Chamber and committees

The 16-25 Railcard is provided by the UK rail industry and not by the Scottish or UK governments. Therefore, the Scottish Government does not hold details on the cost, benefit or utility of this scheme. The scheme offers a discount of one third off most fares for an annual fee of £30, with some restrictions (such as a minimum fare before 10 am on weekdays). More information is available at www.railcard.co.uk .

The Scottish Government offers a further rail discount scheme, the Scottish Youth Railcard (SYR), for those in Scotland aged 16-18 and for full-time volunteers aged 19-25. This scheme helps to connect young people with business, education and leisure opportunities. It is free to access the scheme with a Young Scot Card and, in addition to one third off most fares, it offers half-price Season tickets. There were 2,337,203 journeys made using the SYR in 2016-17, at a cost of £529,152 to the Scottish Government.

Statistics on the number of people convicted for crimes with an aggravator recorded is available in table 12 of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2016-17 publication. The Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database does not hold information on the faith group, gender, race or country of origin of the victim.

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2018/02/7427

Not all of the information requested is held centrally. The Scottish Government has previously published statistics on Racist Incidents Recorded by the Police in Scotland, with the most recent release covering the reporting year of 2013-14 ( http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubRacistIncidents ).

This publication noted the intention to scope out the possibility of replacing this release with a new and broader product on police recorded hate crime. This would include information on other strands of hate crime recorded by the police, in addition to retaining data on hate incidents with a race element. Scottish Government statisticians have been working with Police Scotland as it develops the data it holds on its existing systems. We anticipate an update on the outcome of this work in the near future, and plans for a new publication. This update will be circulated to users through the ScotStat network ( http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/scotstat ).

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) also publish annual statistics on crimes aggravated by race, religious, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity prejudice ( http://www.copfs.gov.uk/publications/equality-and-diversity ). These figures relate to charges reported to the COPFS and includes information on how those charges were proceeded. Information on the faith group, gender, race or country of origin of the victim is not included. Statistics for 2017-18 will be published on 15 June 2018.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

The Marine Conservation Society's annual Beachwatch programme surveys beach litter. Its 2017 report identified 0.2% of UK beach litter was medical. That included syringes along with other medical items.

This information is not held centrally.

The last published estimate of the cost of obesity in Scotland, by the Scottish Government , was for the Obesity Route Map in 2010. This can be found here http://www.gov.scot/resource/doc/302783/0094795.pdf . It is Appendix 2 in the document.

Subsequently SPICE published updated estimates in 2015. http://www.parliament.scot/ResearchBriefingsAndFactsheets/S4/SB_15-01_Obesity_in_Scotland.pdf

It is every patient's responsibility to keep their NHS appointment and it is important that they let the NHS know when they cannot attend. However, we also recognise that the NHS has to be flexible in helping make appointments convenient to patients.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting health boards implement policies to reduce missed appointments such as providing reminder services through text, emails and social media. This will allow reminder services to be tailored to patients who are most likely not to attend.

The specific information requested is not available centrally.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-15438 on 18 April 2018. 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 policy is clear that it has no intention to charge patients who miss appointments. There can be many reasons why a patient may not attend. For example if there was a family emergency. To put a system in place to charge patients for non-attendance is likely to be highly expensive to operate.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting health boards implement policies to reduce missed appointments such as providing reminder services through text, emails and social media. This will allow reminder services to be tailored for patients who are most likely not to attend.