The Scottish Government has not met with Police Scotland specifically to discuss road safety at the Toll of Birness.

Transport Scotland and Amey however had the opportunity to discuss road safety at the Toll of Birness with Police Scotland on 1 August 2023 following a separate meeting that had been arranged to discuss two locations on the A90 in the North East of Scotland.

The Independent Review of Adult Social Care recommendations, consultation and co-design with thousands of people who receive or provide social care have told us change is needed in how social care and support in delivered. We are working with people to design a system that best fits the needs of the communities it serves.

The National Care Service will improve participation and empower people who use and deliver care services, to have a say in how social care is developed and delivered. The NCS will also promote transparency of both performance and investment in social care. The NCS Board will improve the scrutiny of local services, allow intervention at earlier stages to identify good practice, and target efforts on areas where there are emerging issues.

Projected spending on the National Care Service up to 2032 is focused on strategic improvement of the sector, including improving standards for our workforce. The NCS Board will improve oversight, accountability and transparency on the delivery of integrated health and social care across Scotland. Allowing for greater consistency across local areas and helping frontline workers deliver their services to the best of their ability. We have already implemented Fair Work measures, including paying our commissioned social care workforce at least the real living wage of £12 an hour from April 2024 and improving standards through the NCS will make the sector a more attractive career.

The Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards are responsible for service delivery and treatment. As set out in our recently published Transport to Health Plan All Health Boards should consider patient transport needs when they plan and deliver services and must ensure Patients have access to all information on any relevant patient transport (including community transport) and travel reimbursement entitlement.

Individual Boards are responsible for developing and assessing their own policies, including determining eligibility for escorts and reimbursement rates, whilst ensuring patient care and safety.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who will reply in writing within 20 days.

There are currently no imminent plans to make any further amendments to the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) system, following the amended Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) regulations which were introduced in November 2021.

The Scottish Government will continue to engage with a range of stakeholders including the local authority sector, Police Scotland and business and active travel representatives to understand any issues that arise from the various road order processes.

We can only provide information relating to the Scottish Government funded ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) public electric vehicle (EV) charging network. The commercial sector does not make their own charge point fault information readily available to third parties.

The following tables provides a monthly breakdown of the total number of charge points on the CPS network by month and the recorded uptime and downtime across the entire CPS network as served to the public for the last three years

CPS have published a Network Performance page on the CPS website which provides a breakdown by local authority from November 2021. This will continuously be updated with ready access to detailed information on the performance of the public charging network. Prior to November 2021 this information was not collated by the Scottish Government.

Please note that the new CPS contractor took over responsibility of the contract from the end of July 2021, therefore the figures provided are from the first full month of delivery.

The Scottish Government only holds personal injury accident information. It does not hold information relating to damage only accidents (i.e. not involving an injury).

There has been the following number of personal injury accidents recorded on trunk roads in Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Angus Council in the last 5 years:

On 30 October I chaired the Road Safety Strategic Partnership Board. This meeting involved a range of operational partners, including Police Scotland and local authorities, to discuss measures aimed at enhancing road safety and progressing towards achieving our vision for Scotland, including the north east, to have the best road safety performance in the world by 2030.

One of my Transport Scotland officials recently attended the Aberdeenshire Road Safety Seminar on 10 October, with Police Scotland, local authorities, elected members and key stakeholders in attendance. Road safety at a national level and issues pertaining to the local road network, with a particular focus on the A90 and A952, were discussed.

The findings of the WWF Living Planet Report provide further evidence, if any were needed, that the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss represent the existential threat of our times. We know we must take urgent action to address them now.