Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-32830

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the National Child Sexual Exploitation Group became inactive; on what date it became inactive, who or which agency decided that it should become inactive, and which of its aims were achieved prior to making it inactive.

Question reference: S6W-32828

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has commenced and/or commissioned a full multi-agency prevalence study as set out in recommendation 2 in the Policy Report: Sexual exploitation of children involved in the Children's Hearings System by Barnardo's Scotland and the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) in 2020.

Question reference: S6O-04244

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete being found in current and formerly council-owned residential properties in Dundee.

Question reference: S6W-32820

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 15 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there has reportedly been a 24% decrease in solicitors registered for children's legal aid since 2020, what analysis it is undertaking to understand any issues caused by this, and what action it will take to address those issues, including reversing the reported decrease in numbers.

The Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2010 gave the Scottish Legal Aid Board the function of monitoring the availability and accessibility of legal services in Scotland, and it has arrangements in place to monitor legal services. However, any assessment of registered solicitor numbers does not offer an accurate measure of the provision or supply of legal aid. This is because there is a large number of registered solicitors who are inactive, so the reduction in the number of registered solicitors, doesn’t necessarily equate to the same size of reduction in active solicitors. Therefore, registered solicitor numbers should not be viewed in the same context as active solicitors. The relevant measure of supply is active solicitors.

However, fluctuations in the numbers of Children’s solicitors occur for various reasons, these are:

Children’s legal assistance volumes are directly related to the numbers of children’s hearings taking place. The volume of hearings is in turn related to the number of Compulsory Supervision Orders (CSOs) being made or reviewed.

There are fewer Compulsory Supervision Orders and therefore less business for solicitors in this field.

At 31 March 2024, 6,490 children were subject to Compulsory Supervision Orders. In 2019-20, the number was 8,875 – a reduction of 27%.

The number of children subject to Compulsory Supervision Orders has decreased for a fourteenth consecutive year.

The Scottish Government recognises that reform is needed to the legal aid system, which is why we are currently developing a legal aid action plan for reform which will be published in early 2025.

Question reference: S6W-32053

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 30 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31038 by Siobhian Brown on 13 November 2024, when it will (a) commence and (b) conclude its evaluation of the legal aid trainee fund; who will be involved in the evaluation; on what basis the achievement of the fund will be evaluated; should the evaluation conclude that the fund was a success, whether similar funding will be made available, and, if so, when.

The Fund was co-designed and funded between the Scottish Government and the Law Society of Scotland (“the Society”) and was part of an overall support package for the legal aid sector as it recovered from COVID 19 and is due to close at the end of March 2025. As part of the grant funding conditions, on completion, the Society must submit a report to the Scottish Ministers summarising the outcomes and performance of the Fund.

The evaluation will form part of the discussions of the Future of the Legal Profession Working Group. Once we receive the Society’s report and have considered the contents, we will arrange to meet the working group again. The Group consists of senior representatives from the legal professional bodies, the legal profession, wider justice sector and other organisations.

Question reference: S6W-32054

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 30 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31040 by Siobhian Brown on 13 November 2024, whether it will provide the information requested regarding for what reason there has been a reported reduction in the number of criminal legal aid solicitors, since 2007, from 1,459 to 966.

Patterns of business in the criminal justice system have changed fundamentally since 2007 due to reductions in crime, the increasing availability and use of alternatives to prosecution and trends towards earlier resolution of cases. This means that the demand for criminal legal aid - and so for the services of criminal defence solicitors - has also changed fundamentally.

Comparing the 12 months ending March 2007 with the 12 months ending March 2024, the number of grants of legal aid in relation to summary matters fell by 37%, for solemn legal aid by 13%, for appeals by 86% and the number of accused requiring representation by a duty solicitor fell by 81%. Over the same period, the number of registered solicitors fell by 34%, broadly reflecting the reduction in demand.

The criminal courts are not reporting people unable to get representation, anyone who needs a solicitor at a police station or to appear in court from custody gets access to a solicitor.

Question reference: S6W-32036

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 17 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much it is allocating to legal aid in its draft Budget 2025-26.

This information is in the public domain and can be found on the Scottish Government’s website where the Scottish Budget sets out the Scottish Government’s proposed spending and tax plans for 2025-26 as presented to the Scottish Parliament. Please see the following link.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2025-2026/

Further details on the Scottish Budget, such as the split by HMT aggregate, outturn comparisons and Level 4 Budget tables, can be found in the following link.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2025-2026/documents/

Question reference: S6W-32024

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 17 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the reported £13.3 million reduction in the budget of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) that has been proposed in the 2025-26 draft Budget could have on the operation of SCTS, including from what areas of this operation this reduction will be met.

