Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05400 on 24 January 2022. 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

The information displayed on the NHS Scotland Covid Status App is described in detail in the privacy notice .

Venues are required to display a privacy notice in areas where the app will be used. This will help members of the public understand the purpose of the data processing that will be done by the app and provide assurance about how their personal data will be safeguarded by the venue staff. A privacy notice template can be found here .

Rigorous data minimisation controls have been put in place, including the use of the “Green Tick” for domestic purposes, to ensure that as little personal data is displayed as possible, through the NHS Scotland COVID Pass Verifier app.

Information on the number of offences recorded by Police Scotland of coursing (a. hunting with dogs) and poaching (b. poaching and game laws, including deer-related offences), from 2016-17 to 2020-21, is provided in the table below.

Table 1. Offences of poaching and coursing, by requested local authority, 2016-17 to 2020-21

Wind farm applications under 50MW are considered under planning legislation whilst proposals over 50MW are dealt with under the Electricity Act.

Planning legislation cases

Information on the approval rate of wind farm applications in each local authority area, not determined by Scottish Ministers, is not held centrally. The Scottish Government publishes figures on the approval rate of all planning applications determined by Planning Authorities for different types of development in Scotland. Over the past 5 years the approval rate has been consistently over 93.7% (this includes the development type Electricity Generation, which includes wind farm applications). The information is available on the following website: https://www.gov.scot/collections/planning-statistics/

Scottish Ministers have called-in two planning applications from Orkney Islands Council and issued decisions in 2021 granting consent for both applications.

The following table confirms the position in relation to planning appeals. All bar two of these appeals were decided by reporters from the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division of the Scottish Government. The two appeals not decided by reporters were in the Argyll and Bute Council area, one in 2017 and one in 2019, and were both allowed by Scottish Ministers.

We expect the consultation on proposals for introducing regulations on minimum standards of energy efficiency for private housing will take place during 2022. I will work closely with officials to ensure an optimum and effective launch date.

In line with consultation best practice, the duration of the consultation period will last for a minimum of 12 weeks, and may possibly run longer depending on the launch date to ensure a strong response. Details on timelines for the analysis and results of the consultation will be provided in due course.

The COVID-19 statistical report which is published weekly includes a section for COVID-19 vaccinations by Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) priority group, including first, second, and third/booster doses for frontline social care workers. This cohort is made up of registered Scottish Social Services Council staff and does not include those without professional registration.

This data can be found at. https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/show-all-releases?id=20580.

The Gateway Review into Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), which was published on 14 December 2021, gives a preparedness estimate of 12-24 months for individual stakeholders including retailers. This informed their judgement that a full implementation date of July-September 2023 was possible albeit with significant risk.

The Gateway Review does not give a breakdown of preparedness estimates for individual businesses. Businesses interviewed separately by SG typically gave ranges of preparedness estimates, which broadly aligned with the findings of the Gateway Review, rather than an exact time.

The Chief Medical Officer, Professor Gregor Smith, wrote to health boards on 15 December regarding the COVID-19 vaccination programme and the de-prioritisation of the flu vaccination programme.

To summarise, on the basis that data from Public Health Scotland (PHS) suggests that the vast majority of those in high risk groups have already been offered the flu vaccine, and that uptake rates were already higher than the entirety of last years’ programme, health boards should cease co-administration of the flu vaccine alongside the COVID-19 vaccine programme within community COVID-19 vaccination clinics.

Health boards continue to offer the flu vaccine to those at risk who were routinely offered it prior to the pandemic. Flu vaccinations for these individuals should be offered through community pharmacies, midwives, GP practices as appropriate and opportunistically through domiciliary care and/or care home settings as appropriate.

The full contents of the letter can be viewed at: CMO(2021)37 - COVID-19 vaccination programme: supporting further acceleration of the booster programme (scot.nhs.uk) .

We are unable to provide the specific information requested. Published information regarding flu cases and flu vaccinations is available in the weekly Public Health Scotland statistical report: Show all releases - Publications - Public Health Scotland .

Incidents of hate crime on public transport will be recorded by either Police Scotland or, if they occur on the railways (on trains or at stations), the British Transport Police.

Table 1 presents information provided by the British Transport Police on hate crime offences recorded in Scotland, by type of hate category, since 2017-18. The 2021-22 reporting year is partially complete as it will run up to the end of March 2022. The total number of crimes recorded each year is less than the summation of the separate hate categories, as some crimes include more than one type of prejudice.

Information is not held centrally on the number of hate crimes recorded in other public transport settings. Some analysis is available from a study into the characteristics of police recorded Hate Crime , published by the Scottish Government in February 2021. This report was based on a review of just over one-third of all hate crimes recorded by Police Scotland in 2018-19, and findings were presented separately depending on whether the victim was a police officer in the line of duty. For those cases that didn’t involve a police officer as the victim (estimated to be 4,620), table 2 below shows the percentage that occurred on public transport (both on the mode of transport and at stations/stops). This information is also available in Table 11 of the report, which breaks down hate crimes by types of location. The equivalent data on public transport-based hate crimes with police officers as victims cannot be estimated due to the very low number found within the study.

A second study into the characteristics of hate crime recorded by Police Scotland is due to be published later this year. This will provide the same type of disaggregated data and information for the year 2020-21.

Table 1: The number of hate crime offences recorded on railway Network in Scotland by crime, 2017-18 to 2021-22 a