- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 08 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 23 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government (a) what the cost has been of and (b) how much time has been spent on inspection and repair work between the St Ann’s and Keithock junctions of the A90 near Brechin, (i) in each year since 2015 and (ii) since April 2025.
Answer
The cost of repair work on the A90 between St Ann’s and Keithock junctions near Brechin is not available. This is because expenditure is not recorded for specific sections of the trunk road. Instead, costs are collated and reported as a total spend for the A90 as a whole. The following table shows the expenditure breakdown for the A90 as a whole for the years 2015-2025.
Year | Expenditure |
2015-16 | £7,217,750 |
2016-17 | £8,434,733 |
2017-18 | £11,991,347 |
2018-19 | £12,963,705 |
2019-20 | £12,486,316 |
2020-21 | £20,673,965 |
2021-22 | £23,045,538 |
2022-23 | £22,553,979 |
2023-24 | £21,685,051 |
2024-25 | £25,717,305 |
Total | £166,769,689 |
The Operating Company for the A90, Amey, undertake two driven safety inspections weekly and an annual walked survey. Any defects identified are repaired in accordance with contractual requirements.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 08 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 23 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that eight prison officers were attacked with boiling water in the last year.
Answer
I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:
SPS has a zero-tolerance approach to violence towards staff and has support mechanisms in place to assist prison officers who have been affected by it. Incidents of criminality are reported to Police Scotland and SPS will actively seek prosecution.
While people in prisons do have access to kettles, these will be removed from individuals if it is considered a risk to the safety of themselves or others.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 08 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 23 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether all prisoners should have access to kettles, including those designated as "High Supervision".
Answer
I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:
The safety and security of all those who work, reside and visit our establishments is of the utmost importance.
All individuals in prison are provided access to a kettle within their accommodation, except in cases where medical or security considerations necessitate its removal. Such decisions are made following an appropriate risk assessment and in accordance with established procedures.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 23 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that it has abandoned its zero tolerance policy on knife crime.
Answer
In 2016, Scottish Government legislation came into force that increased the maximum sentence for weapons possession from four years to five years. The average length of custodial sentence for weapons possession in 2022-23 was 332 days; this compares with 218 days in 2007-08 and represents an increase of 52%.
The investigation of knife crime is an independent operational matter for Police Scotland. The prosecution of knife crime is an independent operational matter for COPFS. Sentencing in any given case is a matter for the independent court within the overall legal framework.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 23 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what proportion of people convicted of knife crime possession in each of the last four years have received the maximum sentence of five years imprisonment.
Answer
Section 49 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 provides for a custodial sentence of up to 5 years for the offence of having an article with a blade or point in a public place. In any given case, sentencing is a matter for the independent court. They take into account all the facts and circumstances of a case before imposing a sentence within the legal framework. It is not possible to disaggregate these figures by the specific type of weapon involved (e.g. knife).
Over the last four financial years, for which data is available, there was only one custodial sentence of 5 years or more under this section of the Act, in 2019-20.
This sentence exceeds the statutory maximum and may reflect either additional charges being dealt with concurrently or an aggravation, rather than a sentence based solely on the possession offence alone. This represented approximately 0.09% of all (1,141) convictions under this section of the Act in that financial year. Please note that the latest criminal proceedings data is for 2022-23.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 23 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it remains its policy that anyone caught possessing a knife for the purpose of crime should be prosecuted before a sheriff and jury.
Answer
In 2016, Scottish Government legislation came into force that increased the maximum sentence for weapons possession from four years to five years. The average length of custodial sentence for weapons possession in 2022-23 was 332 days; this compares with 218 days in 2007-08 and represents an increase of 52%.
The prosecution of knife crime is an independent operational matter for COPFS.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 24 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason Scotland will see the slowest GVA growth of the devolved nations over the next three years, according to the EY UK Regional Economic Forecast 2025.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 24 September 2025
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 16 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Retail Consortium’s suggestion in its Scottish Budget 2026-27 recommendations paper that funding for the Retail Crime Taskforce should be sustained and ideally enhanced for the coming year.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s commitment to tackling retail crime was reaffirmed in our Programme for Government, which makes clear our strong support for Police Scotland’s robust approach in addressing this issue.
The Scottish Government has commenced work on the 2026-27 Budget and the Scottish Spending Review in order to set out our spending plans to 2029-30.
Policing is a priority for the Scottish Government, as demonstrated by investing more than £14.6 billion in policing since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 16 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many Drug Treatment and Testing Orders were imposed in Edinburgh in each calendar year from 2021 to June 2025.
Answer
From April 2020 to March 2024 there were 202 Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) imposed in Edinburgh.
Please note, Justice Social Work data is published by financial year. Data for 2024-25 will be published in early 2026.
The breakdown is as follows:
| | Number of Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) imposed |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 16 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many Drug Treatment and Testing Orders were imposed in each calendar year from 2021 to June 2025, and how many were successfully completed in each of those years.
Answer
Across Scotland from April 2020 to March 2024 a total of 1,179 Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) were imposed by the courts. There were 743 DTTOs completed or subject to early discharge from the court on the basis of sufficient progress being observed between April 2020 and March 2024.
Please note, Justice Social Work data is published by financial year. Data for 2024-25 will be published in January 2026.
The breakdown of DTTOs imposed in this period and the number of completions is in the following table. Please also note that orders can be completed in a different year from which they were imposed.
| | Number of Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) imposed | Number of Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) finished which were successfully completed or had an early discharge |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
The information for years 2020-21 to 2023-24 for Scotland is published in the Justice social work statistics: local authority time series tables - gov.scot– Table DTTO_7 and DTTO_15.
It should be noted that the trend data supplied was affected by the Coronavirus (Covid) pandemic. There were significant public health measures, including two national lockdowns, in place during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 recording years. This means that statistics for most areas of justice social work were impacted in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Caution is advised in comparing data from these two years to other years.
