- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
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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
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been reffered to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) for precognition in each of the last five years.
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 in respect of the number of people currently being precognosed is updated each day and cannot be recalculated retrospectively or aggregated. This question cannot be readily answered by COPFS.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many prosecutors are currently employed by the Aberdeen office of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).
Answer
COPFS employs both legal and non-legal members of staff. As at 30 November 2024, COPFS employed 37 members of legal staff who are based at the Procurator Fiscal’s Office Aberdeen.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the risks posed by illegally modified e-bikes to pedestrians, including vulnerable groups such as visually impaired people.
Answer
Legislation surrounding the use of e-bikes, their risk to the public and regulatory standards, is a reserved matter for the UK Government. For an e-bike to be legal for use in the UK, they must meet the criteria of an electrically assisted pedal cycle and the electric motor should not be able to propel the bike when it’s travelling more than 15.5mph, with a maximum power output of 250 watts. This ensures speeds similar to that of other bicycles.
In December 2024 Police Scotland issued a media campaign to warn members of the public of the growing trend in illegally modified ebikes and the risk these pose to riders, pedestrians, and other road and path user.
It is every road and path users responsibility to respect others and the Highway Code outlines both rules and guidance for everyone. Members of the public who are seeking clarity on the standards required to ride on public roads should visit https://www.gov.uk/electric-bike-rules
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what enforcement measures are in place to ensure compliance with regulations on e-bikes, including (a) speed limits and (b) motor output restrictions.
Answer
Legislation surrounding the use of e-bikes is a reserved matter for the UK Government. For an e-bike to be legal for use in the UK, they must meet the criteria of an electrically assisted pedal cycle and the electric motor should not be able to propel the bike when it’s travelling more than 15.5mph, with a maximum power output of 250 watts. This ensures speeds similar to that of other bicycles.
From January 2024 and the end of September 2024 Police Scotland made 281 seizures of illegal ebikes. In December Police Scotland published advice on ebikes ahead of Christmas that provides clarity on the standards required to be permitted to ride on public roads.
It is every road and path users responsibility to respect others and the Highway Code outlines both rules and guidance for everyone.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
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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
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 9 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many seals have been killed under licence in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 8 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the project to reduce average rail journey times between Aberdeen and the central belt by 20 minutes by 2026, by how many minutes it now anticipates that journey times will be reduced in the timeframe allocated.
Answer
There has been no change to the scope of the Aberdeen Central Belt Service Improvements Project.
As regards project timelines, in January 2024, Ms McAllan, then Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Just Transition informed the Net Zero, Energy and Transport committee, that the time over which the commitment to deliver journey time improvements and increase capacity, between Aberdeen and the Central Belt, was under review. This remains the position.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 8 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to improve the punctuality and reliability of Caledonian Sleeper services.
Answer
This is a matter for Scottish Rail Holdings (SRH), who oversees the delivery of Caledonian Sleeper services on behalf of Scottish Ministers. The Member may wish to contact SRH directly. Since coming into public ownership in June 2023, Caledonian Sleepers right time arrivals have improved to over 88%. This is well above the GB average.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 8 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many people are currently eligible for free rail travel as a result of being a (a) ScotRail employee, (b) partner of a ScotRail employee and (c) dependant of a ScotRail employee.
Answer
This is a matter for ScotRail as the employer. The Member may wish to contact ScotRail directly.