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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-07687

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 16 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the expansion of GPS and alcohol monitoring technologies will have on the daily cost of monitoring (a) overall and (b) per person compared with the cost for custodial sentences.

Question reference: S5W-07716

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 16 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Minister for Childcare and Early Years on 2 March 2017 (Official Report, c. 46), for what reason the minister will chair the National Child Protection Leadership Group, in light of the recommendation by the Child Protection Systems Review that the group "should report and account to Scottish Ministers".

The Scottish Government has accepted all the recommendations of the Child Protection Systems Review, including the recommendation to establish a National Child Protection Leadership Group. As I stated in my answer to the member in the chamber, given the expectations that I am setting out for others to show leadership in this area I decided that I should demonstrate my own commitment to leadership by chairing the Leadership Group.

Question reference: S5W-07693

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 16 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to carry out a risk assessment on the use of GPS for electronic monitoring.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring electronic monitoring is tailored to reflect the needs, risks and circumstances of the individual. The expansion of electronic monitoring, including use of GPS, will increase the options available to manage and monitor those who offend in the community and to further protect public safety.

GPS technology to monitor those who offend is used in a number of other jurisdictions. The introduction of GPS will depend on the outcome of the consultation and any subsequent parliamentary process.

Question reference: S5W-07718

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 16 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Minister for Childcare and Early Years on 2 March 2017 (Official Report, c. 46), in light of the minister's comment that "new legislation will be brought before this session of Parliament introducing a new definition and criminal offence of abuse and neglect of children", whether the minister will reconsider his response to question S5W-03999 in which said that the Scottish Government has “no plans to bring forward legislation to repeal existing legal defences for parents in relation to physical punishment”.

Question reference: S5W-07233

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S5W-00157, S5W-00158, S5W-00159, S5W-00160, S5W-00161 and S5W-00162 by Fergus Ewing on 1 June 2016, whether it will provide an update on (a) what progress is being made with and (b) how it will ensure that organisations, businesses and charities will receive support from, the investment to support island and rural produce that it pledged in the SNP Manifesto for the Islands.

Question reference: S5W-07780

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it will provide to the rural economy hub.

Question reference: S5W-07272

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06417 by Michael Matheson on 3 February 2017, in how many cases a court decision was made to prevent a young offender on remand to be held overnight in an adult prison in each year since 2012.

Question reference: S5W-07273

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06417 by Michael Matheson on 3 February 2017, whether the reasons that young offenders on remand are held in a prison overnight are (a) statutory or (b) non-statutory; under what circumstances young offenders are on remand in prisons; whether there has been a policy or guideline change in this regard since 2010 and, if so, what the reason for this change was.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

Young people remanded to SPS custody can legally be held in either a prison or Young Offenders Institution (YOI). In recent years SPS has taken the policy decision to locate all young people on remand in a YOI rather than Prison. There may be occasions when SPS will locate a young person in a prison, for a temporary purpose, such as for during court proceedings, where daily travel arrangements to and from a YOI would be challenging or exhausting.

The change in SPS Policy recognised the vulnerability and significant care requirements of young people remanded to our care, in particular those aged 17 and 18. SPS believes that their needs in terms of regime and accommodation can be better met in a YOI.

Question reference: S5W-07275

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06417 by Michael Matheson on 3 February 2017, how many young offenders on remand have been placed in each prison since 2010, broken down by those being held for (a) up to one night, (b) two to three nights, (c) four to five nights and (d) six or more nights.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

This information is not readily available on our electronic Prisoner Records System and requires significant resource time to extract this data. Given the quantity of prisoner movements involved in this enquiry, this response covers the 5 year period 2013 to 2017 in the following table.

	2013				2014				2015	2016	2017
	1nt	2-3nt	4-5nt	6+nt	1nt	2-3nt	4-5nt	6+nt	1nt	1nt	1nt
Aberdeen	2	1	1	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Addiewell	8	5	6	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Grampian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	7	0
Greenock	4	4	3	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Inverness	0	4	1	5	1	3	2	1	5	6	2
Perth	2	5	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Totals	16	19	14	44	1	3	2	1	11	13	2

Question reference: S5W-07642

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions and correspondence it has had with local authorities in the last six months regarding tackling fuel poverty; what agreements were reached, and whether it will publish any correspondence and minutes of meetings on this issue.

The Minister for Local Government and Communities attended the COSLA Housing Convenors Conference on 13 December where, as part of a wide ranging discussion, tackling fuel poverty was discussed.

Scottish Government officials meet regularly with COSLA and Local Authorities to discuss fuel poverty and our programmes. Officials met with COSLA on 20 January and 21 September, no formal record of these meetings was taken. COSLA are also represented on our Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Programme Board which met on
5 September and 14 December and tackling fuel poverty is sometimes discussed at these. A note of these meetings is taken but not published. Minutes can be made available on request if needed.

Officials met with Local Authority officers working on energy efficiency on
12 September. These events are not minuted.

Local Authorities are also represented on the Fuel Poverty Forum which last met on 15 December. The minutes of the December 2016 meeting will be published following sign off by members at the next scheduled meeting on 20 April. Minutes of 2016 meetings are published via the following link

https://beta.gov.scot/groups/fuel-poverty-forum/

The Scottish Government’s consultation on Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Programme runs until 30 May 2017 and the Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies, and Regulation of District Heating is open until 18 April 2018. A series of workshops and events have been held to support this and numerous local authorities have been involved. Tackling fuel poverty has been discussed at these sessions but no minutes have been taken.