Chamber and committees

There are only five vehicles in the entire SG and wider SG agency fleet which would not comply, zero in Glasgow, two in Aberdeen and three in Edinburgh, out of a total fleet of 197 vehicles.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Licensing schemes are administered by licensing authorities on a cost recovery basis through the collection of application fees.

The information requested is not held centrally.

At this time Nitrous Oxide is not covered under the Misuse of Drugs Act, rather it is currently an offence under the reserved Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 to supply nitrous oxide if a person knows, or is reckless as to whether, it will be used for its psychoactive effect. Given the reserved nature of this legislation, the Scottish Government has not had any discussions with eBay, Amazon or any other retailer about the marketing or sale of nitrous oxide for recreational purposes. However, we have engaged heavily with the National Crime Agency and UK Government about the need for tackling the ease through which certain products can be bought online and used for criminal activity and will be responding to their current consultation about developing a new criminal offence around the supply or possession of articles used for serious crime, particularly pill presses. We would plan to engage with retailers about the impact of any new legislation.

The UK Government have requested that the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs conduct an updated assessment of the health and social harms of nitrous oxide and, following that assessment, provide advice on whether nitrous oxide should be controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Scottish Government officials are engaging with the ACMD around this review and have provided information to them in relation to it. The ACMD will explore, amongst other elements of Nitrous Oxide use, whether current regulations are having the desired effect of preventing the marketing and sale of nitrous oxide for recreational purposes and whether or not such an effect might be achieved by listing it under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

There are currently no plans to withdraw the Network Support Grant scheme and as such, no discussions on this topic have been held with SPT.

The Network Support Grant Plus scheme is a temporary scheme which is coming to an end on 31 March 2023. The Scottish Government, bus operators, local authorities and regional transport partnerships including SPT are continuing to collaborate through the Bus Taskforce to explore how to address the challenges of rising costs and driver shortages currently facing the bus industry.

The Scottish Government discussed with National Museums of Scotland the effect of the Public and Commercial Services Union industrial action on 1 February 2023. NMS opened the 1st floor of the National Museum of Scotland – which includes Animal World, Kingdom of Scots, Discoveries and Imagine galleries. The National War Museum was closed. The National Museum of Rural Life was open as usual. The National Museum of Flight is currently closed during the week during winter and so was unaffected by the industrial action.

The primary purpose of Cross Party Groups is to provide Members with a forum to consider matters of public interest, normally involving people from outwith the parliament to provide expert or stakeholder input to discussions. Cross Party Groups are welcome to request factual briefings on Scottish Government policy positions. It is expected that officials will meet with the Cross-Party Group on Chronic Pain in the coming weeks to provide an update on work to progress the actions set out in the Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery – Implementation Plan.

I refer the member to answers to questions S6W-14299 on‎ 6 February 2023 and S6W-14300 on 31 January 2023. 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

As the member is aware, ScotRail’s performance is measured using the industry standard Public Performance Measure (PPM) which combines reliability and punctuality into a single performance metric. To achieve PPM, a service must arrive/terminate at a station within 5 minutes of its booked arrival time.

PPM is a practical measurement of performance, which allows time for rail staff to assist passengers or hold trains for connections to be made when appropriate.

PPM figures at Ayr and Girvan in the latest reporting period (11 Dec 2022 – 7 Jan 2023) are 91.4% and 91.3% respectively, showing more than 9 out of 10 trains arriving at these stations met their performance target. Services at these stations showed better performance than the network as a whole.

The Scottish Government discussed with the National Galleries of Scotland the effect of the Public and Commercial Services Union industrial action on 1 February 2023. The National Galleries made the decision to close each of their galleries, shops and restaurants. All support colleagues were asked to work from home.