Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is not required to hold this information. As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, I have asked Douglas Millican, Chief Executive, to respond. His response is as follows:

The average wait time for customers calling Scottish Water’s customer helpline between 1st April 2022 and 1st April 2023 was 19 seconds. The chart below provides information about how many calls were handled by Scottish Water in each year since 2016.

I’m very much looking forward to meeting with police officers and staff across Scotland as the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs.

My predecessor met with police officers at Wester Hailes Police Station on 14 December 2023 and was pleased to attend the Chief Constable’s Bravery and Excellence Awards at Tulliallan Police College on 10 February.

Please see the data requested on Police recorded forced marriage related offences in Scotland since 2016 in the following table.

The Scottish Government does not produce estimates or collect data on the number of trees that have died and the age when this occurs.

All forests once established will experience some mortality and natural thinning through competition between individual trees. This will vary according to the planting density, management regimes, effects of pests and diseases, woodland type and location, and is an understood and accepted part of sustainable forest management.

However, any woodland creation that is publicly funded through the Forestry Grant Scheme is required to attain a specified stocking density when established, normally by year five, as set out in published guidance on the Rural Payments website at https://www.ruralpayments.org/topics/all-schemes/forestry-grant-scheme/woodland-creation/

Forest Research publishes data on forest yields and management information on the patterns of tree growth that can be expected in forests of different tree species, with varying growth rates, and when managed in different ways. This can be found at https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/publications/forest-yield/ . These data, which factor in mortality rates, provide forecasts for the number of live tree over time and are used for example to estimate timber yields, forest biomass and carbon stocks, and the modelling of forest greenhouse gas balances.

This information is not held centrally. The Scottish Government and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) are working with key stakeholders and partners to understand the risks that lithium-ion batteries (LIB), contained within most electric vehicles, present to communities across Scotland. A bespoke working group is focused on these risks, and its findings will strengthen SFRS’s community safety work going forward. SFRS urges users of LIB technology to take the appropriate steps when disposing of spent battery units to ensure reduced risk of fire.

Scottish Government officials have met with the following groups and organisations on the minimum age of marriage and related matters:

AMINA- Muslim Women’s Resource Centre

Article 12 in Scotland

Association of Registrars of Scotland

Caledonian Humanist Association

Evangelical Alliance

Hemat Gryffe Women’s Aid

Humanist Society Scotland

IKWRO Women’s Rights Organisation

Independent Humanist Ceremonies

JustRight Scotland

Karma Nirvana

Minority Ethnic Carers of People Project

Scottish Council of Jewish Communities

Saheliya

Scottish Women’s Aid

Shakti Women’s Aid

Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights)

UNICEF UK

They have also met with some Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament and with two Scottish family law academics.

I intend for these meetings to continue. My officials are planning to meet representatives of the following bodies, some of which will have received invitations to discuss the issues.

The Baptist Union of Scotland

The Church of Scotland

The Free Church of Scotland

The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland

Glasgow Central Mosque

Hindu Forum of Britain

The Methodist Church

The Muslim Council of Scotland

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers in Scotland)

The Roman Catholic Church (The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland)

The Salvation Army

The Scottish Association of Mosques

The Scottish Episcopal Church

Sikhs in Scotland

The Scottish Unitarian Association

The Synod of Scotland of the United Reformed Church

The United Free Church of Scotland

The member is welcome to write to me with details of other interested groups who want to be involved.

The Scottish Government recognises the continuing rise in gonorrhoea diagnoses, and we are grateful for the efforts of the dedicated clinicians who continue to work to find and treat affected individuals.

We acknowledge the impact that the pandemic has had on service capacity and levels of routine testing. That is why the upcoming Sexual Health and Blood Borne Strategy, which will be published this Spring, has a strong Covid recovery focus, and why we have invested over £500,000 into development of online STI testing. A pilot of this has begun in NHS Lothian, and we will continue to work with our NHS partners to understand how it may be further expanded.

The independent Scottish Sentencing Council's guideline for sentencing young people took effect from 26 January 2022. The development of a sentencing guideline has 8 stages associated with it. Stage 8 is monitoring and review once a guideline is in force. It is for the Sentencing Council to decide how best to monitor and review the operation of their guidelines. Further information is contained on the Scottish Sentencing Council website. https://www.scottishsentencingcouncil.org.uk/sentencing-guidelines/methodology/stage-8-monitoring-and-review/ .

The roll-out of Webex, the new phone system being used to replace our aging phone system at Holyrood, began for MSPs and their staff in February.  While it is still in the early stages, so far feedback from offices using the new system, has been very positive.  I do appreciate however that a very small number of offices in the initial phase have been rescheduled while a solution which meets their needs can be delivered. 

The research on Women and Girls’ safety on Public Transport Scotland makes 10 recommendations Transport Scotland will continue to work with stakeholders and operators to identify actions in the recommendations and work towards progressing those. As part of this work a Summit is being organised to bring together stakeholders and experts to discuss the recommendations and identify any specific policy actions for Transport Scotland, as well as any actions for operators, police authorities and local authorities.

A number of partner organisations are working to specifically challenging men’s behaviour through a number of education and training programmes. Transport Scotland continue to support other policy areas on the systemic issue of gender based violence. The outcomes of this research have been shared with colleagues in the Scottish Government Violence Against Women and Girls Team who are working to deliver the Government’s Equally Safe Strategy.