Chamber and committees

The Board has been in place since the Water Industry Commission was established in 2005. The current membership is available at https://www.watercommission.co.uk/view_who_is_who.aspx .

Fly-grazing is rarely reported in Scotland, unlike the situation on England and Wales; and we have not been alerted of a problem by either our stakeholders or local authorities. We are, however, aware of an isolated case in the Argyll and Bute Council area.

The Council has identified the owner of the horses and is seeking removal through the courts, and the Scottish SPCA is reported as having visited on a number of occasions to ensure the horses’ welfare.

The Scottish Government takes the welfare of all animals extremely seriously and that welfare is provided for under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006. The Scottish Government encourages those with concerns for the welfare of an animal, whether by reason of neglect or abandonment, to raise these concerns with the relevant local authority or the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Flygrazing is primarily a civil matter between the landowner and the keeper or owner of the horse which has been placed on that land to graze.

The Horse Identification (Scotland) Regulations 2009 assist enforcement authorities in identifying the owner or keeper of a horse from any microchip implanted within the animal. The Equine Identification (Scotland) Regulations 2019 will come into force on 28 March 2019 with the view to improving compliance with identification.

Scottish Government officials are in regular contact with Cornerstone and Unison about the dispute.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport and Councillor Currie from COSLA wrote to both organisations in 21 December 2018 offering support towards reaching an agreement and arrangements have been made for a meeting involving all parties. In advance of this meeting, Scottish Government and COSLA officials will continue to engage and meet with both organisations to support progress towards reaching a resolution. The detailed information requested is being placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib number 60413).

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-20984 on 29 January 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

The Scottish Government will publish outcomes from the Race Equality Conference and a final report on Year 1 Race Equality Actions on its website in the spring. The slides used in the evidence and analysis workshop have already been published on the Scottish Government’s Equality Evidence Finder.

The Scottish Government does not collect information on non-disclosure agreements from universities, and therefore does not hold this information centrally.

The current membership of the Common Financial Tool Working Group is as follows:

Graeme Perry, Accountant in Bankruptcy (Chair)

Laura Barr, Accountant in Bankruptcy (Minute Secretary)

Annette Burns, Accountant in Bankruptcy

Mike Holmyard, Citizens Advice Scotland

Pauline Allan, Citizens Advice Scotland

Alan McIntosh, Inverclyde Council for the Local Authority Money Advice Service

Yvonne MacDermid, Money Advice Scotland

David Hilferty, Money Advice Scotland

Karen Hurst, Association of British Credit Unions Limited (ABCUL)

Liv McVey, StepChange

Daniel Kelly, Money Advice Service

David Menzies, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS)

Barry Mochan, MLM Solutions for the Insolvency Practitioners Association

The most recent meetings held on 12 December 2018 and 17 January 2019 have been chaired by John Cook, Depute Accountant in Bankruptcy and Executive Director of Case Operations at AiB.

The information is not collected or held centrally to the level of detail requested .

This is a matter for Health Boards to manage and monitor at a local level. As employers NHSScotland Boards are required, under the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act, the 1992 Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations and the 1998 Working Time Regulations, to provide access to appropriate rest room facilities where staff, including anaesthetic staff, can take their natural breaks when working overnight. All staff working shifts overnight are not entitled to sleeping facilities. However, if they are on-call and required for clinical reasons to stay in the hospital, appropriate sleeping facilities are provided.