Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-20882

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many police-recorded common assaults on emergency workers there have been in the Scottish Borders in each of the last five years; broken down by type of emergency worker, and how many led to subsequent (a) arrests, (b) prosecutions and (c) convictions.

The number of common assaults on emergency workers in Scottish Borders recorded by Police in Scotland, 2013-14 to 2017-18

Crime	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18
Common Assault of an Emergency Worker	61	68	76	75	61

Source: Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2017-18.

(a) Scottish Government does not hold this information. Police Scotland have confirmed they do not currently collect data in respect of 'arrests'.

(b) Number of people proceeded for common assaults on emergency workers ¹ in Scottish Borders, 2012-13 to 2016-17.

	2012- 13	2013- 14	2014- 15	2015- 16	2016- 17
Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 Section 1(1)	2	2	3	4	-
Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 Section 2(1)	1	-	-	-	-
Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 Section 3(1)	-	-	-	1	-
Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 Section 5(1)	4	1	-	4	2
Police (Scotland) Act 1967 Section 41(1)(A)	25	11	4	1	-
Police And Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 Section 90(1)(A)	-	6	12	16	15
Police And Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 Section 90(1)(A)&(2)(A)	-	3	-	-	-
Police And Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 Section 90(2)(A)	-	17	18	28	16
Police And Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 Section 90(2)(B)	-	-	1	-	-
Police And Fire Reform Scotland) Act 2012 Section 90(1)(A)& (2)(A)	-	-	-	-	1
All

1 - where main crime

Source: Criminal Proceedings database

(c) Number of people convicted for common assaults on emergency workers ¹ in Scottish Borders, 2012-13 to 2016-17.

	2012- 13	2013- 14	2014- 15	2015- 16	2016- 17
Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 Section 1(1)	1	2	3	4	-
Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 Section 2(1)	1	-	-	-	-
Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 Section 3(1)	-	-	-	1	-
Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 Section 5(1)	4	1	-	4	2
Police (Scotland) Act 1967 Section 41(1)(A)	22	9	3	1	-
Police And Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 Section 90(1)(A)	-	6	11	16	14
Police And Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 Section 90(1)(A)& (2)(A)	-	1	-	-	-
Police And Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 Section 90(2)(A)	-	17	17	28	15
Police And Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 Section 90(2)(B)	-	-	1	-	-
Police And Fire Reform Scotland) Act 2012 Section 90(1)(A)& (2)(A)	-	-	-	-	1
All	28	36	35	54	32

1 - where main crime

Source: Criminal Proceedings database

Please note: The Scottish Government does not hold this information by type of emergency worker.

Figures provided above do not include all proceedings/convictions for assaults on emergency workers. More serious assaults may result in other charges, such as serious assault or attempted murder. These cannot be identified separately in the available statistics and so are not included.

Data for financial year 2017-18 will be available on 29-01-2018.

Question reference: S5W-20881

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to the agritourism sector in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S5W-20883

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 22 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been allocated to each local authority area by the Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund in each of the last 10 years, also broken down by the projects supported.

The Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund, administered by VisitScotland, has to date had one funding round and supported three pilot projects.

Information on the pilot projects, funded in 2017-18, is as follows:

Pilot Project	Local Authority	Amount - £
Fairy Pools, Skye - toilet and associated facilities	The Highland Council	300,000
Neist Point, Skye - parking	The Highland Council	100,000
Stones of Stenness - parking	Orkney Islands Council	80,000

Details of the awards made under the first round of the fund announced in October 2018 are available at https://www.visitscotland.org/supporting-your-business/funding/rural-tourism-infrastructure-fund .

Question reference: S5W-20767

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many trains have been (a) cancelled and (b) delayed on the Borders Railway in each month since September 2015.

Transport Scotland does not routinely receive performance information down to this level of detail because the franchise does not obligate ScotRail to provide it. The performance of Borders Line services is reported within the East Suburban service group.

Specific up-to-date information about ScotRail performance, including the East Suburban service group, can be found here: https://www.scotrail.co.uk/sites/default/files/assets/download_ct/web_upload_p9_002.pdf .

Question reference: S5W-20865

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 17 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that recent film studio applications are located in close proximity to each other in the central belt.

The Scottish Government backs the expansion of the screen industry and welcomes the recent private and public sector proposals for studio infrastructure that should help increase the range of available facilities in Scotland and enable our screen sector to achieve its full potential.

The new dedicated screen unit within Creative Scotland, Screen Scotland, leads on the expansion and delivery of improved infrastructure provision for the screen sector. I have therefore asked Screen Scotland to contact you directly in response to your question.

