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The Scottish Government recognises the continuing rise in gonorrhoea diagnoses, and we are grateful for the efforts of the dedicated clinicians who continue to work to find and treat affected individuals.

We acknowledge the impact that the pandemic has had on service capacity and levels of routine testing. That is why the upcoming Sexual Health and Blood Borne Strategy, which will be published this Spring, has a strong Covid recovery focus, and why we have invested over £500,000 into development of online STI testing. A pilot of this has begun in NHS Lothian, and we will continue to work with our NHS partners to understand how it may be further expanded.

The independent Scottish Sentencing Council's guideline for sentencing young people took effect from 26 January 2022. The development of a sentencing guideline has 8 stages associated with it. Stage 8 is monitoring and review once a guideline is in force. It is for the Sentencing Council to decide how best to monitor and review the operation of their guidelines. Further information is contained on the Scottish Sentencing Council website. https://www.scottishsentencingcouncil.org.uk/sentencing-guidelines/methodology/stage-8-monitoring-and-review/ .

The roll-out of Webex, the new phone system being used to replace our aging phone system at Holyrood, began for MSPs and their staff in February.  While it is still in the early stages, so far feedback from offices using the new system, has been very positive.  I do appreciate however that a very small number of offices in the initial phase have been rescheduled while a solution which meets their needs can be delivered. 

The research on Women and Girls’ safety on Public Transport Scotland makes 10 recommendations Transport Scotland will continue to work with stakeholders and operators to identify actions in the recommendations and work towards progressing those. As part of this work a Summit is being organised to bring together stakeholders and experts to discuss the recommendations and identify any specific policy actions for Transport Scotland, as well as any actions for operators, police authorities and local authorities.

A number of partner organisations are working to specifically challenging men’s behaviour through a number of education and training programmes. Transport Scotland continue to support other policy areas on the systemic issue of gender based violence. The outcomes of this research have been shared with colleagues in the Scottish Government Violence Against Women and Girls Team who are working to deliver the Government’s Equally Safe Strategy.

As the member will know, rail accessibility is reserved to the UK Government. However, Transport Scotland continues to develop opportunities, where possible, to deliver accessibility improvements within larger projects, such as at Carstairs, and additionally at Pitlochry, Aviemore, Kingussie and Nairn stations.

A list of railway stations in Scotland, including accessibility categorisation, is available on the ScotRail website. https://www.scotrail.co.uk/sites/default/files/assets/download_ct/20221123/vW4AP--fp0CW1OEJTomvU8Old-7vG-_dxpytivxd8kA/in429_atp_station-accessibility_info_april_2022.v5.pdf

Since ScotRail’s publication of this information, Croy and Johnstone have been made fully accessible and two new fully accessible stations were opened at Reston and Inverness Airport. Of the 361 Scottish Stations, 181 have step free access to one platform and 42 have no step free access.

The Scottish Government regrets any instance in which the statutory 20 working day deadline for responding to information requests is not met. It remains committed to its obligations under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act to ensure openness and transparency. The Scottish Government is working at pace to deliver the actions in its FOI Improvement Plan, including the target agreed with the Scottish Information Commissioner of answering 95% of requests on time.

The Scottish Government has received and responded to a large number of requests relating to the topics the Member highlights. The figure quoted by the Member relates to the number of such requests which remained outstanding in August 2022. Considerable progress in responding to outstanding requests has been made since that time.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

As the Deposit Return Scheme regulator, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency is required to publish a list of all producers registered with the scheme before the scheme launches in August.

This list will be searchable by producer name, business address, date registered, registration number, and brand information in cases where the producer does not use their name and address on their packaging.

Part 4, section 122 (4) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, gives Scottish Ministers a power to approve a tenancy deposit scheme and obliges Ministers to review each scheme from time to time and gives them power, once they have done so, to ensure that any scheme is revised.

A review of the tenancy deposit schemes was undertaken at the end of 2018. The review examined whether the introduction of the tenancy deposit scheme (TDS) resolved the issues it was intended to and considered whether the TDS worked well for both tenants and landlords. It also assessed whether the current regulations were fair and fit for purpose. It was clear from the findings that the current regulations continued to provide a robust regulatory and operational framework.

Following the review a number of revisions to the operating procedures were made under The Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2019 and the scheme submitted revised procedures in October 2019 which were reapproved in November 2019.

The Scottish Government regularly monitors the operation of the schemes, but there are no current plans to undertake a full review of approved schemes at present.

Regular monitoring of the schemes highlighted the previously unforeseen issue of unclaimed deposits. As part of A New Deal for Tenants - draft strategy: consultation Ministers sought views on reinvesting unclaimed deposits in the private rented sector after a period of 5 years has elapsed and where all other reasonable efforts to reunite the tenant with their deposit has been exhausted.

We published the independent analysis of the consultation responses on 23 August and we are currently considering those views as we take forward this important work.

This data is not held by the Scottish Government.

The role of the Scottish Government, since the three approved schemes began operating in July 2012, is to monitor each scheme for compliance. This includes being satisfied that the tenancy deposit schemes have clear and substantial processes in place that meet the requirements laid out in the regulations.

Scottish Government officials met with (i) Chair Ian Potter and Managing Director Nick Hankey of Safe Deposits Scotland on 3 February 2023,(ii) Managing Director, Matt Trevett and Daren King, Head of Tenancy Deposit Protection of Letting Protection Scotland on 9 March 2023 and (iii) Eddie Hooker - CEOof My Deposit Scotland on 27 February 2023.

Plans for next 6 monthly review meeting are still to be set.