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The answer to S6W-28648 stated that 3,308 certificates of exemption for XL Bully dogs have been issued to dog owners by the Scottish Government during the period 1 April 2024 to 31 July 2024. This reflected the number of exemptions issued when the PQ answer was developed and there can be a short time lag between an answer being drafted by the Scottish Government and the PQ being answered.

The figure that was provided by the Scottish Government to the Scottish Sun newspaper was that, as of Thursday 1 August, there have been 3,342 applications for exemption certificates for XL Bully dogs approved.

The difference in figure is explained by the time-lag noted above meaning that 34 additional manually produced exemption certificates issued by the Scottish Government after 31 July 2024 were included in the figure given to the Scottish Sun, but not in the PQ answer.

It may be helpful to be aware that the Scottish Government is continuing to work through a small number of cases where XL Bully dog owners have met the legal requirement to apply before 31 July 2024, but still require to provide additional information in order for their exemption application to be processed and granted.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS currently share information regarding the number of individuals released under Emergency Early Release (ER) on the SPS website. Further work has commenced on an analysis of the entire ER tranche data, and the SPS hope to be able to publish a full data report, which will be available on the SPS website by the end of August.

SPS continue to be as open and transparent as possible, whilst continuing to meet our statutory obligation to ensure that those in our care have their personal information protected; as such we have taken the decision not to publish a breakdown of establishments of those released under the ER scheme as some of the data could relate to a small group of individuals, which may lead to their inadvertent identification. SPS will however, share information that does include individual local authorities and health boards as part of the released data set.

Following Stage 2, we will provide a revised Financial Memorandum for Stage 2 amendments that have been agreed to which will also note the value of costs incurred to date on the Bill.

Following recommendations made in the research report on women and girls' safety on public transport, a number of actions are being taken forward. These include:

Transport Scotland officials are continuing to work with colleagues across Government to ensure that specific actions in development to tackle antisocial behaviour on bus take into account the safety of women and girls.

ScotRail, Network Rail and British Transport Police are working together with stakeholders to deliver a wide range of activity to reduce anti-social behaviours across the rail network. For example, ScotRail established a Travel Safe Team, made up of 24 officers and 3 supervisors, in 2023. The team work mainly across the central belt and in the southwest and ScotRail are looking into how it can be expanded. The team promote safe behaviours as much as challenge bad behaviour. They engage closely with customers and staff to identify issues; this is then followed by targeted engagements e.g. they will spend time talking with (and maybe travelling with) people to explain the importance of buying tickets and the benefits of considerate behaviour to everyone.

All ScotRail train carriages are fitted with CCTV. All but two ScotRail stations have CCTV. The two stations without CCTV are on private land and legal issues are currently being worked through. Of the ScotRail stations that have CCTV 246 are monitored continuously within control centres. Waverley has its own CCTV system and control room. Glasgow Central has plans to update its CCTV, which is out of date, but it does not have a dedicated and staffed control room for monitoring it.

ScotRail are investing in increasing numbers of body worn cameras and encourage staff to wear them. They are working to persuade Trade Unions in particular of their benefits.

Advertising campaigns and literature on board trains and at stations highlight ways to report incidents to the British Transport Police, for example via the Text 6-101-6 service or by reporting via the Railway Guardian app.

Transport Scotland is writing to Scottish Rail Holdings to draw attention to the research recommendations, and asking that the recommendations be taken forward. Transport Scotland will also circulate the report from the stakeholder event hosted by Transport Scotland in December 2023 and the research report to bus and ferry operators to highlight the recommendations. The report from the stakeholder event can be found on the Transport Scotland website here:

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Transport Scotland will publish a page on the Transport Scotland website which will feature the Principles that have emerged from the stakeholder event and provide links to other relevant information produced by Transport Scotland and partner organisations.

Transport Scotland will report on progress of the research recommendations on an annual basis to coincide with 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, and also as part of reporting on the National Transport Strategy.

Transport Scotland will continue to work with Violence Against Women and Girls colleagues across the Scottish Government to support the sharing of good practice in relation to progress on the principles. Transport Scotland will also publish research which explores literature around the use of personal safety apps for use in public spaces, particularly on public transport.

In addition, the Cabinet Secretary held a round table with rail delivery partners and stakeholders to ensure collaboration on measures that will increase the safety of passengers and staff. 

Transport Scotland also work with the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) to support sharing best practice amongst bus operators.

The Scottish Government has provided support for employees affected by developments at Carpetright through our Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) initiative.In agreement with Carpetright's Talent Acquisition Manager, a PACE Introduction to Redundancy Support webinar took place on 7 August for all impacted staff across Scotland to inform them of the support on offer. In addition, information on PACE services has been issued to the impacted staff to support their self-referral to partnership services. Skills Development Scotland will also be undertaking promotion of PACE support to former Carpetright staff via social media activity.Through providing skills development and employability support, PACE aims to minimise the time individuals affected by redundancy are out of work.

We remain committed to Phase 2 of the 2018 GP Contract and ensuring the stability and sustainability of general practice.

Discussions with the BMA on Phase 2 are ongoing and we are developing a refreshed delivery plan for this work – this will include a revised timeline for delivery.

Since 2019, NHS Tayside has been focusing on developing and stabilising breast cancer services. They have successfully recruited new Breast Oncologists to their local service, including two Breast Clinical Oncologists who work solely for NHS Tayside alongside a joint Breast Medical Oncologist post with NHS Lothian.

NHS Tayside is replacing a radiotherapy linac machine, which has generated some constraints in physical radiotherapy capacity. To ensure patients can access radiotherapy in a timely manner, NHS Tayside has collaborated with NHS Highland to offer faster access to radiotherapy for a small number of patients with breast cancer. Once the linac is fully replaced, and with the new breast oncologists now in place, NHS Tayside will deliver the full pathway of Breast Cancer Care locally with a continued drive to improve patient experiences and outcomes.

We intend to resume Tranche 1 of the Sustainability Loan Scheme in 2024-25 once we have completed the disbursement of funds for those loans already completed and confirmed a budget. This will likely not be until midway through the financial year.

Our preference remains to continue the loan scheme into Tranche 2 and beyond – however, this is dependent on whether the UK Government resumes the allocation of Financial Transaction Capital to the Scottish Government.

In November 2022 the Ministerial Population Taskforce published the research report ‘Attitudes to Family Formation in Scotland’ to update the evidence base about fertility, family planning, and ideal family size in Scotland.

Building on international engagement with other countries experiencing low birth rates, the Scottish Government is taking forward comparative work about family friendly policies in other European countries, to establish if successful interventions elsewhere could be applicable in Scotland.

The outputs of this work will be considered alongside recent Census data in order to develop next steps which reflect Scottish Ministers’ ambition for Scotland to be the best possible place for all families.

In line with the 2024-2025 delivery plan for the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care, a range of practical education and training projects have begun, with an early emphasis on improved support and training for remote and rural dispensing practices, and developing supervisory training.

The current programme of work includes, but is not limited to, an education programme for Rural GP Dispensing Practices and a new Rural Advanced Practitioners Programme (RAP), MSc and PG Diploma.

In addition the Rural Practitioners Series of Learning is delivering two rural education sessions per month, with a menu of sessions agreed for the next 6 months, and more in the planning for the year ahead in response to priority educational needs.

The first stage of a Primary Care Community Training Hub Pilot project has also been initiated in partnership with three primary care practices.

Further detail on the work of the Centre can be found at the TURAS Information hub