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The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. Any complaint should be referred to the Chief Constable in the first instance. If there are allegations of a criminal nature then the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service may direct the PIRC to investigate.

The Scottish Government does not hold the requested information.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who will reply in writing within 20 days.

Transport Scotland operates two electric vehicles (a Renault Fluence and a Nissan Leaf) which represent 50% of its own fleet. The vehicles are available to all officials when carrying out their duties.

The Scottish Government expects that places of detention will ensure that mental health care and treatment is delivered in a person-centred manner to meet each individual’s needs. Scotland has a robust model of inspection and participation in international measures which contribute to an assurance that human rights are realised and that adequate services are provided.

The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland, along with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland, and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland, as well as other organisations, are members of the UK National Preventive Mechanism, which ensures that the UK fulfils its obligations under UN treaties to monitor places where people are detained, prevent ill-treatment, and ensure detention is consistent with international standards.

The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland carries out local visits to places of detention and mental health services across Scotland. The Commission looks at facilities to check that the care and treatment provided meets the needs and respects the rights of the individuals using these services. The Commission also undertakes thematic reviews jointly with partners such as the Care Inspectorate to ensure a joined up approach to checking that the care provided in different settings is appropriate.

The Scottish Government is committed to reducing reoffending in Scotland which has significant costs to individuals, families and our communities. Delivery of this commitment includes a focus on reducing the use of imprisonment, in particular short-term imprisonment, in favour of robust community sentences. The delivery of Community Payback Orders (CPOs), as the main community sentence in Scotland, are a critical element of this vision.

Feedback received from both beneficiaries of unpaid work projects and the individuals on CPOs makes clear that these orders are delivering positive outcomes and are helping people to move away from offending behaviour. The evidence supports this; individuals released from a custodial sentence of 6 months or less are reconvicted more than twice as often as those given a CPO and reconviction rates in Scotland are at a 17 year low. We are working with local authority Criminal Justice Social Work departments to continue to raise the profile of these orders and the benefits they are bringing to local communities. To support this, we have protected the funding for community justice services in the draft 2017-18 Scottish Budget.

For those individuals for whom a prison sentence is necessary, there is a clear emphasis on supporting their rehabilitation and reintegration as a way of preventing further offending. The Scottish Prison Service delivers a range of rehabilitation programmes which includes access to learning, skills and employability support.

We also recognise that it is vital that support is in place to enable individuals to reintegrate successfully into their communities when they leave prison. The Ministerial Group on Offender Reintegration has helped inform a range of ongoing cross-cutting work to improve access to key services and we are working with a range of partners across the public and third sector to deliver on the Group’s recommendations. This has an initial focus on developing better co-ordination of housing and health provision for people leaving custody, and to help improve their prospects for employment.

The Scottish Government participates actively in international human rights monitoring mechanisms, including the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), and welcomes the engagement of both national human rights institutions and civil society organisations.

The Scottish Human Rights Commission plays a formal part in these mechanisms and the Scottish Government’s position on the matters raised in the context of the UPR will be made public in due course. The United Nations Human Rights Council is expected to hold an interactive dialogue in Geneva in 2017.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-05525 on 9 January 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.