This information is not held by Scottish Government, as there is no Scotland-wide Concessionary Rail Travel Scheme. At their discretion, local authorities can provide travel concessions for their residents, such as free or reduced fares on rail, taxi and ferry services.

The 16-25 Railcard is provided by the UK rail industry and not by the Scottish or UK governments. Therefore, the Scottish Government does not hold details on the cost, benefit or utility of this scheme. The scheme offers a discount of one third off most fares for an annual fee of £30, with some restrictions (such as a minimum fare before 10 am on weekdays). More information is available at www.railcard.co.uk .

The Scottish Government offers a further rail discount scheme, the Scottish Youth Railcard (SYR), for those in Scotland aged 16-18 and for full-time volunteers aged 19-25. This scheme helps to connect young people with business, education and leisure opportunities. It is free to access the scheme with a Young Scot Card and, in addition to one third off most fares, it offers half-price Season tickets. There were 2,337,203 journeys made using the SYR in 2016-17, at a cost of £529,152 to the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government has not carried out any research on the impact ride-sharing apps could have on reducing CO2 emissions, reducing surface deterioration on congested roads or better facilitation of public services.

Statistics on the number of people convicted for crimes with an aggravator recorded is available in table 12 of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2016-17 publication. The Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database does not hold information on the faith group, gender, race or country of origin of the victim.

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2018/02/7427

Not all of the information requested is held centrally. The Scottish Government has previously published statistics on Racist Incidents Recorded by the Police in Scotland, with the most recent release covering the reporting year of 2013-14 ( http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubRacistIncidents ).

This publication noted the intention to scope out the possibility of replacing this release with a new and broader product on police recorded hate crime. This would include information on other strands of hate crime recorded by the police, in addition to retaining data on hate incidents with a race element. Scottish Government statisticians have been working with Police Scotland as it develops the data it holds on its existing systems. We anticipate an update on the outcome of this work in the near future, and plans for a new publication. This update will be circulated to users through the ScotStat network ( http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/scotstat ).

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) also publish annual statistics on crimes aggravated by race, religious, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity prejudice ( http://www.copfs.gov.uk/publications/equality-and-diversity ). These figures relate to charges reported to the COPFS and includes information on how those charges were proceeded. Information on the faith group, gender, race or country of origin of the victim is not included. Statistics for 2017-18 will be published on 15 June 2018.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

The Marine Conservation Society's annual Beachwatch programme surveys beach litter. Its 2017 report identified 0.2% of UK beach litter was medical. That included syringes along with other medical items.

This information is not held centrally.

The last published estimate of the cost of obesity in Scotland, by the Scottish Government , was for the Obesity Route Map in 2010. This can be found here http://www.gov.scot/resource/doc/302783/0094795.pdf . It is Appendix 2 in the document.

Subsequently SPICE published updated estimates in 2015. http://www.parliament.scot/ResearchBriefingsAndFactsheets/S4/SB_15-01_Obesity_in_Scotland.pdf

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.

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.