Chamber and committees

There are significant limits on any action that the Scottish Government can take in this area. Regulation of consumer protection is reserved to the UK Government, with responsibility for consumer enforcement, which is a pillar of consumer protection, split between trading standards officers and Trading Standards Scotland.

Trading Standards Scotland is funded directly by the UK Government with funding for trading standards officers delivered through Barnett formula consequentials. It is for local authorities to assess their individual local circumstances to inform their decisions on how they best support their trading standards departments.

The Scottish Government monitors statistics collected by UK Finance on the number of buy-to-let mortgages in arrears across the UK. The latest trends are reported by the Scottish Government in the Scottish Housing Market Review, which is published each quarter as a resource for housing market stakeholders, including local authorities.

The Scottish Government is providing all local authorities with an annual share of £30.5 million in 2023-24 for homelessness prevention and response measures. We recognise that support to tenants being evicted is important and PRS landlords are under a duty to inform the local authority if their tenant is being evicted and at risk of homelessness. Anyone experiencing homelessness should contact their local authority as they have a legal duty to offer a minimum of temporary accommodation, advice and assistance to anyone at risk of homelessness. Organisations such as Shelter Scotland and Citizens Advice Scotland are also able to provide advice and guidance.

The Scottish Government recognises the critical role of advice services, often delivered by our diverse third sector and providing lifeline services to the most vulnerable communities during the cost crisis. We are directly investing around £12.5 million this year in free income maximisation, welfare and debt advice services delivered by third sector partners.

We recognise the impact that rising operating costs are having across society, including on charities and voluntary organisations, and we are committed to doing everything within our powers to support the third sector.

However, our ability to fulfil our devolved responsibilities and the support we would wish to provide remains a significant challenge due to the limitations on our parliament and the UK Government’s economic mismanagement.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-14081 on 30 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

The Scottish and UK governments received five strong bids for Green Freeport status from across Scotland. Each of the bids demonstrated strengths and ambition, however only two could be selected. The bids were jointly assessed by both Governments, and the winners selected following the rigorous process set out in the joint bidding prospectus. The selection of Firth of Forth and Opportunity Inverness and Cromarty Firth delivers Green Freeport Status to the strongest bids from the Central Belt and North of Scotland respectively. A document with more information about the assessment and selection process will be published in due course.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-14081 on 30 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

Whether or not to grant a warrant for entry is a judicial decision.

Legislation places a duty on all government ministers; law officers; and members of the parliaments to uphold judicial independence, barring them from trying to exert influence over judicial decisions.

For the purpose of upholding that independence, there is a duty on the First Minister, the Lord Advocate and the Scottish Ministers not to seek to influence judicial decisions through any special access to the judiciary. "Special access" refers to any access which they may have which a member of the general public may not.

Additionally, if judicial training is considered necessary then this is entirely a matter for the Lord President as Head of the Judiciary.

For these reasons it would not be appropriate to meet with the Scottish Courts and Tribunals service to discuss the increase or otherwise of the number of warrants granted.

The Scottish Government has not carried out any assessment between the number of potholes and road cycling accidents on the trunk road network.

An analysis of injury collisions for all severities on the trunk road network for the most recent full 3 year period (8 November 2019 to 7 November 2022) identified a total of 78 collisions involving a pedal cyclist. This makes up approximately 3.6% of the total number of injury accidents on the trunk road during this period. Of these 78 accidents, none were identified with a contributory factor “Poor or defective road surface”.

The Scottish Government is currently considering what type of information isn't already available and would be of most use. In the meantime, our ambitions for the development and implementation of digital services across Health and Care are set out in our 2022-23 Delivery Plan.

The table below shows the number of cardholders under the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme as of the end of the day on 31 December 2022, broken down to local authority level.

This data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO). NECPO support the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data. The table includes travel products collected from the Transport Scot Pass Collect mobile application.