Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-19267

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 25 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) cautions and (b) charges have been issued in (i) Fife and (ii) the rest of Scotland, due to the inappropriate use of quad bikes or similar single-person operated vehicles in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S5W-19322

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 23 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what advice it provides to people that it has appointed to public bodies regarding the appropriateness of appearing on the Russian news channel, RT.

Any queries by public appointees about specific communication media would be dealt with by the appointee’s public body.

The Scottish government has high expectations of those who serve on the Boards of public bodies and the way in which they conduct themselves in undertaking their duties. As a Board member it is their personal responsibility to make sure they are familiar with their Code of Conduct and the internal policies of their public body and that their actions accord with these.

Question reference: S5W-18840

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 2 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) environmental health inspectors, (b) meat inspectors and (c) food safety officers have been employed by each local authority in each of the last five years.

Number of Local Authority Environmental Health Officers and Food Safety Officers engaged in food law enforcement activity

Local Authority	Year 2013	Year 2014	Year 2015	Year 2016	Year 2017	Year 2018
Aberdeen City Council	14	12.2	12.2	14	11.6	13
Aberdeenshire Council	9.3	14.6	14.6	11.75	16.1	16.5
Angus Council	7.9	7.6	7.6	6.5	6.3	7.6
Argyll and Bute Council	7.87	No data provided	9	No data provided	7	8
City of Edinburgh Council	18.25	20.4	20.4	17.7	15.4	15.05
Clackmannanshire Council	3.5	3	3	3.7	3.75	4.4
Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar	2.2	2	2	2	1.9	2
Dumfries and Galloway Council	6.3	5.77	5.77	7.32	7.35	13
Dundee City Council	7.45	7.45	7.45	14.9	14.9	14.9
East Ayrshire Council	4.9	6	6	6	6	Data not yet available
East Dunbartonshire Council	4.5	4.5	4.5	4	3	3.5
East Lothian Council	4.2	3.35	3.35	4.3	4.3	6
East Renfrewshire Council	3	4.6	4.6	5.2	5.2	6
Falkirk Council	6.2	7.9	7.9	6.75	7.1	5.8
Fife Council	15.3	16.65	16.65	13	13.13	15
Glasgow City Council	18.95	21.1	21.1	20.65	14.65	19
Highland Council	15.43	16.22	16.22	14.41	10.87	14.3
Inverclyde Council	2.8	2.82	2.82	2.78	2.8	2
Midlothian Council	3.15	3.75	3.75	3	3.5	3
Moray Council	6	4.8	4.8	3.5	8	10
North Ayrshire Council	8	7	7	8	8	8
North Lanarkshire Council	13.3	26.8	26.8	26	26	20
Orkney Islands Council	1.1	1.1	1.1	0.9	1.2	4
Perth and Kinross Council	3.7	11.1	11.1	12.5	13.5	6.12
Renfrewshire Council	6.35	7	7	7.5	6.1	7.5
Scottish Borders Council	6.5	4.15	4.15	5.5	5.5	5
Shetland Islands Council	2.3	5.25	5.25	2.25	3.25	2.75
South Ayrshire Council	6.7	12.8	12.8	10	10.8	8
South Lanarkshire Council	18.57	12	12	12	13.7	13
Stirling Council	5.9	5.9	5.9	5.3	8.6	8
West Dunbartonshire Council	4.7	4.5	4.5	4.15	3.65	3.65
West Lothian Council	5.6	5.6	5.6	6.3	6.3	Data not yet available

Number of Meat Hygiene Inspectors employed by Food Standards Scotland

Until 1995 meat hygiene inspectors (MHI’s) were employed by Local Authorities to undertake inspection duties in slaughterhouses across the UK.

In 1995 the Meat Hygiene Service was created as a single body to deliver the official control requirements in this sector. Local Authority MHI’s transferred to the MHS or remained with the local authority service and following professional training assisted in delivering the food safety officer function.

In 2010 the MHS merged with the Food Standards Agency with those working in Scotland becoming employees of Food Standards Scotland upon its vesting in 2015. FSS does not have records of the number of MHI’s working in Scotland prior to 2015.

Year

2015

Year

2016

Year

2017

Year

2018

63

61

56

55

Question reference: S5W-18839

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 1 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many food safety samples have been taken in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority.

