Chamber and committees

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.

We are unable to give the number of Baby Boxes delivered in the Dundee local authority area as we only record numbers of Baby Boxes distributed by Health Board area. We can provide the number of boxes delivered in Tayside Health Board.

The total number issued in NHS Tayside up to 3 February 2023 is 17,735 Baby Boxes.

The total breakdown is provided below:

The Scottish Government informed all relevant applicants on 19 December 2022 that the intention is to communicate next steps in relation to the Children, Young People, Families and Adult Learning third sector fund by the end of March 2023.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring everyone lives free from violence, in communities that are inclusive, empowered, resilient and safe.

For Police Scotland to take any action, the uploading images of violence would be deemed criminal if they breached the evidential threshold of Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 in terms of sharing grossly indecent, obscene, menacing character or offensive messages etc.

The removal of offensive content is the responsibility of the social media platforms themselves and can be done by users flagging the content as breaching the community guidelines/terms and conditions. There are report/removal tools operated by Police Scotland’s partner organisations to remove content from the internet, however these are generally aimed at indecent images.

We are providing nearly £13.5 billion in the 2023-24 Local Government Settlement, an increase of over £793 million compared with the 2022-23 budget. The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate financial resources available to them, including on youth services, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

From November 2021 to December 2022 (the most recent available data), six fines were dispensed for charges under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953, section 1(1)&(6). The value of these fines are in the following table:

Table 1: Fines dispensed between November 2021 and December 2022 for livestock worrying.

The Scottish Government published the following datasets within the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture portfolio in the last 12 months:

The number of full time equivalent staff employed by the Scottish Government varies throughout the financial year, so figures provided represent a snapshot. On 16 February 2023 the Scottish Government employed 53.7 full time equivalent frontline communications (press office) staff whose role includes media relations.

The recruitment of media relations staff by public bodies and agencies is a matter for those organisations and the information requested in regard to this is not held centrally.

Forestry and Land Scotland sells the venison (deer carcasses in skin) produced on Scotland’s national forests and land to Approved Game Meat Handling Establishments (AGHE), not a ‘wholesaler’.

The volume sold to AGHEs broken down by financial year as follows:

The primary responsibility for controlling feral pig populations in the wild lies with land managers who should work in partnership with local communities.

It is an offence under Section 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to release any type of pig, including wild boar. It is also an offence to allow them to escape from captivity.

Further information can be found on the NatureScot website at Managing feral pigs in Scotland | NatureScot

Information relating to EU legislation, regulations, tertiary legislation and decisions that have come into effect since the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity)(Scotland) Act 2021 was passed by the Scottish Parliament and the present is in the public domain and can be found at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/homepage.html

For the period between the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity)(Scotland) Act 2021 coming into effect and 31 August 2021, information relating to the Scottish Government's use or considered use of the section 1(1) power of the Act is in the public domain and can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/committees/constitution-europe-external-affairs-and-culture-committee/correspondence/2022/eu-alignment--continuity-act--6-may.pdf

For the period 1 September 2021 - 31 August 2022 information is also in the public domain and can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/committees/constitution-europe-external-affairs-and-culture-committee/eu-continuity-act--draft-annual-report-for-laying--final--27-oct-2022.pdf

Since 1 September 2022 the Scottish Government has used the section 1(1) power in respect of The Public Water Supplies (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022. These amended the Public Water Supplies (Scotland) Regulations 2014 to implement partially Directive (EU) 2020/2184 on the quality of water intended for human consumption. Since 1 September 2022 the Scottish Government has not considered further use of the section 1(1) power.

As set out in my response to S6W-14760 on 24 February 2023, the Scottish Government is examining the risk assessment conclusion in detail, given the serious impact of HPAI (High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza) on wild and kept birds. We will monitor risk levels and carefully consider our response over coming months.

When gamebirds are kept in captivity, they are subject to the same legislation as any other bird species in that there is a legal requirement to report suspicion of notifiable avian disease. The release of game birds is also prohibited within an avian influenza protection zone and surveillance zone.

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