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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.

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.

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

SPS has a clear zero tolerance approach towards all violence, including sexual assault and staff are trained to recognise and respond to the precursors of violence and manage any incidents when they do occur.

A Cell Sharing Risk Assessment must be conducted before any person in SPS care is allocated to a residential setting. This assessment is used to consider an individual’s suitability to share a cell with others in order to reduce the risk of harm, including interpersonal violence.

The Cell Sharing Risk Assessment is a dynamic process. Records are continually updated in response to changes in circumstance which may impact upon the level of risk presented by an individual. Where any person is identified as presenting a risk to others, then this is recorded and will inform all subsequent management decisions. Any individual who is subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Orderwill also have a dedicated management plan developed and implemented to take into account the conditions applied by the courts.

Violence Reduction meetings take place on a monthly basis across Scottish Prisons to discuss all notable incidents, trends and preventative actions.

CCTV cameras operate within all Scottish prisons to deter violent incidents and assist in any post-incident investigations. Violent incidents are always reported to Police Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-15438 on 18 April 2018. 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 .

We expect Boards to continue to review the reasons why patients do not attend appointments and look for ways to improve their booking practices and clinic times such as running clinics at night or weekends as well as providing reminder services through text, emails and social media. These type of changes can lead to fewer missed appointments as well as providing more efficient and effective services.

Housing support services are commissioned by Health and Social Care Partnerships as they are best placed to determine local needs and priorities and make best use of resources.

We are supporting Integration Authorities to improve outcomes across health and social care. In particular we are providing support for the effective commissioning of new and better models of care.

In 2018-19 an additional £66 million is included in the Local Government settlement allocations to support additional spending by local government on social care.

In recent years the delivery of housing support services have been undergoing changes to the traditional models. For example the increased use of technology enabled care. However, although the service models may change, the level of support should not be diminished.

The Scottish Government recognises the excellent work that Citizens Advice Bureaux do in helping some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. The Scottish Government includes funding to support the most vulnerable people as part of the block grant which we provide to all local authorities as part of the annual local government finance settlement. This provides flexibility to local authorities and it is for each of them to allocate their resources in the way that best meets local needs. Each Bureau is responsible for putting together its own package of funding, including any core funding from the local authority and project funding from other sources. I commend Bureaux for their use of a variety of approaches to identify funding streams, and I encourage Bureaux to continue to work closely with potential funders and Citizens Advice Scotland to develop sustainable plans for the future.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. However the most recent ScotRail figures we have shown that for the four weeks to 3 March 2018, 633,000 passenger journeys took place using Smart.

The Scottish Government is highly supportive of the cruise industry and its continued growth. Cruise Scotland figures for the 2018 season show an estimated 815 vessel calls at member ports delivering an expected 821,000 passengers right across Scotland. Our public bodies, including VisitScotland and Scottish Enterprise, are working with the industry to help sustainable growth in the industry. This includes increased support for cruise tourism in consumer facing communications from VisitScotland plus closer working with Cruise Scotland at a corporate level.

The Scottish Government has also been working with the cruise industry at the strategic, global level. This is in order to highlight the industry success to date and continued potential sustainable growth in order to encourage further private investment, matching the continued Scottish Government spending on marine infrastructure.

In addition the Scottish Government has run three highly successful Cruise seminars bringing Scottish cruise industry representatives, global operators and relevant Scottish policy makers together.

As part of the Glasgow City Region City Deal, Inverclyde Council and Peel Ports are building an expansion of the quayside and delivering a new visitor centre to further expand cruise ship capacity and facilities at Greenock .

The responsibility for the operation management and investment in the Glasgow Subway rests with Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT). The Scottish Government has not undertaken any analysis of the feasibility of expanding the Subway. (The Scottish Government is currently providing SPT with up to £246 million towards its Subway Modernisation programme but this does not involve expanding the Subway system.)