- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment has been carried out through the National Improvement Framework regarding the allocation of money from pupil equity funding to Police Scotland for police officers in schools.
Answer
This information does not fall within the scope of data gathered through the National Improvement Framework. The 11 key NIF measures assess progress towards closing the attainment gap using indicators from pre-school to school leavers. These are supplemented by 15 sub-measures that reflect the key stages of the learner journey and the breadth of issues that can impact on attainment. Together these provide a wide range of measures covering school leaver attainment and literacy and numeracy but also other, broader, measures such as health and wellbeing, school attendance rates and school leaver destinations.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the £80 fixed penalty fine for the offence of littering.
Answer
The Scottish Government recently consulted on proposals for our new National Litter and Flytipping Strategy, including measures to strengthen enforcement measures.
The Scottish Government aims to deliver a strong and consistent enforcement model across Scotland that is fit for purpose, promotes positive behaviours and acts as a proportionate deterrent and effectively stops people from littering and flytipping.
We will publish the final Strategy later this year, taking account of consultation responses.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many fixed penalties for the offence of littering have been issued in each year since 2007, and how many of these have been paid.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of fixed penalties issued for the offence of littering, nor information on how many of these have been paid.
This detailed information can be obtained by contacting individual issuing authorities. Authorised officers from Local Authorities, Police Scotland and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park can issue Fixed Penalty Notices for the offence of littering.
- Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is the case that Confucius Classroom Hubs in Scottish schools received funding from (a) the Scottish Government and (b) the Chinese Government in 2021-22, and, if this is the case, how much was received from each body.
Answer
Confucius Classroom Hubs do not receive funding directly from the Scottish Government or the Chinese Government. Hubs in local authority schools are funded by the Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools (CISS) via local authorities. Specialist classrooms (such as at Edinburgh Zoo), and Jordanhill School receive their funding directly from CISS.
In 2021-22, the Scottish Government provided CISS with a grant of £490,573. CISS publishes a joint annual report with Scotland’s Centre for Languages (SCILT) which includes information about funding and spending (available at: About Us (scilt.org.uk) ) . According to the 2021-22 annual report, approximately £400,000 was allocated from China in that year.
It is the responsibility of local authorities and schools to choose which languages to teach, and to determine what resources to draw on and partners to work with in order to support learning. Schools and teachers also remain responsible for curriculum making and the teaching in the classroom.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the £200 fixed penalty fine for the offence of fly-tipping.
Answer
The Scottish Government recently consulted on proposals for our new National Litter and Flytipping Strategy, including measures to strengthen enforcement measures.
The Scottish Government aims to deliver a strong and consistent enforcement model across Scotland that is fit for purpose, promotes positive behaviours and acts as a proportionate deterrent and effectively stops people from littering and flytipping
We will publish the final Strategy later this year, taking account of consultation responses.
- Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how much government funding bus operators have received in each of the last five years,
broken down by (a) operator and (b) fund.
Answer
The Scottish Government has provided funding to bus operators through a number of grants during the last five years. Information on the amount of funding provided to bus operators per year is provided for the following funds: Bus Service Operators’ Grant, Scottish Bus Emissions Abatement Retrofit Fund, Scottish Green Bus Fund, Smart Pay Grant Fund, Covid Support Grant, Covid Support Grant - Restart, Scottish Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme, Scottish Zero Emission Bus fund, Network Support Grant and Network Support Grant Plus.
Due to the number of entries, a spreadsheet containing the requested information has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number: 63569).
Transport Scotland actively publishes monthly details of all items of expenditure of a value of £25,000 or over. This information is available at Expenditure | Transport Scotland . Further information on the purpose of these funds is available on the Transport Scotland website: Bus Travel in Scotland (transport.gov.scot) .
Partial information is provided for 2022 but may be subject to change by the end of the financial year, for example where funding is provided subject to a financial reconciliation taking place later in the year to adjust final funding levels.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 7 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government when it last updated the HOSFGN/002: Property Thresholds Guidance for the Home Owners' Support Fund.
Answer
HOSFGN/002 was published in April 2017. The Home Owners Support Fund property threshold guidance is being considered as part of the current review and will be updated if required.
- Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has attempted to recoup money from any bus operators that were in receipt of
COVID-19 recovery funding but have since been unable to deliver services and,
if this is the case, whether it will provide details, broken down by bus
operator.
