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The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

It is the responsibility of Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) to plan and commission adult palliative and end of life care services for their areas using the integrated budgets under their control. As such, service level agreements between hospices and health boards are matters for Integration Authorities, their health boards, and independent hospices. Prior to commencement of the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014, any service level agreements would have been matters for NHS Health Boards and independent hospices.

This is not currently being pursued. The Scottish Government is open to the adoption of standards where there is evidence of the potential to improve performance.

However, though a kitemark standard is aimed at enabling a consistent, accessible and high performing services, the 2012 Waste (Scotland) regulations along with the existing Recycling Charter and its associated Code of Practice act as the Scottish standard of good service provision for household waste collections.

NHS Health Boards deliver the Pregnancy and Newborn screening programme locally. Scottish Government does not hold the information requested centrally.

The National Statistics on recorded crime do not include a specific code for crimes of ‘sextortion’ (i.e. extortion involving the threat of sharing sexual information about the victim). There are however two types of crime that include activity that could be considered to constitute ‘sextortion’.

Table 1 shows the estimated volume of threats and extortion committed online, from 2019-20 to 2022-23. This is based on an annual review of crime records (commenced in 2019-20) which aims to estimate how many cyber-crimes are recorded in Scotland. It should be noted the figures below are based on a sample of police records (rather than all police records), so should be seen as providing a broad estimate of the volume of this type of crime, rather than an exact count.

Whilst not all online threats and extortion will necessarily have a ‘sextortion’ based element, it is very likely a high proportion (and certainly the majority) of the cases shown below do. Where ‘sextortion’ related crimes are recorded under this heading, it will be where the perpetrator has made demands for money or other valuables.

Table 1 - Estimated volume of threats and extortion committed online: 2019-20 to 2022-23

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

Following the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 (the Act), a Memorandum of Understanding was developed between Scotland’s Integration Joint Boards and Independent Hospices. Individual memorandums of understanding between hospices and NHS Boards are a matter for those Integration Joint Boards, their health boards and independent Scottish Hospices. Prior to commencement of the Act, any individual memorandums of understanding would have been matters for NHS Health Boards and independent hospices.

No-one Dies Alone is one way to provide emotional support and companionship to people at the end of life, especially those who may be more isolated. The Scottish Government recognises the importance of this support and an overarching aim of the new Palliative and End of Life Care Strategy that we are developing is that Scotland is a place where people and communities can come together to support each other, take action, and talk openly about planning ahead, serious illness, dying, death, and bereavement.

The Scottish Government does not have plans to roll out the No-one Dies Alone initiative but does support the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care to develop and promote public health initiatives such as No-on Dies Alone, to support communities and volunteers to care for those who are near the end of life.

While the promotion of workforce diversity is a matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, the Scottish Government set clear ambitions on equality, diversity and inclusion in the Strategic Police Priorities 2023 and the Fire and Rescue Framework 2022 .

Police Scotland’s Joint Equality Outcomes for Policing include outcomes on workforce diversity monitoring, leadership, recruitment, progression and retention. Progress across a broad range of activity is highlighted in the Police Scotland EDI Mainstreaming and Equality Outcomes Progress Report 2021-2023 , published in April this year.

SFRS has developed a Positive Action toolkit to proactively engage with Scotland’s diverse communities, host community targeted recruitment events and present SFRS as an inclusive employer. SFRS also has a range of initiatives to encourage retention of its diverse workforce for example in developing a Race Employee Network and in mainstreaming its dignity and respect policies.

The Scottish Government is aware of the shortage of drivers for buses, which is exacerbated by BREXIT preventing people from the EU coming here to work freely. We are working with bus operators and key industry stakeholders through the Bus Taskforce – while recognising that many of the levers are reserved to the UK Government.

As the Scottish Government is not required to hold information on operational matters related to Scottish Water, I again refer the member to the published data available on Scottish Water’s website at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/help-and-resources/document-hub/key-publications/urban-waters-improvements and https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/Your-Home/Your-Waste-Water/Overflow-Spill-Data . Should the member wish further information on this data, he may wish to contact Scottish Water directly.

As environmental regulator, it is a matter for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to monitor, classify, protect and improve water quality at designated bathing waters. SEPA assesses the water quality of Peterhead (Lido) as “excellent” and further information is available on its website at https://www.sepa.org.uk/media/39944/peterhead-lido-bathing-water-profile.pdf .

I again refer the member to the answer to S6O-02060 for further information on wider measures to improve Scotland’s water environment. On 23 March 2023. The answer to the oral parliamentary question is available on the Parliaments website, the Official Report can be viewed at: Meeting of the Parliament: 23/03/2023 | Scottish Parliament Website

The data referred to was provided by Zero Waste Scotland, drawing on data made available by WRAP.

WRAP has advised Zero Waste Scotland that the data is drawn from a range of initial efficiency studies undertaken to support the UK wide consultation on packaging extended producer responsibility. Queries on the data and publication status, and any subsequent research, should be directed to WRAP.