Chamber and committees

Justices of the Peace are appointed to sheriffdoms not local authorities. The current number of serving Justices of the Peace broken down by sheriffdom is as follows:

The draft budget published on 4 December 2024 includes new investment of £4.5 million to deliver new specialist support across the country for long COVID, ME, Chronic Fatigue, and other similar conditions.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-33187 on 23 January 2025. 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.

Transport Scotland’s trunk road maintenance budget is not allocated on a route or part-route basis. It is distributed based upon need and prioritisation of schemes developed from regular inspections and condition surveys.

Transport Scotland contracts for the management, maintenance and operation of the trunk road network contain highly prescriptive requirements to keep drainage assets working and trunk road traffic moving safely. For example, the contracts contain annual routine and cyclic maintenance requirements that are designed to ensure drainage assets are working and checked for deterioration. Transport Scotland contracts also contain requirements for Operating Companies to complete weekly driven inspections of all trunk roads to identify safety critical defects. If any are identified, they are required to address the issue or make it safe within set timescales. In addition to this, Transport Scotland's Operating Companies are required to maintain Disruption Risk Management Registers to identify vulnerable locations subject to frequent disruption. Where such sites are identified, the Operating Companies are required to investigate the issue and look to deliver solutions to improve journey time reliability.

Transport Scotland’s trunk road maintenance budget is not allocated on a route or part-route basis. It is distributed based upon need and prioritisation of schemes developed from regular inspections and condition surveys.

Please see below for maintenance spend for all trunk roads in the north east of Scotland over the last 5 full financial years.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government. The member may wish to contact Network Rail.

The clearing of unexploded ordnance is an operational matter for Police Scotland.

Scottish Government are, however, concerned with the environmental impact from such activities, via the consideration of licensing applications for ordnance removal and contribution to wider UK government policy on the matter.

Marine Directorate – Licensing Operations Team (MD-LOT) is the regulator responsible for determining marine licence applications on behalf of the Scottish Ministers in the Scottish inshore and offshore regions. Marine licences are required for licensable marine activities which include removal of any substance or object from the Scottish Marine Area and deposit and use of explosives, typically used in the clearance of unexploded ordnance.

In determining applications for marine licences, MD-LOT on behalf of the Scottish Ministers must have regard to protecting the environment, human health and legitimate uses of the sea. MD-LOT consult with a range of stakeholders including NatureScot, as the Statutory Nature Conservation Body, and seek views to inform determinations.

The Marine Directorate (formally Marine Scotland) was also involved in the development of the UK government’s 2022 policy paper “Marine environment: unexploded ordnance clearance joint interim position statement”. This sets out a coordinated position between marine regulators and key stakeholders across the UK regarding the use of lower noise alternatives to high order detonation of unexploded ordnance within the marine environment.

MD-LOT involvement in the clearance of unexploded ordnance is limited to the assessment of licence applications as set out above. There is no involvement from MD-LOT on the clearance of unexploded wartime military ordnance in Scotland's waters.

The number of discharges from Scottish acute inpatient hospitals is presented in the following table. These figures do not include mental health facilities. These discharge figures have been produced using the Public Health Scotland SMR01 dataset which does not hold details of support provided on discharge.

Details of discharges from Scottish acute hospitals where the patient was recorded as having no fixed abode at hospital admission.

Decisions on applications made under sections 36 and 37 of the Electricity Act 1989 are made by the Scottish Ministers. All information relating to applications to build, operate or modify onshore electricity generating stations with capacities exceeding 50 megawatts, as well as all applications to install overhead power lines, large oil and gas pipelines, and associated infrastructure, are published and searchable on our Energy Consents website, at https://www.energyconsents.scot/.

Transport Scotland conducts machine-based surveys using specialist vehicles each year to gather information on the surface integrity of the road; the friction characteristics of the surface; and the structural capacity (strength) of the underlying road construction. The data obtained provides an annual snapshot of the road condition across the network and is used to determine a Road Condition Index for each section of road. The Index values can then be used to identify where detailed engineering investigations should be focused in order to determine maintenance requirements.

The proportion of the A90 that has been assessed as requiring further preliminary investigation to determine whether structural maintenance is required has varied over the last 5 years as follows:

2019-20 – 13%; 2020/21 – 10%; 2021-22 – 9%; 2022-23 – 10%; 2023-24 – 18%