- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
-
Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many cases were subject to the fatal accident inquiry (FAI) process in each of the last five years.
Answer
The following table details the number of cases for which a FAI was held in each of the last 5 years.
Year | Total |
2019-2020 | 57 |
2020-2021 | 59 |
2021-2022 | 42 |
2022-2023 | 51 |
2023-2024 | 30 |
2024-2025 (as at 15 October 2024) | 30 |
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
-
Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has spent on expert witnesses in each of the last five years.
Answer
The following table shows the costs incurred for expert witnesses in each of the last 5 years.
2019-20 | £264,225 |
2020-21 | £139,540 |
2021-22 | £606,651 |
2022-23 | £1,434,227 |
2023-24 | £496,683 |
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
-
Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many cases prosecuted by the Aberdeen office of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in the last reporting year resulted in a conviction.
Answer
COPFS uses a live, operational database to manage the processing of reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies throughout Scotland. It is designed to meet business needs in the processing of criminal cases, rather than for statistical analysis. Any data sought in the last reporting year would encompass cases reported within that period where there were still significant numbers of live charges. As such, any figures would not accurately reflect numbers of convictions in respect of the cases reported in that period.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
-
Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what the current average time is for the Aberdeen office of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) to bring cases to court, broken down by case type.
Answer
Information in respect of journey times of cases brought to court is produced by the Scottish Government, using data provided both by COPFS and SCTS. These are national figures and are not produced for individual courts or Procurator Fiscal Offices.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
-
Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) procurator fiscals and (b) support staff are currently (i) employed by and (ii) based in the Aberdeen office of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).
Answer
COPFS employs 2501 staff comprised of 733 legal staff and 1768 support and administrative staff. As referred to in the answer for S6W-32302 on 9 January 2025 based within the Aberdeen Procurator Fiscal’s Office, there are 37 legal members of staff. In Addition, there are 84 members of support/administration staff. These figures are correct as at 30 November 2024.
All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
-
Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of corporate crime have been prosecuted by the Aberdeen office of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in each of the last five years.
Answer
The following table shows charges reported to Procurator Fiscal Office, Aberdeen for the period 1 April 2019-31 March 2024 subsequently marked for court proceedings (prosecuted) – in cases where the accused is recorded as a company. The table shows the position as at 17 December 2024. It should be noted that a number of charges which have been reported may still be awaiting a marking decision.
| | | Financial Year Reported | | |
| | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
Charges prosecuted | 13 | 6 | 19 | 3 | 8 |
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
-
Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what the total annual subsidy provided to ScotRail has been in each of the last five years.
Answer
The subsidy for rail services has been published in Transport Scotland accounts. These can be found here: Annual Accounts | Transport Scotland
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
-
Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many extradition cases have been handled by the Lord Advocate in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
The following table details the extradition cases for the last 10 years in which COPFS have been involved.
| | Extradition In | Extradition Out | Total |
2014 | 151 | 36 | 187 |
2015 | 184 | 41 | 225 |
2016 | 131 | 44 | 175 |
2017 | 177 | 36 | 213 |
2018 | 146 | 47 | 193 |
2019 | 107 | 64 | 171 |
2020 | 107 | 52 | 159 |
2021 | 82 | 26 | 108 |
2022 | 94 | 49 | 143 |
2023 | 96 | 78 | 174 |
2024 | 56 | 144 | 200 |
Total | 1331 | 617 | 1948 |
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
-
Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many trials were scheduled but not proceeded with by the Aberdeen office of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in the last reporting year.
Answer
The assigning of a hearing for trial is an order of the court and is recorded within the court’s interlocutor for each case.
COPFS uses a live, operational database to manage the processing of reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies throughout Scotland. It is designed to meet business needs in the processing of criminal cases, rather than for statistical analysis. Scheduled trial data is not retained once a date is cancelled regardless of the reason.
Information in respect of cases brought to court is produced by the Scottish Government, using data provided both by COPFS and SCTS. These are national figures and are not produced for individual courts or Procurator Fiscal Offices.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
-
Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many cases involving human trafficking have been prosecuted by the Aberdeen office of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in each year since 2020.
Answer
The following table shows Human Trafficking (HT) charges or any charge with a HT aggravation reported to Procurator Fiscal Office, Aberdeen for the period 1 April 2020-31 March 2024 subsequently marked for court proceedings (prosecuted).
| | | Financial year reported | |
| | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
Charges prosecuted | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |