Chamber and committees

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.

Reported Road Casualties Scotland provides information on injury road accidents reported to the police. The latest statistics available are up to 2016.

The following table shows the number of injury accidents involving pedal cyclists by severity of the accident.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Our analysis has shown that the reduction in the number of ‘planned’ trains was a direct result of forecast severe weather. The Scottish Government and ScotRail placed an absolute priority on the safety of customers and staff.

More specifically, this means:

* The need to avoid running trains where there was a risk to passenger/staff safety, as the Met Office’s “red warning” for snow had advised, and where there was a risk that a train could end up stranded, because of accumulations of snow and snow drifts.

* Drivers and train crew unable to get to their depots because of ice and snow. In fact, during the period for the Met Office Amber and Red Warnings for snow, the advice consistently given by Police Scotland and the Scottish Government was that people should “Avoid Travel unless absolutely necessary”.

* Before services could resume safely, line proving and in some cases significant snow clearance had to be undertaken. In all cases, services were restored as soon as it was safe to do so.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

SPS has a clear zero tolerance approach towards all violence, including sexual assault and staff are trained to recognise and respond to the precursors of violence and manage any incidents when they do occur.

A Cell Sharing Risk Assessment must be conducted before any person in SPS care is allocated to a residential setting. This assessment is used to consider an individual’s suitability to share a cell with others in order to reduce the risk of harm, including interpersonal violence.

The Cell Sharing Risk Assessment is a dynamic process. Records are continually updated in response to changes in circumstance which may impact upon the level of risk presented by an individual. Where any person is identified as presenting a risk to others, then this is recorded and will inform all subsequent management decisions. Any individual who is subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Orderwill also have a dedicated management plan developed and implemented to take into account the conditions applied by the courts.

Violence Reduction meetings take place on a monthly basis across Scottish Prisons to discuss all notable incidents, trends and preventative actions.

CCTV cameras operate within all Scottish prisons to deter violent incidents and assist in any post-incident investigations. Violent incidents are always reported to Police Scotland.

There are no discounts available for island residents on the Clyde & Hebrides Ferry Services (CHFS) network, operated by CalMac, other than those provided for older and disabled people by national and local concessionary travel schemes.

The introduction of Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) across the CHFS network, which was completed in October 2015, simplified the fares structure and provided significant ferry fare reductions for all passengers and for cars and small commercial vehicles. These lower RET fares on the CHFS network are available equally to islands residents, their friends and families and other visitors.

We fully recognise the importance of a safe, well performing road network for the health of Scotland’s economy, and our research has shown that the trunk road network alone contributes £1.38 billion in approximate Gross Value Added to Scotland’s economy. We will continue to ensure the network is safe and fit for purpose by inspecting trunk roads at regular intervals to identify defects like potholes, which are then repaired by the Operating Companies within the strict timescales set-out in their contracts. The Transport Scotland Road Asset Management Plan (RAMP) sets out how Scotland's trunk road network is maintained strategically and efficiently in order to protect our assets and ensure maximum value for money from our road maintenance activities. This can be found on the Transport Scotland website at https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/32978/j408891.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.

Grant Funding Condition 17 between Scottish Ministers and City of Edinburgh Council contains a requirement to undertake an evaluation of the Edinburgh Trams Project and I understand that this work is currently underway. Proposals for extending the tram line to Newhaven is a matter for Transport for Edinburgh and City of Edinburgh Council if they believe this is desirable and offers good value for money .