Seòmar agus comataidhean

The replacement (planned and unplanned) of train services with bus replacement services remains an operational matter for ScotRail. Planned buses replace train services that have been impacted as a result of planned works on Scotland’s railway i.e. planned engineering works. ScotRail advise that 515 buses were booked during April 2022. This figure is particularly high with bus replacement services planned every day in April as a result of the Anderston works.

Unplanned buses replace train services that have been impacted as a result of driver shortages, trespassing onto the tracks, fleet issues, signalling issues, points failures and other track faults. ScotRail advise they were supplied with a total of 143 bus replacement services to cover unplanned train service disruption during April 2022.

The breakdown for each day during April 2022 for unplanned and planned bus replacement is as follows:-

The Scottish Government has continued its work with Public Health Scotland to develop an online platform for members of the public to access information on the average waiting times for a range of specialties within their health board area.

It is expected that the specialities included will be in line with the National Statistics currently published, which can be found here: https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/13252/ipdc_may22.xlsx in Table 2.1.

A date is still to be confirmed for the publication of the online platform so we are unable to provide any further details at this time. We would be happy to provide the member with further updates on progress as these become available.

Since the launch of the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme around 390,000 National Entitlement Cards (NEC) have been issued to young people across Scotland. The scheme aims to embed sustainable travel behaviours, open social, education, employment and leisure opportunities and reduce household outgoings to aid young people and their families, particularly those living in poverty.

71% (approx. 277,000) of cards have been used at least once to access free bus travel. In comparison to 56% of older and disabled cardholders over the same period, more young cardholders are choosing to use free bus when they travel.
‎

62% (approx. 170,000) NECs have been used more than 10 times, and 16% (approx. 61,000) of NECs have been used to make smart journeys on more than ten occasions within at least one week.

149 NECs have been used by young people to make smart journeys on more than ten occasions every week since the scheme launched.

The figures have been produced using the data on number of journeys per National Entitlement Card and come from the secure ITSO messages (alerts from ticket machines when National Entitlement Cards are scanned) that come into Transport Scotland’s reimbursement system, which are used to pay operators.

We know that the cost-of-living crisis is having a huge impact on individuals and families across the country, and we continue to have conversations across the range of challenges faced. We are using our regular engagement with the UK Government to ask that more sustainable support is provided to those in greatest need, given that most of the levers currently remain reserved. Just last week my colleague Ms Forbes raised cost-of-living with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and urged the UK Government to do more to address the root cause of increasing fuel costs. We will continue to press the UK Government to use all of the powers and fiscal headroom at their disposal to address the cost-of-living crisis.

Scotland’s biotechnology sector is developing at a remarkable rate. In fact, last year the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre reported that we were on track to meet the targets in the 2019 National Plan for Industrial Biotechnology ahead of 2025.

As such, the final refresh of the National Plan, launched on 6 June 2022, increased the 2025 targets even further to: over 220 active companies, increasing associated turnover to £1.2 billion and over 4,000 direct employees in Industrial Biotechnology in Scotland.

The sector, and its strength, is also recognised in our National Strategy for Economic Transformation as a current and future key industry for Scotland, that will contribute to us delivering our Net Zero targets by 2045.

All valid paper returns from Scotland’s Census 2022 will be scanned in full and digital images created. In addition, digital data from responses for all scanned census returns, including online or paper, will be produced and retained.

Original paper questionnaires will be securely destroyed only after all data files for both digital data and high quality scanned image files have been produced and safely transmitted for storage.

The Scottish Government is a key partner in the Save a Life for Scotland Partnership. The delivery of the Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy 2021 – 2026 is facilitated and overseen by two groups; the Strategy Delivery Group and the Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Reference Group.

The Scottish Government attended the most recent meeting of the Strategy Delivery Group on 7 April 2022.

The most recent meeting of the Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Reference group, also attended by Scottish Government, took place on 27 April 2022.

Scottish Government also took part in a Save a Life for Scotland partner’s meeting on 18 May 2022.

High quality scanned image files for all paper census returns will be retained by National Records of Scotland (NRS) and stored in a permanent archive for historical research purposes in future.

Census information is kept secure and confidential for 100 years.

Scanning of paper questionnaires for Scotland’s Census 2022 is in line with the 2011 census and the 2021 census in England Wales.

Full information on the coding and data processing methods employed on Scotland’s Census 2022 is published on the NRS website. Comparisons to 2011 and the 2021 census in England and Wales are made where appropriate.

Statistical methodology | Scotland's Census (scotlandscensus.gov.uk)