Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Grant Funding Condition 17 between Scottish Ministers and City of Edinburgh Council contains a requirement to undertake an evaluation of the Edinburgh Trams Project and I understand that this work is currently underway. Proposals for extending the tram line to Newhaven is a matter for Transport for Edinburgh and City of Edinburgh Council if they believe this is desirable and offers good value for money .

Edinburgh Trams is publicly owned by the City of Edinburgh Council. We are not aware of any analysis having being conducted on the accessibility/affordability of trams for those on low incomes. However, free travel on trams is available to those aged 60+ or with a disability and in receipt of a National Entitlement Card issued by the City of Edinburgh Council.

The Scottish Government legislated in the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015 to strengthen the taxi and private hire licensing regime, for example by requiring local authorities to appoint civic licensing standards officers, whose role includes supervising compliance. We expect every company and individual to operate within the existing licensing regime, and for all taxi and private hire car drivers, and vehicles, to be licensed. Anyone acting as an unlicensed driver is committing a criminal offence.

While we recognise the potential benefits to taxi and private hire car companies, and to passengers, in using new technology to access services, safety is always of paramount concern. It is clearly not acceptable for users or drivers to suffer from discrimination or violence. Any driver or passenger who believes they may have been the victim of a criminal offence should report the matter to the police, so that the incident can be investigated.

Our analysis has shown that the reduction in the number of ‘planned’ trains was a direct result of forecast severe weather. The Scottish Government and ScotRail placed an absolute priority on the safety of customers and staff.

More specifically, this means:

* The need to avoid running trains where there was a risk to passenger/staff safety, as the Met Office’s “red warning” for snow had advised, and where there was a risk that a train could end up stranded, because of accumulations of snow and snow drifts.

* Drivers and train crew unable to get to their depots because of ice and snow. In fact, during the period for the Met Office Amber and Red Warnings for snow, the advice consistently given by Police Scotland and the Scottish Government was that people should “Avoid Travel unless absolutely necessary”.

* Before services could resume safely, line proving and in some cases significant snow clearance had to be undertaken. In all cases, services were restored as soon as it was safe to do so.

There are no discounts available for island residents on the Clyde & Hebrides Ferry Services (CHFS) network, operated by CalMac, other than those provided for older and disabled people by national and local concessionary travel schemes.

The introduction of Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) across the CHFS network, which was completed in October 2015, simplified the fares structure and provided significant ferry fare reductions for all passengers and for cars and small commercial vehicles. These lower RET fares on the CHFS network are available equally to islands residents, their friends and families and other visitors.

It is every patient's responsibility to keep their NHS appointment and it is important that they let the NHS know when they cannot attend. However, we also recognise that the NHS has to be flexible in helping make appointments convenient to patients.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting health boards implement policies to reduce missed appointments such as providing reminder services through text, emails and social media. This will allow reminder services to be tailored to patients who are most likely not to attend.

The Scottish Government policy is clear that it has no intention to charge patients who miss appointments. There can be many reasons why a patient may not attend. For example if there was a family emergency. To put a system in place to charge patients for non-attendance is likely to be highly expensive to operate.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting health boards implement policies to reduce missed appointments such as providing reminder services through text, emails and social media. This will allow reminder services to be tailored for patients who are most likely not to attend.

Information is collected centrally for missed appointments for a first outpatient consultations only. The following tables provide information on the number of first outpatient appointments and the number of patients who did not attend a first outpatient appointment for the last five years by NHS Board.

Housing support services are commissioned by Health and Social Care Partnerships as they are best placed to determine local needs and priorities and make best use of resources.

We are supporting Integration Authorities to improve outcomes across health and social care. In particular we are providing support for the effective commissioning of new and better models of care.

In 2018-19 an additional £66 million is included in the Local Government settlement allocations to support additional spending by local government on social care.

In recent years the delivery of housing support services have been undergoing changes to the traditional models. For example the increased use of technology enabled care. However, although the service models may change, the level of support should not be diminished.