst prisoners and their families. All prisoners who are assessed by local authorities as unintentionally homeless upon liberation are entitled to settled accommodation as a legal right. A wide range of activity to prevent homelessness amongst offenders upon liberation continues to progress across Scotland, with the involvement of local authorities and the Housing Options Hubs.

The SG and the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), together with national housing organisations and other stakeholders, are supporting on-going work to develop a consistent and shared approach to housing provision for prisoners across the country, focussing on the coordination and planning of offenders’ housing needs while in custody and on liberation.

SPS staff ascertain each individual’s immediate housing circumstances within 72 hours of entry to prison as part of the core screening process, and make appropriate referrals as necessary to address specific issues.

Links Centres within prisons provide facilities for external organisations such as Job Centre Plus, housing officers, Citizens Advice Bureau and Welfare Rights officials, to offer prisoners access to a range of services that they may require, both during their sentence, and as part of pre-release planning. The Department for Work and Pensions place Job Centre Plus staff in all prisons to assist with access to employment and benefits.

Furthermore, individuals completing sentences under 4 years are offered one-to-one help to support their reintegration back to the community, by the SPS’ Throughcare Support Officers (TSO), and by third sector offender mentoring services

The SPS Prisoner Records System (PR2) does not measure or report on housing or financial difficulties that people in or leaving prison face (although the SPS’ TSO service does record specific data on individuals it supports). The SPS Prisoner Survey is taken every two years, and includes questions about prisoners housing circumstances before and after their sentence. Individuals are also asked if they have accessed services in relation to housing and welfare benefits during their sentence.

The Scottish Government does not hold separate information for offenders as a specific group. Offenders who are not in prison would engage with housing, welfare and benefits services as members of the general population, and their interactions would not be recorded separately.

The responsibility for provision of healthcare to prisoners, including substance misuse and mental health services, in Scotland was transferred from the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to the National Health Service (NHS) on 1st November 2011. The Scottish Government works with and funds NHS Boards and local authorities to ensure they plan and deliver appropriate local services. It is for local NHS Boards to decide how they ensure that their local population, including prisoners, have the highest quality care and treatment.

The Scottish Government, through its strategies on Justice, Policing and Mental Health, wants to capitalise on the many opportunities to develop and improve actions that promote good mental health for people who come into contact with the justice system as a result of their offending behaviour. The Mental Health Strategy 2017-27, contains 3 Actions to support improving the mental health of offenders and prisoners.

A refreshed literacy and numeracy skills profiler was introduced in partnership with Education Scotland; Scottish Credit Qualifications Framework; Fife College and New College Lanarkshire as a key part of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) New Generation Learning and Skills contract that went live on 1 August 2017. Accordingly, the refresh of the profiler has been designed to improve on standardised initial literacy and numeracy screening across the Scottish prison estate.

Prisoners screened as having literacy and/or numeracy needs receive an individual learning feedback and planning meeting from the SPS learning provider (Fife College) and an offer of a place on a programme of learning to support their needs. SPS Learning Centres in each establishments provide dedicated support for such individuals where required in terms of 1:1 or small group work. The learning centres will also, if required, provide relevant information and/or make referrals to other support services such as the NHS.

The Scottish Government does not hold information for offenders as a specific group. Offenders who are not in prison would engage with public services as members of the general population and their interaction would not be recorded separately.

The delivery of Police Scotland’s contact, command and control function is an operational matter for the Chief Constable with oversight from the Scottish Police Authority. Police Scotland publish performance information on call handling, including information on discontinued calls, on a monthly basis which can be found at http://www.scotland.police.uk/about-us/our-performance/.

The delivery of Police Scotland’s contact, command and control function, including the staffing of Area Control Rooms, is an operational matter for the Chief Constable with oversight from the Scottish Police Authority.