Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04086 on 16 November 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Our Equally Safe Strategy sets out Scotland’s ambition to tackle and eradicate all forms of violence against women and we continue to implement this with a clear and decisive focus on primary prevention of violence.

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC chairs the independent Working Group on Misogyny and Criminal Justice which is considering how the Scottish criminal justice system can better deal with misogyny and the harassment of women in public spaces. The Chair has confirmed that the Working Group’s report will be published in February 2022 and we will act swiftly to consider its recommendations.

On 4 November I chaired an urgent roundtable with representatives from the night time economy, health, education and third sectors to discuss spiking and interventions required to tackle violence against women. We are now considering the themes arising from these discussions with an ambition to agree upon robust reporting pathways, safeguarding interventions and long-term preventative measures that can be taken to address the issue of male violence against women.

The Scottish Government does not hold the requested data as the franchise agreement does not obligate the franchisee to provide this information.

The member may wish to contact ScotRail for the requested information.

Performance information for ScotRail is available on-line, at the Office of Road and Rail (ORR) Data Portal (Table 3.18). An on-line link to this table can be found via:

http://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/displayreport/report/html/5b6fbf8a-7fab-469e-9855-6c6cb4ff67dc

It includes ScotRail’s Public Performance Measure (PPM) information by operating sector and overall, on both a by-period and a moving-annual-average basis.

Also, ScotRail publishes quite detailed information for each four week period on by-station and by-sector PPM. This information is published at stations, and is also available on-line, via: https://www.scotrail.co.uk/performance-and-reliability

As part of delivering the Neurological Care and Support – a National Framework for Action and meeting the National Health and Well-being Outcomes, we are working closely with health and social care services to contribute in reducing health inequalities. We will continue this work over the course of the Framework, ensuring the necessary resource is directed at addressing the underlying causes of health inequalities.

We anticipate that resources such as the Scottish Multiple Sclerosis Register will inform this work, through enhancing our understanding of the MS epidemiology and landscape in Scotland, and helping us to identify where we can focus work to further drive up standards of care.

Across the Scottish Government, and with COSLA and Public Health Scotland, work to drive improvement in health and wellbeing at a community level is being progressed. We will do this by developing a framework to support a coherent place-based approach to tackling health inequalities within communities.

The Scottish Government is commissioning an evaluation of the pilot approach to early learning and childcare (ELC) access for children who defer Primary 1. We anticipate that full evaluation findings covering year 1 and 2 pilots will be published in spring 2023, with interim results used to inform the implementation process. In addition, a Deferral Working Group has been established, to identify and share best practice and collect useful feedback throughout the pilot process. Membership of the working group includes all pilot authorities and representatives from all Regional Improvement Collaboratives, to ensure that non-pilot authorities will be included in those conversations. Meeting papers are published on the Scottish Government website.

The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service received a response to 17 of the 18 recommendations (determinations) made by the Sheriff, within 8 weeks of publication of the determination, as per the statutory requirement.

The implementation of any recommendations made by the Sheriff is primarily the responsibility of the respective organisation at which the recommendation was aimed.

In 1 of the 18 determinations, no response was received by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service within the 8 week statutory period. The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service published a notice under Section 28(7) of the 2016 Act to this end.

Any public sector financial/grant support received by CS Wind would have been provided by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). It would therefore be for them to undertake any such review.

As owners of the site Highlands & Islands Enterprise are a listed creditor of CS Wind in the administration process. They are therefore working closely with the administrators rather than the company, CS Wind.

In order to meet our net zero ambitions on Scotland’s Railway, 147 diesel trains, comprising 390 carriages with a capacity of approximately 25,000 seats in total, will be replaced by 2035 by a mix of electric, battery and hydrogen powered fleets.

The total number of vehicles and seats required will depend upon the changed travel behaviour of ScotRail passengers over that period as they respond to the rolling programme of rail investment consistent with the Scottish Rail Decarbonisation Action Plan.

The Fuel Poverty Strategy was laid in Parliament on the 9th November and, as set out in the Programme for Government 2021, will be published by the end of this calendar year.

The public appointments process for the independent statutory Scottish Fuel Poverty Advisory Panel has been progressed and an announcement on the appointment of the Chair and members of the Panel will be made shortly.