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The regulation of consumer protection, including the work of Trading Standards Scotland, is reserved to the UK Government.

Trading Standards Scotland (TSS) is an intelligence-led organisation that investigates consumer issues where harm has occurred across local authority boundaries. It has never held the function of providing advice directly to consumers.

Anyone seeking help with a consumer issue should contact Advice Direct Scotland at www.consumeradvice.scot or on 0808 164 6000.

Dental registration statistics, including the percentage of children who are registered with a NHS dentist in the Dumfries and Galloway area, are published by Public Health Scotland and can be viewed online at Dental statistics - NHS registration and participation 24 January 2023 - Dental statistics - registration and participation - Publications - Public Health Scotland .

NHS Dumfries and Galloway have appointed a Task Force to improve access to dental services in the area. Their work includes promoting Scottish Government funding, including the Scottish Dental Access Initiative grant and the Recruitment and Retention allowance, of which both incentives are available throughout the whole Board area.

On 27 July I wrote to the dental sector with a new suite of fees incentivising a full range of NHS care and treatment. The new model reduces bureaucracy, provides greater clinical freedom to NHS dental teams and reflects modern dentistry. The intention behind these payment reform measures is to better incentivise dentists to provide NHS dental care, thereby sustaining and increasing NHS dental access as we move forward.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of contract inflation claims made by house builders and contractors. This contractual information is held between grant recipient and house builders and/or contractors.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway does offer adult ADHD diagnostic assessments, but I do appreciate however that there is a growing demand from people seeking referrals from their GP.

We are committed to improving access to ADHD diagnosis in Scotland and are engaged in ongoing work with the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) to develop a single diagnostic adult neurodevelopmental pathway for ADHD and autism and to action the recommendations in their report, commissioned by the Scottish Government, and published earlier this year. The report can be found HERE .

We have provided funding for NAIT to work with Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) to assist them to develop local action plans.

Transport Scotland is undertaking a National Speed Management Review to support a range of policies that help our Government’s national outcomes and indicators. These include related policy drivers such as better road safety and health outcomes, promotion of active travel, climate change mitigation, place making and economic growth.

The review covers comprehensive analysis of all types of speed management policies and initiatives in Scotland as well as a review of what has been introduced in other countries throughout the world.

The process will also include a stakeholder and public consultation later this year to consider their views of whether any changes to speed limit policies, including HGV speed limits and speed management measures should be introduced as part of our speed management plan.

It is not appropriate for Scottish Government to be involved in contractual decisions or discussions between grant applicants and firms constructing the homes. Any inflationary claims from construction firms should be submitted to their client whose role it is to assess such claims. It is for the client to decide if they want to support a claim.

No penalties have been paid by Cunninghame Housing Association in relation to the delayed handover of the 60 social rented properties at Windermere Park Annan.

To date, Cunninghame Housing Association has received a total of £5,066,374.16 for the project at Windermere Park Annan.

Vehicle standards remain a reserved matter for the UK Government.

Electric vehicles (EV) have come under scrutiny in regards to the lack of noise emission at lower speeds. Although when driving above 20 mph the road noise from tyres and wind mean that EV noise to pedestrians is virtually identical to petrol/diesel vehicles, but they are far quieter in operation at low speeds than traditional vehicles.

The UK Transport Research Laboratory published a research paper regarding whether adding in additional noise at low speeds for EV’s would be a positive move. Within the research paper it was noted that the audibility of EVs presents a very small risk to pedestrians specifically those who are vision-impaired. More specifically when in urban environments where tyre/ road noise is potentially masked by general background noise.

However ‘added sound’ to improve the audibility of EVs needs to be given careful consideration. There is many factors to take into consideration such as environment, speed and background noise which can all mask the audibility of the vehicle. This makes moves to impose minimum noise limits on vehicles challenging.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested, as responsibility for managing Police Scotland’s call handling system, including for non-emergency 101 calls, rests with the Chief Constable.

Police Scotland publish performance data, including for the non-emergency 101 service, on their website at Call Handling Reports 2023 - Police Scotland . The average wait time for non-emergency 101 calls in the last 6 months is below.

Police Scotland has advised that when there is a surge in 999 calls they will re-prioritise Advisors from non-emergency (101) calls and emails as they aim to answer 999 calls under 10 seconds. Therefore there is a direct link between increase in 999 volumes and the average speed of answer for 101 non-emergency calls performance. As shown below, the months where there has been a notable increase in Police Scotland’s average answer times for 101 is as a direct consequence of aiming to achieve an average speed of answer of under 10 seconds for 999 calls. The average speed of answer for 999 calls for the same period is also below.

There has been a significant change in the contact volume profile (999, 101, Other Emergency Service calls and Contactus E-Mails) being experienced by the Police Scotland Service Centre following the Covid-19 pandemic. This includes sustained annual growth in 999 call volumes which have risen by 34% since 2018. This year there has been an increase of 18% in January to June when compared to 2022; with May and June increases of 25% and 37% respectively in 999 calls compared with the same month the previous year.

101 average speed of answer – Jan to July 2023