Seòmar agus comataidhean

The law criminalises the possession of knives in public places where no reasonable excuse or lawful authority exists by the person in possession. There are also similar offences relating to the possession of knives in schools and in prisons. In 2016, the maximum penalties for these offences were increased from four years in custody to five years in custody.

While the Scottish Government always keeps criminal laws under review, there are no current plans to make changes to these specific offences.

Between 2006-07 and 2016-17, the number of police recorded crimes of handling an offensive weapon fell by 68%.

But, we want to see further reductions to this unacceptable behaviour and are taking forward further actions. Alongside tough enforcement, our approach to knife crime is very firmly focused on prevention. We have already invested more than £14 million in violence prevention since 2006-07, including support for the national Violence Reduction Unit and Medics Against Violence, who work to develop and deliver various violence prevention initiatives including the accelerated delivery of the Mentors in Violence Prevention programme which is now being delivered in schools across Scotland.

We also continue to invest in our No Knives Better Lives youth engagement programme which specifically aims to reduce the incidence of violence and knife carrying amongst young people. This is now being delivered in 24 local authorities and is on track to be delivered in all 32 local authority areas this year.

Table 1 shows the overall level of unemployment for West Scotland in each year from Jan-Dec 2008 to Jan-Dec 2017.

Table 1: Unemployment in West Scotland, 2008-2017

The regulation of energy markets for electricity and gas are matters that remain reserved under the Scotland Act (1998). These are therefore matters for which UK Ministers are responsible.

However, Scottish Ministers take great interest in the issue, given our locus on tackling fuel poverty. Clearly, energy bills remain a huge concern for many consumers in Scotland and the steep price rises we have seen across the market, including the six largest suppliers will be worrying for many households. The UK Government has failed to provide a competitive market that puts consumers’ needs and interests at its heart. This is why the Scottish Government has committed – through the Scottish Energy Strategy – to produce an action plan which puts in place actions to engage and protect Scottish energy consumers both today and during the energy transition. Aligned with this, we will also introduce a Fuel Poverty (Target, Definition and Strategy) (Scotland) Bill by summer and publish a Draft Fuel Poverty Strategy alongside it, reconfirming our commitment to taking action to address fuel poverty.

As stated above, the cost of energy is outwith the powers of the Scottish Government, but by ensuring consumers have advice and support on switching to the best offer available, we aim to help them reduce costs. We are working to ensure that Scottish consumers are informed, engaged and empowered as the energy system evolves and that is why in January we reconvened the Scottish Energy Summit to address issues affecting vulnerable Scottish energy users. This builds on our work to promote consumer engagement in the energy market:

• We supported a partnership between Home Energy Scotland and the social enterprise Citrus Energy to promote impartial tariff-switching.
• We backed the launch of Our Power in 2016 with £2.5 million Scottish Government investment and reaffirmed that support with a further investment of £3.5m in 2017. When launched it was the first independent and fully licensed energy supply company registered as a non-profit distributing organisation owned by its members. This ground breaking company is making a real difference to thousands of low income households who are currently disadvantaged in the energy market and struggling to pay their bills
• We ran a pilot to examine how to extend the benefits of competition to vulnerable and disengaged consumers – including offline customers – through face to face advice and support to switch.
• We have committed to introducing financial health checks to address the poverty premium, including helping people switch to the lowest tariffs.
• We continue to engage with Ofgem on the database of disengaged customers and safeguard tariff to ensure Scottish consumers get positive outcomes.

In May 2018 we responded to Energy UK's Commission for Customers in Vulnerable Circumstances and remain committed to working with the Commission to ensure better outcomes for all Scottish energy consumers.

Statements regarding changes in the level of antisocial behaviour are best made using measures of the population’s experience and all the evidence points towards a long term and sustained reduction in levels of antisocial behaviour in Scotland. The Scottish Crime and Justice survey reports that the percentage of adults who think people behave in an antisocial manner in their local area fell from 46% in 2008-09 to 29% by 2016-17, whilst more adults than ever before feel safe walking alone after dark in their local area.

Despite this progress, we remain committed to tackling all forms of antisocial behaviour and recognise that this can blight people’s lives. The Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 provides a wide range of measures for dealing with all forms of antisocial behaviour and our national strategy is based on prevention, early intervention and diversionary activities. The Scottish Government is currently working with a group of local authorities to use their expertise and knowledge to inform, refresh and update all of the guidance documents on tackling antisocial behaviour.

Scotland’s CO ₂ emissions for 2017, along with estimates of other greenhouse gas emissions, are expected to be published in June 2019. The latest available estimates can be found in the official statistics publication Scottish Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2016, available on the Scottish Government website at http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2018/06/6601.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. However, Schedule 1.2 para. 8.3 of the Franchise Agreement requires ScotRail “to use all reasonable endeavours to secure the provision of alternative transport arrangements and passage on such alternative transport arrangements to enable passengers affected by such disruption to complete their intended journeys”.

During times of disruption, ScotRail will also enable ticket acceptance with local and regional bus operators.

The Scottish Government does not have the specific information asked for because it does not hold details of how many complaints ScotRail have received each year since 2008, which pre-dates the current ScotRail franchise which commenced on 1 April 2015.

However, Abellio ScotRail have reported total customer complaints of 28,956 for the 12 months ending 31 March 2018. This compares 26,996 total customer complaints reported for the 12 months ending 31 March 2017. There is no total figure available for the 12 months ending 31 March 2016 as customer services were initially delivered by Serco prior to transferring to Abellio shared services.

The latest ORR complaints rate by Train Operating Company (TOC) graph for 2016-17 shows that, of 22 TOCs measured, ScotRail were ranked the sixth best in terms of complaints per 100,000 journeys. Full details are available at:

http://orr.gov.uk/_data/assets/pdf_file/0006/24927/passenger-rail-service-complaints-2016-17-q4-pdf

The Scottish Government recognises the value of tourism to our many island communities and welcomes initiatives that encourage their sustainable growth. We have noted the proposals for an islands passport put forward by the Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership and we are happy to explore the viability of this with interested bodies.