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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: S6W-21676

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 22 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 2 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions there have been under section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 in each of the last 10 years.

The latest available information on convictions is for the financial year 2020-21 and is provided in the following table.

Number of people convicted under section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, where main crime, 2011-12 to 2020-21.

2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
6,999	9,915	11,661	13,503	14,220	13,602	12,168	10,868	10,400	6,655

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.

Please note: Data for 2020-21 are affected by the pandemic and subsequent court closures and may not be reflective of long term trend.

Information for 2021-22 will not be available until publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2021-22 Statistical Bulletin. This is due to be published on 24 October 2023.

The dates of all Scottish Government Official and National Statistics publications are pre-announced, and the up to date list of future publications can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/official-statistics-forthcoming-publications/

Question reference: S6W-21680

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 22 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 2 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions there have been in Scotland under section 4A of the Public Order Act 1986 in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S6W-21677

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 22 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 2 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions there have been in Scotland under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 in each of the last 10 years.

The latest available information on convictions is for the financial year 2020-21 and is provided in the following table.

Number of people convicted under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, where main crime, 2011-12 to 2020-21.

2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
760	837	974	918	901	721	574	511	496	363

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.

Please note: Data for 2020-21 are affected by the pandemic and subsequent court closures and may not be reflective of long term trend.

Information for 2021-22 will not be available until publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2021-22 Statistical Bulletin. This is due to be published on 24 October 2023.

Question reference: S6W-21395

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 26 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-06805 by Keith Brown on 3 March 2022, how many hours of purposeful activity prisoners had, on average, per week in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023, broken down by prison.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The table below details the average number of purposeful activity hours per week for convicted prisoners across the prison estate, in each financial year that incorporates 2021, 2022 and 2023:

Year	April 2020 – March 2021	April 2021– March 2022	April 2022 – March 2023	April 2023 – August 2023
Establishment	Average PA hours	Average PA hours	Average PA hours	Average PA hours
Barlinnie	10	12	13	12
Bella	N/A	N/A	18	24
Cornton Vale/Stirling	20	17	18	18
Dumfries	8	11	16	16
Edinburgh	9	10	13	14
Glenochil	11	12	13	12
Grampian	19	19	20	21
Greenock	19	20	26	23
Inverness	24	21	27	33
Lilias	N/A	N/A	20	27
Low Moss	16	21	21	21
Castle Huntly	20	23	23	24
Perth	9	20	20	22
Polmont	14	24	29	29
Shotts	9	14	13	19

HMP Addiewell and HMP Kilmarnock are privately operated prisons and are not required to provide PA hours on a monthly basis. The delivery of PA hours within these two establishments is monitored through contractual arrangements with SPS Controllers and Contract Managers to ensure compliance.

Question reference: S6W-21233

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 26 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties have received Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan funding, since the scheme was established.

Question reference: S6W-21232

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 26 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-20398 by Patrick Harvie on 31 August 2023, how many properties have installed one or more renewable systems measures with funding from the Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan scheme, broken down by the measures installed at each property, since the scheme was established.

Question reference: S6W-21234

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 26 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties have received Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan funding for one or more energy efficiency measures, since the scheme was established.

Question reference: S6W-21353

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people made a non-directed kidney donation in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-21351

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government in how many cases family members overrode their relatives' (a) express and (b) deemed authorisation for organ donation after death, in each of the last 10 years.

The number of family members who overrode their relative’s express authorisation for organ donation after that relative’s death, in each of the last 10 years, is set out in the following table. Express authorisation is where someone, in life, has documented their donation decision either on the NHS Organ Donor Register or in some other form of writing.

Families who overrode their relatives expressed authorisation
Financial year	Families approached but no authorisation given
2013-14	9
2014-15	21
2015-16	18
2016-17	16
2017-18	13
2018-19	12
2019-20	15
2020-21	5
2021-22	9
2022-23	13

The number of family members who overrode their relatives' deemed authorisation for organ donation after that relative’s death, in each of the last three years, is set out in the following table. The Human Tissue (Authorisation) (Scotland) Act 2019, which set up the legal framework for deemed authorisation, came into effect in March 2021. This means that there is only data available on deemed authorisation for the last three years.

Families who overrode their relatives deemed authorisation
Financial year	Families approached but no authorisation given
2020-21	0
2021-22	11
2022-23	13

Question reference: S6W-21403

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 18 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 25 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been allocated for the Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan scheme in (a) total and (b) each year since the scheme was introduced.