Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-32537

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to address the improper disposal of used hypodermic needles.

The Scottish Government does not have responsibility for addressing the improper disposal of used hypodermic needles. We expect that NHS Boards, drug and alcohol treatment services, and third sector organisations will have their own plans in place to address this issue.

Injecting equipment provision (IEP) is a key harm reduction intervention. Public Health Scotland publish information on IEP in Scotland, including the number of outlets, attendances, and the types of injecting equipment distributed to people who used illicit drugs. The latest release, covering 2022-23, is available at https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/injecting-equipment-provision-in-scotland/injecting-equipment-provision-in-scotland-2022-to-2023/.

Question reference: S6W-32544

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many under-18-year-olds have received medical treatment after being accidentally stuck by improperly disposed hypodermic needles in the Glasgow region in each year from 2020 to 2024.

Information is not available centrally on the number of under-18-year-olds who have received medical treatment after being accidentally stuck by improperly disposed hypodermic needles.

Injecting equipment provision (IEP) is a key harm reduction intervention. Public Health Scotland publish information on IEP in Scotland, including the number of outlets, attendances, and the types of injecting equipment distributed to people who used illicit drugs. The latest release, covering 2022-23, is available at https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/injecting-equipment-provision-in-scotland/injecting-equipment-provision-in-scotland-2022-to-2023/.

Question reference: S6W-32240

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many Protecting Vulnerable Group (PVG) checks have been undertaken for people working with young people in sport in each year since 1999.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Year	PVG applications from sport/leisure organisations
2011	10830
2012	18909
2013	29172
2014	29147
2015	35371
2016	39675
2017	46391
2018	39515
2019	33207
2020	15165
2021	25403
2022	30020
2023	32592
2024	28852

The PVG Scheme commenced on 28 February 2011.

This data is from Disclosure Scotland’s categorisation of the organisation countersigning as “sport/leisure” and Volunteer Scotland Disclosure Services’ category of an enrolled body having the function of “sport”. In the case of Disclosure Scotland’s “sport/leisure” category this may include checks on people who are not working in sports as “leisure” includes non-sporting activities.

Disclosure Scotland may also receive applications from organisations which are not primarily sports organisations but that do provide sports activities to vulnerable groups and therefore undertake PVG checks on people working in sport activities. Such applications are not included in these figures.

Where an organisation, such as a sports organisation, uses a third party to process disclosures and countersign on behalf of the organisation, these are categorised as applications from an “umbrella body”. These are not generally included in these figures. The only umbrella body which provides a breakdown of organisation type to Disclosure Scotland is Volunteer Scotland Disclosure Services. Their "sport" figures have been included in this data.

The PVG statement of scheme membership is provided to allow a person who is self-employed, such as private tutors or private sports coaches, to present prospective clients with their scheme membership status. As there is no organisation involved, these do not have a category for inclusion in these figures.

Question reference: S6W-32330

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been reffered to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) for precognition in each of the last five years.

COPFS uses a live, operational database to manage the processing of reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies throughout Scotland. It is designed to meet business needs in the processing of criminal cases, rather than for statistical analysis. Any data in respect of the number of people currently being precognosed is updated each day and cannot be recalculated retrospectively or aggregated. This question cannot be readily answered by COPFS.

Question reference: S6W-31645

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many seals have been killed under licence in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S6W-32841

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many Baby Boxes have been issued in (a) Aberdeen and (b) Scotland since their introduction.

Registration opened on 15 June 2017, and delivery of Baby Boxes nationwide began on 15 August 2017 for all babies born and resident in Scotland.

The total number of Baby Boxes issued since the introduction of the Baby Box programme up to 3 January 2025 is 324,968. We are unable to provide the number of Baby Boxes delivered in the Aberdeen area as we only record the number of Baby Boxes distributed by Health Board area. Since the start of the programme 35,278 Baby Boxes have been issued in NHS Grampian.

Question reference: S6W-32377

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Family Fund announcing that its Your Opportunity programme is temporarily closed for new applications, what support it can offer to disabled or seriously ill young adults aged 18 to 24 who are no longer able to access funding.

There are a number of potential supports available to young disabled people living in Scotland, depending on their individual needs, circumstances and eligibility. These include: the Independent Living Fund; the Independent Living Fund Transition Fund; the Independent Living Fund Technology Grant; Adult Disability Payment; and Young Scot National Entitlement Card.

Young disabled people who choose to study a course of Further Education or Higher Education are also eligible to apply for Additional Support Needs for Learning Allowance and the Disabled Students Allowance respectively.

Question reference: S6W-32336

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases were subject to the fatal accident inquiry (FAI) process in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-32341

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many procurator fiscals are currently employed by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).

Question reference: S6W-31639

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many seal licences have been issued in each of the last 10 years, also broken down by how many have been exercised.

Year	Total
2019-2020	57
2020-2021	59
2021-2022	42
2022-2023	51
2023-2024	30
2024-2025 (as at 15 October 2024)	30

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