The prior year 2024-25 Budget comparator figures are based on the latest in-year budget numbers which were revised at the Autumn Budget Revision. The 2023-24 Scottish Budget comparator figures reflect the outturn numbers for that year.

It is not the case that the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) budget has been reduced by £13.3m. The SCTS budget is subject to revision and adjustment via the Scottish Government Autumn Budget Revision (ABR) and Spring Budget Revision (SBR) processes, as such a direct comparison with the published comparator figures does not provide a true reflection of SCTS 2025-26 budget position. Compared to the opening 2024-25 budget, an additional £11.5m Resource funding and £2m Capital funding has been provided to the SCTS.

In addition to the funding allocation in the Budget Bill, the SCTS receives income primarily from civil court fees and retained fines; in-year funding from the Scottish Government related to non-baseline areas that are still highly variable such as the recently devolved tribunals; and through the Recovery, Renewal and Transformation (RRT) budget, receives additional funding to increase criminal court capacity and take forward a range of initiatives to improve service delivery and realise longer term efficiencies.

In the 2023-24 Budget Bill, SCTS was allocated £147.6m, following the adjustments at ABR and SBR the final year outturn figure was £191.1m.

In the 2024-25 Budget Bill SCTS was allocated £165.9m, following the adjustment at ABR the revised budget was £190.3m. A further revision will take place at SBR and will be published in January 2025.

The 2025-26 allocation to SCTS is £177.0m, in addition SCTS will receive RRT funding of £20.3m and, as in previous years, additional in year funding to cover non-baseline costs.

Question reference: S6W-32026

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 13 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether its draft Budget 2024-25 will lead to funding being provided to the Belmont Cinema in Aberdeen and, if so, how much, and what (a) positive and (b) negative indirect consequences the Budget proposals might have on the cinema.

The Scottish Government recognises the huge value that the Belmont, and cultural cinema as a whole, bring to Scotland’s creative landscape. Cinemas like the Belmont are a vital source of cultural experience, community connection, learning, and wellbeing.

The Scottish Government has committed an additional £34m to culture budgets in 2025-26, and our aim is to provide a further £20m in 2026-2027, subject to usual parliamentary procedure. Amongst other activity, this will allow Creative Scotland to offer a comprehensive package of Multi-Year Funding to the largest ever number of cultural organisations across Scotland, ensuring that more people have access to cultural projects and venues, which will benefit their health and wellbeing as well as bringing enjoyment. Creative Scotland will now complete their due diligence, and will aim to notify the successful organisations in January.

While those funding decisions are for Creative Scotland, the Scottish Government is absolutely clear on the value of cultural cinema, and we will continue to engage with Screen Scotland and others to ensure that cultural cinema is protected for Scotland's audiences today and in the long term.

Since its closure in 2022, Screen Scotland has already provided £320,000 in funding to support the reopening of the Belmont cinema. This includes £60,000 to Aberdeen City Council to undertake feasibility and transition work, and £260,000 to Belmont Community Cinema Ltd. to support development of a business model, recruit key staff to support the reopening bid, and progress fundraising activity, amongst other key development work.

Question reference: S6W-31970

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 11 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the monthly average sales income for fishermen has been in each of the last three years to date.

For the years 2021 to 2023, the average monthly sales income has been calculated for fishers employed on Scottish Vessels. This is given in the following table:

Monthly average sales income for fishers on Scottish registered vessels, 2021 - 2023

	2021	2022	2023
Landed value (£) in real terms	£625,595,000	£643,529,000	£652,208,000
Number of fishers employed	4,241	4,119	3,793
Monthly average sales income (£)	£12,293	£13,020	£14,329

The information on fishers employed is collected as at 31 December in each year and reflects those employed during the year. Some of these fishers are irregular, so will not work on the vessel full-time, so will have a lower income. This means that we are unable to provide monthly averages for each month as we do not know how many fishers were employed in each month. It should also be noted that some fishing sectors will have larger incomes than others and different crew share arrangements will be in place, meaning that some fishers on the same vessel will earn more than others.

The landed value in real terms and monthly average sales income are given in pounds and have been adjusted to 2023 prices by adjusting for inflation. As this is based on landed value only, it is not a reflection of earnings as no costs have been accounted for.

Seòmar agus comataidhean