	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018 YTD
ABERDEEN CITY	875	790	684	603	644	355
ABERDEENSHIRE	509	594	373	421	485	241
ANGUS	462	451	377	415	408	253
ARGYLL AND BUTE	186	234	151	154	105	80
CLACKMANNANSHIRE	107	169	125	124	170	65
DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY	444	279	451	318	387	65
DUNDEE CITY	319	386	363	334	307	200
EAST AYRSHIRE	208	212	297	329	439	68
EAST DUNBARTONSHIRE	312	312	364	363	327	193
EAST LOTHIAN	471	393	240	209	218	62
EAST RENFREWSHIRE	153	197	188	54	158	105
EDINBURGH CITY	862	910	544	220	408	159
FALKIRK	183	426	228	151	358	69
FIFE	344	534	420	297	350	224
GLASGOW CITY	1480	1293	1530	1374	1376	680
HIGHLAND	744	843	743	326	268	160
INVERCLYDE*	0	160	208	142	179	118
MID LOTHIAN	145	281	210	173	195	102
MORAY	358	278	396	314	315	186
NORTH AYRSHIRE	237	214	267	191	281	139
NORTH LANARKSHIRE*	205	179	100	110	190	172
ORKNEY ISLANDS	50	67	36	25	8	6
PERTH AND KINROSS	254	360	327	303	182	209
RENFREWSHIRE	202	142	252	89	214	31
SCOTTISH BORDERS	270	130	620	450	446	58
SHETLAND ISLANDS	20	107	53	102	84	69
SOUTH AYRSHIRE	531	285	382	298	323	193
SOUTH LANARKSHIRE*	597	459	588	484	596	88
STIRLING	241	247	357	249	388	104
WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE	356	219	156	201	341	109
WEST LOTHIAN	531	391	417	363	401	105
WESTERN ISLES	65	84	68	67	52	54

The food sampling data provided in the attached table represents sampling undertaken by Local Authorities (and tested by the Scottish Public Analyst laboratories) in Scotland between 1 January 2013 and 31 August 2018, which is recorded on a centralised database held by Food Standards Scotland (the UK Food Surveillance System; UKFSS).

* Local Authority has not yet started to submit its full sample set to the UKFSS database. Therefore low sample numbers do not represent a lack of sampling by the Local Authority.

Question reference: S5O-02405

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Trading Standards Scotland and Citizens Advice Scotland regarding tackling secondary ticket sales.

The Scottish Government fully appreciate the concerns expressed about the deliberate resale of tickets for profit, known as “touting” and recognise that some events do sell out quickly and ticket touts or online sellers take the opportunity to sell tickets at significantly higher prices.

The regulation of consumer protection is reserved to the UK Government. Trading Standards Scotland (TSS) is a UK government funded team intended to add capacity to local authority trading standards services in Scotland. TSS is funded by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and HM Treasury (HMT). The former Cabinet Secretary for the Economy raised concerns with UK Government on this issue.

Powers in relation to secondary ticketing are also reserved to Westminster and we cannot bring forward any legislation in this area under the current constitutional arrangements and so our contact has been directly with the UK Government rather than Trading Standards and Citizens Advice Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-18842

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 25 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it or its agencies have taken to review the adequacy of the Scottish component of the Special Protection Area network at sea, and what plans are in place to consult on its methodology and findings.

Question reference: S5O-02359

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with Transport Scotland regarding the Levenmouth rail project.

Question reference: S5O-02344

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 12 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making with its ambitions for the food and drink sector.

The Scottish Government has pledged £7.5m funding over 2017- 2020 towards the Ambition 2030 food and drink industry strategy to support delivery of the aim to double the value of the sector to £30bn by 2030.

We are also taking forward a wide range of work across government to progress our ambition to be a Good Food Nation. Yesterday, I published a programme of measures that for the first time draws together the activities underway or which are planned to make a real difference to the lives of people in Scotland. This significant Programme of Measures demonstrates our very real commitment to grow Scotland as a Good Food Nation. We will also be consulting in the autumn, including on what legislative measures might be required to underpin the excellent work already being done.

Question reference: S5W-17578

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 July 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 22 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding (a) it and (b) its agencies provides to Trading Standards Scotland (TSS); how much of this is ring-fenced for specific areas, broken down by area, and what direction and funding it has given to TSS to undertake enforcement work to tackle ticket touting.

The regulation of consumer protection is reserved to the UK Government. Trading Standards Scotland (TSS) is a UK government funded team intended to add capacity to local authority trading standards services in Scotland. TSS is funded by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and HM Treasury (HMT).

Powers in relation to secondary ticketing, known as "ticket touting" are also reserved to Westminster. The Scottish Government provided £125,000 to TSS in 2017-18 to fund the purchase of over 1,200 call blockers for some of Scotland’s most vulnerable people. TSS is working with a range of organisations who engage with vulnerable individuals to ensure they go to those that need them the most. The call blockers being disseminated (trueCall devices) record the numbers that they block, which will enable intelligence to be gather to support enforcement work.

The funding is part of the Scottish Government’s response to the Nuisance Calls Commission, which was chaired by the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work, and met three times between November 2016 and March 2017.

Question reference: S5W-17507

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 1 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when it will respond to the recommendations of the Scottish Expert Advisory Panel on the Collaborative Economy.

The Scottish Government's response to the report of the Scottish Expert Advisory Panel on the Collaborative Economy was published on 10 July 2018. The report can be accessed at http://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781788519809.

The First Minister announced the £172,000 ShareLab Scotland fund on 6 July 2018 which is one of a range of actions identified in the response to the recommendations from the panel’s report. The fund will help identify and support projects that use online matching to help individuals and communities make better and more sustainable use of local resources, and that will contribute to Scotland’s vision of a fairer, more socially responsible collaborative economy.

Chamber and committees