Screen Scotland currently markets 136,000 sq ft of full-time converted stage space and 335,000 sq ft of build space and will continue to promote all existing studio facilities across Scotland to capitalise on the current unprecedented interest from UK and international producers in filming here.

Question reference: S5W-20847

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 15 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when the Scottish Expert Advisory Panel on the Collaborative Economy last met, and what issues were discussed.

The Scottish Expert Advisory Panel on the Collaborative Economy met for the last time on 30 November 2017 to discuss its draft report and to approve agreed recommendations for inclusion. The Advisory Panel’s final report published on 29 January 2018, and can be viewed at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-expert-advisory-panel-collaborative-economy-report/

The Scottish Government’s response to the report was published on 10 July 2018 and can be viewed at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-response-scottish-expert-advisory-panel-collaborative-economy-report/

All associated papers and minutes of the Advisory Panel’s meetings are available through the Scottish Government’s website at:
https://www.gov.scot/groups/scottish-expert-advisory-panel-collaborative-economy/

Question reference: S5W-19936

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 21 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time has been for a specialist neurology appointment in each NHS health board in each year since 2007.

The following tables provide the average waiting times for Neurology in days across all NHS territorial NHS Boards from 2007 to 2017.

In March 2010, the national standard for new outpatients changed from 15 weeks for General Practitioner/General Dental Practitioner referrals only, to a standard of 12 weeks for all sources of referrals. This has therefore been illustrated in the two tables.

For 2017 the data for two NHS Boards (NHS Ayrshire and Arran and NHS Tayside) is limited due to technical issues with providing data to the ISD Waiting Times warehouse and are not included in the NHSScotland total for that year.

Table 1

NHS Board	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
NHS Scotland	55	56	61	62	68	72	75	86
Ayrshire & Arran	70	82	81	84	105	85	102	..
Borders	49	55	71	67	41	67	51	85
Dumfries & Galloway	64	38	57	62	31	132	83	77
Fife	46	44	53	51	72	88	130	131
Forth Valley	73	68	71	104	79	72	96	125
Grampian	54	41	51	49	59	81	62	105
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	55	54	57	63	72	77	82	91
Highland	57	63	52	52	78	66	42	133
Lanarkshire	79	83	93	90	91	99	82	90
Lothian	40	49	49	49	49	48	51	51
Orkney	66	81	60	41	0	0	0	0
Shetland	0	0	0	0	10	7	0	13
Tayside	56	58	63	65	71	85	83	..
Western Isles	29	58	36	55	67	61	36	30

Source: ISD Waiting Times Warehouse (all source referrals)

Table 2

NHS Board	2008	2009
NHS Scotland	61	56
Ayrshire & Arran	66	60
Borders	60	60
Dumfries & Galloway	76	47
Fife	70	54
Forth Valley	89	73
Grampian	56	52
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	64	55
Highland	56	56
Lanarkshire	97	81
Lothian	37	44
Orkney	92	60
Shetland	0	0
Tayside	64	55
Western Isles	53	53

Source: ISD Waiting Times Warehouse (GP/GDP referrals)

Question reference: S5T-01412

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 December 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that rail transport performs well during the festive period.

Question reference: S5W-20186

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 6 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) purpose and (b) remit is of its Short Term Lets Delivery Group; which groups are represented on it; on what dates it has met; what future meetings are planned; which stakeholders it has engaged with, and by what date it will present its findings.

The purpose and remit of the Short Term Lets Delivery Group is set out in the Scottish Government's response to the recommendations made by the Scottish Expert Advisory Panel on the Collaborative Economy. Full details can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-response-scottish-expert-advisory-panel-collaborative-economy-report/ .

The Group is working to deliver on the Programme for Government commitment to ensure that local authorities have the appropriate regulatory powers to allow them to take the decisions to balance the needs and concerns of their communities with wider economic and tourism interests. These powers will allow local authorities to ensure a safe, quality experience for visitors, whilst protecting the interests of local communities.

The Group comprises Scottish Government officials from across relevant areas of government including: better regulation, community empowerment, economy, housing, licensing, planning, taxation and tourism. There are no external members. The group has met five times: 26 June 2018; 15 August 2018; 7 September 2018; 26 October 2018; and 27 November. It is envisaged that the group will continue to meet on an approximately monthly basis. Members of the group have met with Airbnb, the Association of Scotland’s Self Caterers, the City of Edinburgh Council, COSLA and the Short Term Accommodation Association specifically to discuss short term lets. Members of the Group have also discussed short terms lets with other stakeholders in the context of taking forward other government business. In 2019, the Group will engage widely with local government, communities and business interests across Scotland. It is intended that the Group will report its findings in the course of 2019.

Question reference: S5O-02661

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met NHS Borders.

Chamber and committees