- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 April 2022
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many outstanding rail passenger compensation claims it is responsible for, as a result of Abellio no longer being responsible for them, broken down by the year in which they were made, and what the total amount of live compensation claims is.
Answer
Up until and including the 31 March 2022 Abellio ScotRail had 2,019 outstanding rail passenger compensation claims, representing a claim value of £9,550. Abellio ScotRail will settle all of these claims.
From 1 April 2022, ScotRail Trains Limited is responsible for considering and settling all new compensation claims.
- Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 04 April 2022
-
Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 3 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many beavers have been culled in Scotland in each year since 2007.
Answer
NatureScot only hold details of beavers controlled under licence since they became European Protected Species in May 2019.
The data from 2019 and 2020 licence returns is available on the NatureScot website at
https://www.nature.scot/doc/naturescot-beaver-licensing-summary-1st-may-31st-december-2019
https://www.nature.scot/doc/beaver-management-report-2020
NatureScot are currently collating beaver licence returns for 2021 and plan to publish this information by May 2022.
- Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 April 2022
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-06190 by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2022, whether it will provide updated figures on how many young people have now received a free bus pass through the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme, broken down by local authority, based on the latest information available.
Answer
The following table shows the number of cards produced for the Young Persons Scheme (YPS) by close of business 25 April 2022, broken down to local authority level. This information was supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO). NECPO support the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data. Please note this data might include a small number of cards produced without the travel product.
Aberdeen City | 15,249 |
Aberdeenshire | 14,750 |
Angus Council | 3,878 |
Argyll and Bute | 3,046 |
City of Edinburgh | 42,142 |
Clackmannanshire | 1,683 |
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar | 677 |
Dumfries and Galloway | 4,763 |
Dundee City | 14,151 |
East Ayrshire | 9,574 |
East Dunbartonshire | 4,146 |
East Lothian | 7,761 |
East Renfrewshire | 5,013 |
Falkirk | 5,240 |
Fife | 23,938 |
Glasgow City | 25,066 |
Highland | 8,178 |
Inverclyde | 10,966 |
Midlothian | 5,321 |
Moray | 4,126 |
North Ayrshire | 4,091 |
North Lanarkshire | 13,060 |
Orkney Islands | 596 |
Perth and Kinross | 6,775 |
Renfrewshire | 10,270 |
Scottish Borders | 5,628 |
Shetland Islands | 1,509 |
South Ayrshire | 3,451 |
South Lanarkshire | 7,881 |
Stirling | 3,833 |
West Dunbartonshire | 8,166 |
West Lothian | 9,400 |
- Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 04 April 2022
-
Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 3 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the delivery of community access to allotments through the Community Wealth Building strategy.
Answer
The Scottish Government has embraced the Community Wealth Building (CWB) approach to economic development as it is geared to helping local businesses and communities own a greater stake in how their local economy functions. The CWB model involves local authorities and their community planning partners ensuring that collective investment decisions focus on how local economies can be helped to grow and flourish. Practical benefits can include more local, good quality jobs; improved access to public contracts for local businesses; more land being placed in community ownership or developed for the benefit of the community; and support being offered to new businesses exploring employee ownership or other innovative models.
We are working with local authorities to help them frame strategic CWB action plans and have committed to introducing CWB legislation during this session of the Scottish Parliament. Our objective is to embed the CWB approach as a strategic economic development policy. Many actions taken across the policy spectrum will contribute to CWB and creation of a national economy striving for prosperity and societal wellbeing in equal measure. Community access to allotments can play a part in this collective effort.
Allotments and their provision are the responsibility of local authorities. That is set out in the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. However, since 2012, the Scottish Government has allocated more than £1.4 million to directly support and increase the land that is available for community growing.
- Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Submitting member has a registered interest.
-
Date lodged: Monday, 04 April 2022
-
Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 3 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the value of sporting shooting to the economy in Scotland.
Answer
As part of our work to take forward recommendations from the Grouse Moor Management Review Group, the Scottish Government also commissioned Scotland’s Rural College and the James Hutton Institute to undertake research into the biodiversity and economic impacts of grouse moors. The research found that grouse shooting enterprises were of local importance as an employer, and to the wider community and you can read more about the findings here .
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 April 2022
-
Current Status:
Answered by Christina McKelvie on 3 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has met with Hourglass Scotland and, if this is not the case, whether it plans to do so, and, if it does, when this meeting will take place.
Answer
The Minister for Equalities and Older People has agreed to meet with the Chief Executive of Hourglass Scotland in the coming weeks. Officials are arranging a suitable date and time.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Submitting member has a registered interest.
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 April 2022
-
Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 3 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will confirm what its plans are for a post-implementation review of the Honey (Scotland) Regulations 2015.
Answer
There is currently no formal plan in place to conduct a post implementation review of the Honey Regulations (Scotland) 2015. However, as the body with policy responsibility for these regulations, Food Standards Scotland continues to monitor the effectiveness and suitability of the legislation through communication with its stakeholders, such as Local Authorities, businesses and consumers, as well as discussions with other Scottish and UK Government departments.
It should be noted that FSS and the wider Scottish Government have a responsibility to conduct a formal post-implementation review within 10 years of the respective regulations coming into force. With regard to the Honey Regulations this is due to be factored into business planning at a point up to and including 2025.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 April 2022
-
Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 3 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what research it has commissioned into long COVID, and when this will be published.
Answer
Within the Scottish Government funding of health research falls under the remit of the Chief Scientist Office.
Following an independent expert review process, 9 projects were funded through the CSO's Long-term effects of COVID-19 call Long Covid Call – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)
Final reports will be published on the CSO website upon completion of the projects. All the projects are scheduled to complete in Q1/Q2 of 2023.
Project final reports are the result of a collaborative effort between the individual project teams and members of the CSO Public Engagement Group who work together to ensure the reports are written in accessible language. There is therefore an inevitable short delay between the project end date and the publication of the final report.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 April 2022
-
Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 3 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Public Health Scotland regarding data and transparency in relation to return chronic pain patients, and (a) when and (b) how frequently waiting time information for return chronic pain patients will be published.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07901 on 3 May 2022. 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
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 April 2022
-
Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 3 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made, regarding the testing available in Scotland, of the decision by NICE to approve placental growth factor (PlGF) testing for expectant mothers in England.
Answer
The Scottish Government expects women to receive high quality, safe care including in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of pre-eclampsia.
We are working with the Scottish Perinatal Network to examine the adoption of PlGF testing for pre-eclampsia in Scotland. This will include consideration of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidance on PlGF (DG23) that is currently out for consultation and expected to be published in July 2022.