Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has no plans to fund a fish counter on the River Dee. The width of the lower Dee means that the installation of a fish counter to assess the size of the salmon stock is not feasible.

The Scottish Government is determined to do all we can to reduce alcohol-related harm and is working closely with Alcohol and Drug Partnerships and the third sector to do so. In 2022-23, £106 million was made available to ADPs, increasing to £112 million in 2023-24. This funding is used to ensure that local services meet the needs of people who experience alcohol and drugs harms.

The announcement in the Scottish Budget 2024-25 signalled the Scottish Government’s intent to explore the reintroduction of a Public Health Supplement. The exploratory work will include considering options for the design of any such supplement.

In light of the UK Government failing to ensure English and Welsh XL Bully dog owners cannot evade the new safeguards through selling or otherwise disposing of their dogs in Scotland, the Scottish Government has been left with little choice to decide to replicate the new safeguards in Scotland. Through replicating the new regime, this will ensure owners have no ability to evade the new controls.

More generally on the effectiveness of breed specific legislation, there is no central database within Scotland or the UK that provides available data on breakdown by breed or crossbreed dogs, involved in dog attacks.

However, National Records Scotland collects data in relation to ‘Deaths from being bitten or struck by a dog in Scotland’. There have been three deaths from being bitten or struck by a dog in Scotland between 2004 and 2022. Information for 2023 is not yet available. Data on the breed or type of dogs involved is not recorded.

In addition, Public Health Scotland collects data on the number of inpatient and day case admissions to hospital where a diagnosis of dog attack (bite or strike) was recorded. The available data from 2004 to 2022 is included in the following table:

The Scottish Government introduced a national dog control notice database in February 2022 which is helping local authorities and Police Scotland access information on dog owners where notices have been issued.

The national database brought together the dog control notice records of all local authorities into a centralised database that is accessible by all 32 local authorities and Police Scotland.

Where a person subject to a dog control notice moves from one local authority to another, the national database is a valuable tool in helping to enforce that notice.

The 2010 Act already allows for and requires local authorities to co-operate with the police and other local authorities in all matters relating to the control of dogs arising under or by virtue of this Act, the Dogs Act 1906 or the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. It is for local authorities to assess how and when information can be shared more widely and in so doing, local authorities will carefully consider data protection under GDPR.

Questions regarding day-to-day operational matters of Historic Environment Scotland, including information relating to Historic Sundays, are best answered by Historic Environment Scotland.

I have asked Historic Environment Scotland to respond directly to the member with a full reply to his question in writing.

Questions regarding day-to-day operational matters of Historic Environment Scotland, including information relating to Historic Sundays, are best answered by Historic Environment Scotland.

I have asked Historic Environment Scotland to respond directly to the member with a full reply to his question in writing.

We have previously answered two FOIs on website visits to the Building a New Scotland Papers:

• Unique online visitor statistics: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
• Building a New Scotland webpage visitors: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Paper title: Social security in an independent Scotland

Main paper URL: https://www.gov.scot/publications/social-security-independent-scotland/

Main paper publish date: 6-12-2023

Main paper views in first month (all pages): 4,670

Easy read URL: https://www.gov.scot/publications/building-new-scotland-social-security-independent-scotland-easy-read-version/

Easy read publish date: 6-12-2023

Easy read views or download link clicks in first month: 269

Audio URL: https://soundcloud.com/scotgov/building-a-new-scotland-social-security-in-an-independent-scotland/s-XUJSNClgEUv

Audio publish date: 6-12-2023

Audio link clicks in first month: 7

Community language landing pageURL: https://www.gov.scot/publications/social-security-independent-scotland/documents/

Translation publish date: 6-12-2023

Translation downloads in first month:

Arabic: 2

Bengalii: 0

Bulgarian: 1

Cantonese: 0

French: 4

Gaelic: 0

Hindi: 0

Italian: 0

Mandarin: 0

Polish: 0

Punjabi: 0

Romanian: 0

Russian: 0

Spanish: 2

Ukrainian: 0

Urdu: 2

BSL YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnYAdwlHIXE

Date BSL Version Published:6-12-2023

Views in first 30 days: 8

The information used to publish the Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard only contains data from April 2017. Accordingly, we are unable to extract the number of case-accused convicted for the financial years prior to 2017-18.

From April 2017 to March 2023, 279 people received disqualification or deprivation orders. The numbers per financial year were as follows.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-24498 on  23 January 2024. 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-24498 on 23 January 2024. 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 .