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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6T-01368

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is regarding reports that a new contract has been awarded by the Scottish Police Authority, valued at around £663,000, for the provision of additional forensic testing in relation to suspected cases of spiking.

Question reference: S6W-16902

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 5 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the change of First Minister, whether it will provide an update on how many Special Advisers it now employs, broken down by (a) job title, (b) who they work for and (c) pay scale.

Special Advisers are appointed in accordance with Part 1 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 by the First Minister as a Special Adviser for the purpose of providing assistance to the Scottish Ministers. All Special Advisers are appointed by, and remain under the responsibility of, the First Minister.

As at the date of your request, the following Special Advisers were in post:

Colin McAllister

Callum McCaig

Jeanette Campbell

Gavin Corbett

Ewan Crawford

Jennie Gollan

David Hutchison

Harry Huyton

Ross Ingebrigtsen

Emily Mackintosh

Jack Middleton

The Pay Bands and Pay Ranges for those Special Advisers are as follows:

Pay Band	Pay Range (£)	Number of SpAds in Band
1	£53,915 - £56,428	0
2	£58,946 - £72,441	4
3	£74,650 - £95,019	6
4	£101,088 - £107,149	1

Since the date of your request, further Special Adviser appointments have been made and a current list of Special Advisers and their responsibilities can be found on the Scottish Government website

Question reference: S6W-17215

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in light of the Glasgow Local Authority Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements Significant Case Review relating to the murder of Esther Brown.

Public protection is paramount and the Scottish Government is committed to learning from this Significant Case Review (SCR). We have accepted the two recommendations for the Scottish Government and will take these forward with MAPPA partners as appropriate. We also attended the first of what will be regular meetings convened by the Glasgow MAPPA Strategic Oversight Group Chair with partners to consider the findings of the SCR and oversee the implementation of improvements.

Question reference: S6W-17216

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the conclusion of the Glasgow Local Authority Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements Significant Case Review that Esther Brown’s murder could not have been prevented.

Our thoughts continue to be with Esther Brown's family, friends and local community.

The Significant Case Review (SCR) process examines the actions and processes of the agencies involved in an individual’s management to ensure all reasonable steps were taken to minimise risk and to capture any learning. The process is independent of government and is designed to ensure the role of all partners in the process is carefully examined. We note this conclusion in this SCR and accept the two recommendations for the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S6O-02212

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its legal challenge to the decision of the UK Government to issue a section 35 order in relation to the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.

Question reference: S6F-02070

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 May 2023

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government plans to take in light of his declared support for the Daily Record’s “Our Kids … Our Future” campaign to tackle violence against young people.

Question reference: S6W-16371

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 27 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has taken several years for the Victims Surcharge Fund to raise over £1 million, in light of the Scottish National Party's 2016 manifesto having stated that the fund "will provide more than a million pounds a year of funding for practical help for victims of crime".

The amount raised by the victim surcharge is entirely dependent on the number and value of fines imposed by the courts. Only individuals or organisations who have been cautioned after the Victim Surcharge (Scotland) Regulations 2019 came into force on 25 November 2019 are affected. Such cases take time to progress through the court, and the pandemic also impacted on court capacity and therefore court disposals including fines.

An estimate that £800,000 per year could be collected in the fund after four or five years, based on collection rates at that time, was shared with the Justice Committee in October 2019.

Question reference: S6W-16368

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 26 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Scottish Prison Service’s upcoming Gender Identity and Gender Reassignment Policy will give consideration to the gender self-identification of prisoners in prisoner placement decisions.

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

The review of the Gender Identity and Gender Reassignment Policy 2014 is currently ongoing. The review is considering the suitability of the current policy’s position on self-identification, along with other potential options which would allow SPS to make safe and appropriate decisions about the placement and management of transgender people in custody.

Question reference: S6W-16370

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 26 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many prison officers there were (a) at the end of each financial year since 2016-17 and (b) on the most recent date for which data is available.

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

The numbers of prison officers employed by SPS at the end of each financial year from 2016-17 to 2022-23 are set out in the following table.

Financial year (at year end)	Number of Prison Officers employed by SPS
2016-17	3370
2017-18	3342
2018-19	3294
2019-20	3242
2020-21	3302
2021-22	3381
2022-23	3331

Question reference: S6W-16363

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 25 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the final allocation of how the Recover, Renew, Transform programme funding was spent across the justice system in each financial year that the programme was active.

The Recover, Renew, Transform (RRT) Programme launched in 2021 (although Scottish Government funding for remote jury centres – which went on to become part of the RRT programme – had begun in 2020/21). The tables below set out how RRT funding was allocated and spent in 2021-22 and 2022-23. The expenditure figures for 2022-23 are provisional, and correct as at March 2023.

It should be noted that allocations made at the beginning of each financial year are indicative, and in each year a proportion of RRT funding has been unallocated, allowing for a degree of flexibility. Organisations’ requirements are kept under review over the year, and their final spend from RRT funding will depend on factors like whether the costs they anticipated arose, and considerations across other funding streams.

2021-2022 Total RRT funding available: £50 million
	Allocation (£m)	Spend (£m)
Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service	29	28.998
Community Justice	11.8	11.8
Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service	5 (with potential to increase to 7)	5.7
Scottish Police Authority	*	0.851
Total spend: 47.349
* There was not a set allocation for the Scottish Police Authority: the unallocated RRT budget was available to be deployed as needed across the Scottish Police Authority, Scottish Prisons Service and Scottish Legal Aid Board

2022-2023 Total RRT funding available: £53.2 million
	Allocation (£m)	Spend (£m)
Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service	26.8	28.992 **
Community Justice	15	15
Scottish Prison Service	2	2
Legal Aid Traineeships	0.5	0.5
Total spend: 46.492
** Additional funding was provided to support the extension of remote jury centres

For 2023-2024, £42.2 million of RRT funding has been allocated.