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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: S5W-26005

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 28 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 8 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what role it will have in the summit to be held in Glasgow on methods to tackle drug-related deaths, which was announced by the UK Minister of State for Crime, Policing and the Fire Service.

We welcome the UK Government's commitment to engage with us around what is a public health emergency but remain unclear of their willingness to take part in a summit in Glasgow, alongside our Drug Death Taskforce, people with lived experience, and others, in order to help reduce the harms and deaths caused by drugs.

My officials have however already had initial discussions with counterparts in the Home Office and other UK administrations and we will continue to work closely with them as we develop plans for a UK wide drug summit. Given the significance of this issue, we want the summit to take place as soon as is practicable and are working with Glasgow Alcohol and Drug Partnership on the planning for this.

Question reference: S5W-26520

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 25 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 11 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of BT being confirmed as the preferred bidder for each contract in the R100 programme, what the timescale is for the company signing the contracts for the regional lots, and what the expected (a) coverage, (b) technology mix and (c) completion timescale will be for each of these.

Question reference: S5W-26438

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by James Wolffe QC on 3 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been contacted by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and invited to make a victim impact statement under the terms of section 14 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003, and how many of those contacted chose to make such a victim statement in each of the last five years, broken down by the number of (a) adult victims, (b) victims aged between 12 and 18, (c) victims under the age of 12 and (d) victims whose cases involved an allegation of domestic abuse.

2014-15 to 2017-18

2014 - 2015

2015 - 2016

2016 - 2017

2017 - 2018

Victim Statements
Issued

6647

6799

6624

6217

Victim Statements
Returned

1161

1127

1077

1037

Explanatory Notes:

1. For the years 2014-2015 to 2017-2018, automated retrieval of the requested breakdown of Victim Statements issued is not possible.

2. COPFS records the number of Victim Statements issued and returned rather than the number of people who were issued with and returned a Victim Statement. In some circumstances a person may be issued with and return more than one Victim Statement, for example, if they wish to describe additional information that they had omitted from their original Victim Statement. Accordingly, the number of Victim Statements issued and returned is likely to be greater than the number of people to whom Victim Statements were issued and who returned them.

2018-19

Adult (18 years and older)

12-17 years

Under 12 years

Age not recorded

Victim Statements Issued

5449

732

102

363

Victim Statements Returned

867

136

Domestic

Victim Statements Issued

1470

Victim Statements Returned

238

Explanatory Notes:

1. For the year 2018–2019, a change to the method of recording the number of Victim Statements issued and returned enables COPFS to provide the requested breakdown.

2. All cases that contain offences that are domestically aggravated are identified on COPFS systems by the inclusion of a domestic identifier code. In identifying cases that involve an allegation of domestic abuse for this question COPFS have identified cases that have this domestic identifier code attached to them in which a Victim Statement has been issued.

3. COPFS records the number of Victim Statements issued and returned rather than the number of people who were issued with and returned a Victim Statement. In some circumstances a person may be issued with and return more than one Victim Statement, for example, if they wish to describe additional information that they omitted from their original Victim Statement. Accordingly, the number of Victim Statements issued and returned is likely to be greater than the number of people to whom Victim Statements were issued and who returned them.

Question reference: S5W-26441

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects to make an announcement on the future of the Air Discount Scheme post March 2020.

Question reference: S5W-26440

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of Brexit on the future of the Air Discount Scheme.

Question reference: S5W-26442

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact that removing business-related travel from the Air Discount Scheme has had on businesses in the Highlands and Islands, and what consideration it has given to reinstating business-related travel within the scheme.

Question reference: S5W-26046

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the finding by the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) that “at St Leonard’s Police Station, the delegation was informed that it was not the duty of custody staff to register or to report any complaints of potential abuse by arresting officers.”

The Scottish Government condemns any form of abuse.

The care and welfare of persons held in custody is of paramount importance to Police Scotland and any complaints made, or that become known to the police, are investigated in line with paragraphs 21.1 and 21.2 of Police Scotland's Care and Welfare of Persons in Police Custody Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and with the procedures outlined in the Complaints about the Police SOP.

A detailed vulnerability and risk assessment takes place at the point of processing into a custody facility which involves all visible and notified injuries being recorded on the National Custody System, with police officers always seeking to ascertain how any injuries occurred to best inform the care plan. Where appropriate, any referrals will be made to the NHS.

Question reference: S5W-26181

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many fines or repayments have been imposed for the alleged misuse of Air Discount Scheme (ADS) membership cards in each of the last five years, also broken down by how many times the difference between the full price and the ADS fare has been sought as a penalty.

Question reference: S5W-26180

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many members of the Air Discount Scheme have had their membership cards blocked or cancelled in each of the last five years.

There are around 77,000 Air Discount Scheme members. The number of scheme members who have had their membership cards blocked or cancelled is:

Year	Number of members blocked	Number of members cancelled
2014-15	948	127
2015-16	718	109
2016-17	798	133
2017-18	968	123
2018-19	964	104

A member has their card blocked if they are suspected of misusing it. If the issue is resolved then their card is released. If it is not, then their card is cancelled. A card could also be cancelled if a member did not respond to a request to confirm that they still lived at the address they were registered at.

Question reference: S5W-26182

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has carried out into the effectiveness of current arrangements for ensuring that address and contact details for Air Discount Scheme members are kept up to date.

It is a requirement under the terms and conditions of the scheme for members to inform us if they change address. Whenever a member phones the ADS Admin Team they are asked to confirm their address. If we receive an application from an address where someone with a different surname is already registered we write to that member asking if they are still living at that address. If we receive no response then the member is removed from the system. When the scheme is renewed, we write to all scheme members. Where letters are returned marked that the addressee has gone away, they are removed from the system. We are content that these arrangements are effective.

Year	Number of members	Amount reclaimed (£)
2014-15	113	6,509.60
2015-16	178	11,436.89
2016-17	182	15,282.30
2017-18	198	13,766.36
2018-19	217	18,375.57