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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S5W-12518

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what feedback it has received from British Transport Police and Police Scotland regarding powers for crossborder policing after the merger of the forces.

Question reference: S5W-12516

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what advice it has received regarding applying the Cabinet Office Statement of Practice (COSOP) and/or the Transfer of Undertaking (TUPE) regulations for British Transport Police officers transferring to Police Scotland, and whether it will release this.

The Scottish Government believes that the transfer falls within the exclusion in regulation 3(5) of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) Regulations 2006, because it is a transfer of administrative functions between public authorities. Accordingly, it is not a relevant transfer for the purposes of the TUPE Regulations and those Regulations therefore would not apply.

The Policy Memorandum to the Railway Policing (Scotland) Bill explains that it is the Scottish Government's intention to abide by the Cabinet Office Statement of Practice on Staff Transfers in the Public Sector (COSOP). The Scottish Government has made clear that the principles that will be applied here are (i) the transfer (including terms of transfer) will be effected by legislation and (ii) the staff transferred will be treated no less favourably than they would have been had TUPE applied. The Joint Programme Board is now overseeing a range of work to put these principles into practice.

Question reference: S5W-12393

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made with the dualling of the single-line railway between Montrose and Arbroath at Usan, and when it last met (a) ScotRail and (b) Network Rail to discuss this.

The Scottish Government established and attends the Aberdeen to Central Belt Reference Group, which includes representatives from both ScotRail and Network Rail. The Group is progressing the development of potential options, including double tracking between Usan to Montrose, to improve capacity and journey times along the route. The Group met on 10 October 2017 and the Government last held discussions with both ScotRail and Network Rail on
6 November 2017.

Question reference: S5W-12394

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the £200 million allocated to rail investment in the Aberdeen City Deal has been assigned to dualling the single-line railway between Montrose and Arbroath at Usan.

Question reference: S5W-12288

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 October 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 10 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response to the findings of the Scottish LGBTI Hate Crime Report 2017.

The Scottish Government is clear that LGBTI (and indeed any) hate crime is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated. We therefore welcome the Equality Network’s report and its recommendations.

We recently published an ambitious programme of work to tackle hate crime and build community cohesion in response to the Independent Advisory Group on Hate Crime, Prejudice and Community Cohesion. We have established a multi-agency delivery group, which includes the Equality Network, to take this work forward.

On 13 October we launched our ‘Hate Has No Home In Scotland’ campaign to raise awareness of what hate crime is and encourage both victims and witnesses to report it to the police or to a third party reporting centre.

This year we are also providing over £20 million of funding to help promote equality and tackle discrimination which includes organisations specifically working to progress LGBTI equality.

Question reference: S5W-11995

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it measures the effectiveness of individual prisons in reducing reoffending.

The Scottish Government routinely publishes data on reconviction rates by a range of characteristics, including disposal and length of custodial sentence, and these are available on the Scottish Government website at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubReconvictions.

The Scottish Government does not publish reconviction rates for individual prisons since rates will vary substantially depending on the mix of people who are held in different prisons. Those released from a prison which accommodates people serving long term sentences tend to have lower reconviction rates than those released from a prison which accommodates remand and short term prisoners. People may also be transferred within the prison estate during their stay in custody, for instance, to the open estate to prepare them for release. Therefore, comparisons between different prisons based on raw reconviction rates would be misleading.

Question reference: S5W-11996

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of blockchain technology on policing.

Investment in the use of technology and enhancing cyber capability are two of the six strategic objectives contained within Policing 2026, the long-term transformational strategy published by Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority in June of this year.

In order to support delivery of these objectives, work is now being taken forward by the service to develop a dedicated ICT Strategy describing how future-proofed technology which will be used to enhance the delivery of Police Scotland’s operational and corporate functions.

The detail of that Strategy, including any decisions regarding the adoption of specific technologies, is a matter for Police Scotland with oversight by the Scottish Police Authority.

Question reference: S5F-01686

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 November 2017

To ask the First Minister, in light of reports of crews being attacked when dealing with bonfires over the weekend, what action the Scottish Government is taking to ensure the safety of emergency responders.

Question reference: S5W-12111

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 October 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many offenders have been offered restorative justice processes in the last year, also broken down by how many (a) took part and (b) outcome agreements were reached.

Question reference: S5W-12113

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 October 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government which local authorities offer restorative justice services.

This information is not held centrally. However, we are aware that several local authorities are engaged with victim/offender support organisations to provide restorative justice services. These services are offered both to adults and young people, although currently predominately used in youth services. The availability and use of restorative justice services will be considered as we take forward work with justice and third sector partners to ensure access to existing services and to develop further provision to meet the needs of victims.