- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 20 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the effectiveness of police cars
being fitted with telematics technology.
Answer
The Scottish Government supports the Police Scotland Fleet Strategy. Telematics is a key element of that Strategy which aims to provide a fit for purpose, safe, reliable, and cost-effective police fleet.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 20 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to roll out alcohol monitoring technology for offenders.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to expanding electronic monitoring use across a broader range of licences and court orders, including exploring the use of new technology, such as remote alcohol monitoring, which is provided for by the Management of Offenders (Scotland) Act 2019.
Regulations came into force on 31 January 2025 which enable the use of GPS monitoring devices for those released on Home Detention Curfew (HDC). As work continues to embed these changes, we will engage with justice partners to explore the potential uses of new technologies, including both GPS and remote substance monitoring technologies. The functionality of GPS tags may have a role in helping to address particular behaviour associated with problematic alcohol use, for example, by excluding someone from a town centre on a Saturday night.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 20 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding what proportion of prisoners released under each early release programme in each of the last five years (a) were employed, (b) requested voluntary throughcare and (c) were homeless within six months of release.
Answer
Emergency early release regulations have been utilised twice within the last five years (May 2020 and June/July 2024).
On both occasions, the conditions of release were as they would have been at the individual’s original scheduled liberation date. Therefore, as those eligible for release were serving short-term sentences, they were not routinely supervised or monitored following their release.
Therefore, information with regards to their housing circumstances, use of voluntary throughcare, and employment status is not held by the Scottish Government.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 20 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many hours of "other activity" were carried out by people with community payback orders who were subject to unpaid work requirements in 2023-24.
Answer
The total number of hours of other activity carried out in 2023-24 is not held, but relevant information in relation to orders successfully completed is available.
In the financial year 2023-24, 6,742 unpaid work or other activity requirements imposed as part of a Community Payback Order (CPO) were successfully completed. Of these successful requirements, 884,844 hours were completed.
This above information is available from Table 14 from Justice Social Work Statistics in Scotland: 2023-24 – Part 2 - gov.scot.
Of the hours carried out as part of successfully completed unpaid work or other activity requirements in 2023-24, 66,646 hours (8%) were recorded as other activity.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 19 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that retailers should be encouraged to report all instances of shoplifting to Police Scotland.
Answer
We encourage all businesses to report any instances of criminality to Police Scotland. As well as enabling the perpetrators to be caught and being prevented from committing further crimes, such reports also ensure Police Scotland has the best possible intelligence on incidents in particular areas. The Scottish Government would also urge retailers to engage with the Scottish Partnership Against Acquisitive Crime (SPAACE) in order to help safeguard their business and the people that work there. The SPAACE Strategy outlines a partnership approach to the prevention, deterrence, and enforcement around a range of crimes including housebreaking and theft.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 13 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what formal representations it has made to the UK Government regarding which sectors in Scotland could be exempted from the planned increase in the rate of employer national insurance contributions, and, if it has made any such representations, which sectors it has specifically raised with the UK Government, and whether this included licensed hospitality.
Answer
We have consistently called on the UK Government to reverse in full its decision to increase employer national insurance contributions from April 2025.
The First Minister wrote jointly with COSLA President Shona Morrison to the Chancellor in January, supported by a range of voluntary organisations setting out our serious concern at the impact of this tax change on the third sector.
We have called upon the UKG to take an ‘actual costs’ approach to compensation for increased costs as a result of the increase in employer’s national insurance contributions to all organisations who provide public services.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-33261 by Gillian Martin on 12 February 2025, whether it will provide the information requested regarding what (a) discussions and (b) meetings it has had with (i) expert organisations and (ii) the UK Government regarding the potential consequences for the UK’s future gas supply if the Jackdaw gas field was not to be developed for any reason, and whether it will publish the minutes of any such meetings, and, if no such discussions or meetings have taken place, whether it will confirm this.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-33261 on 12 February 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many operational frontline officers there were in each division of Police Scotland in each year from 2014 to date.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not collect information on how many operational frontline officers are deployed in divisions. Police workforce data collection are a matter for the Chief Constable.
Police Scotland publish officer number data each quarter which includes information on the total number of officers in each policing division. These can be found on the Police Scotland website at: Police Scotland Officer Numbers - Police Scotland.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many Police Scotland officers or staff were unavailable for deployment in each month of (a) 2023 and (b) 2024 due to sickness or other physical or mental ill health.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not collect information on officer and police staff absences due to sickness or other physical or mental ill health reasons. The recording of staffing absences are a matter for the Chief Constable under the oversight of the Scottish Police Authority.
The Scottish Government welcomes the Chief Constable’s commitment to police officers and staff wellbeing. Police Scotland provide access to a range of services including, a 24/7 employee assistance programme and direct access to occupational health services to support officers and police staff’s physical and mental wellbeing.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what the operational base level is for each division of Police Scotland, and how often Police Scotland has been unable to meet that level in each division in the last five years.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not collect or hold information on the operational base levels for officers. Officer deployment nationally and locally is quite rightly a matter for the Chief Constable.