Answer
COVID-19 recovery funding is provided via the Network Support Grant Plus and paid as a pence per kilometre rate for each kilometre actually run. Funding is provided by advance payment on forecasts and then payment is adjusted after the scheme ends in October to ensure the final payment reflects actual services operated. This will include recovery of any funding paid to operators for services that did not operate. The scheme has not yet ended so no reconciliation or payment recovery from operators has yet taken place.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many waste water treatment works (a) there are and (b) monitoring exercises (i) were
carried out during the Chemical Investigation Programme 2 (CIP2) and (ii) are planned for CIP3, in each case broken down
by local authority.
Answer
Scottish Water operates 1,857 wastewater treatment works (WWTW) across Scotland; this figure includes septic tanks.
Scottish Water works closely with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to develop the Chemical Investigation Programmes (CIP). Phase 1 of the CIP2 Scotland project involved sampling at 20 low dilution WWTWs monthly over a period of 2 years. Phase 2 of the CIP2 Scotland project involved sampling at a further 24 WWTWs monthly over a 6 month period for substances identified of further concern. 4 septic tanks were sampled as part of CIP2 Scotland. CIP3 Scotland is sampling at 5 WWTWs for substances of emerging concern monthly over a year starting in June 2022. CIP3 Scotland will be sampling at 5 coastal WWTWs monthly for 6 months.
WWTWs were chosen due to their low dilution as these WWTWs pose the greatest risk of not achieving the Environmental Quality Standard where the substance is controlled by existing legislation or the Predicted Non Effect Concentration (PNEC) where there are no controls in legislation. Dilution varies according to the population served by a WWTW and the volume of water in the receiving watercourse.
The following table gives a breakdown of the WWTWs sampled in each Local Authority Area in Scotland.
Local Authority | Number of WWTWs in each Local Authority | WWTWs sampled in CIP2 Scotland phase 1 | WWTWs sampled in CIP2 Scotland phase 2 | Septic tanks sampled in CIP2 Scotland | Sampled in CIP3 Scotland for emerging substances | Sampled in CIP3 Scotland for emerging substances |
Aberdeen City | 7 | | | | | |
Aberdeenshire | 190 | | 9 | | | |
Angus | 61 | 1 | 1 | | | |
Argyll and Bute | 149 | | 1 | | | |
City of Edinburgh | 4 | 1 | 1 | | 1 | 1 |
Clackmannanshire | 6 | | | | | |
Dumfries and Galloway | 182 | | | | | |
Dundee City | 2 | | | | | |
East Ayrshire | 30 | | | | | |
East Dunbartonshire | 2 | | | | | |
East Lothian | 28 | 1 | | 1 | | |
East Renfrewshire | 3 | | | | | |
Falkirk | 11 | | | | | |
Fife | 61 | 2 | 2 | | | 1 |
Glasgow City | 3 | 2 | | | 2 | 1 |
Highland | 300 | | 1 | 1 | | |
Inverclyde | 1 | | | | | |
Midlothian | 13 | 2 | | | | |
Moray | 63 | | 1 | | | |
Na H-Eileanan an Iar | 171 | | | | | |
North Ayrshire | 33 | | | | | |
North Lanarkshire | 15 | 3 | 3 | | 1 | |
Orkney Islands | 38 | | | | | |
Perth and Kinross | 91 | 1 | | | | |
Renfrewshire | 3 | | | | | |
Scottish Borders | 98 | | 1 | | | |
Shetland Islands | 81 | | | | | |
South Ayrshire | 22 | | | | | |
South Lanarkshire | 125 | 1 | 2 | 2 | | |
Stirling | 38 | 1 | | | | |
West Dunbartonshire | 4 | | | | | 2 |
West Lothian | 22 | 5 | 2 | | 1 | |
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether any Scottish Ministers have ever had meetings with Uber and, if this is the case, what the purpose of any such meetings was, whether any notes were taken at the meetings, and, if this is the case, whether it will place copies of any such notes in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe).
Answer
There have been no meetings between Scottish Government Ministers and Uber in the current parliamentary term. The former Minister for Transport and Islands, Mr Yousaf, met with Uber on two occasions on 20 April and 10 October 2017. Topics discussed included congestion, licensing, car-pooling, electric vehicles, and rural accessibility.