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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-12605

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what it estimates the (a) initial upfront capital and (b) annual ongoing resource cost would be to acquire body-worn cameras for all police officers in Scotland, and whether any supplier quotations or tendering have taken place in order to achieve best value for any such procurement.

The issue of body-worn cameras is a policy and operational decision for Police Scotland, acting under the oversight of the Scottish Police Authority.

Police Scotland have advised they have developed an initial business case for Body Worn Video which has been considered and approved by the SPA Resources Committee. Police Scotland will undertake a full procurement exercise in 2023 which will provide more clarity on costs – both upfront purchase costs and ongoing costs.

The Scottish Government would expect Police Scotland to achieve best value through all its procurement activity.

Question reference: S6W-12584

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff absences due to mental health reasons were recorded by (a) 999 and (b) 101 call centre staff, in each year since 2014.

The Scottish Government welcomes initiatives being undertaken by Police Scotland to support its workforce through the “Your Wellbeing Matters” programme which covers psychological, physical, social and financial wellbeing.

The Scottish Government does not collect information on staff absences due to mental health reasons. Delivery of call handling services and associated staffing issues are a matter for the Chief Constable under the oversight of the SPA.

Question reference: S6W-12686

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to statistics reportedly showing that the number of sexual misconduct allegations against Police Scotland officers has increased by over 400% in 2022 to date, compared with 2021.

Bullying, harassment and unacceptable behaviour of any form cannot be tolerated within society or within policing, and there must be trust in how matters are handled if things go wrong. This includes having robust, clear and transparent mechanisms in place to investigate complaints, misconduct or other issues of concern.

Protecting public confidence in policing in Scotland is fundamental to a healthy democratic society. That is why the Scottish Government commissioned and subsequently accepted the majority of the recommendations from Dame Elish Angiolini’s Independent Review, and outlined its commitment to introduce a Police Complaints and Misconduct Handling Bill later this parliamentary year.

The introduction of this Bill will provide greater transparency around the police complaints process, the standards we expect from officers and further strengthen public confidence in policing. It will build on the improvement work already delivered which includes a new operating model for complaint handling within Police Scotland and the establishment of a Strategic Oversight Board to mainstream equality, diversity and inclusion. This further underlines that unacceptable behaviour will not be tolerated in policing in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-12583

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) average and (b) longest time taken for the the police to attend an incident when required following a 999 call has been in each year since 2014.

The Scottish Government is grateful to Police Scotland’s call handlers for their continued hard work to ensure that calls to the service are answered as quickly and as safely as possible.

In its 2021 briefing note, His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, (HMICS) noted significant progress in Police Scotland’s call handling processes and a commitment to pursue continuous improvement. Furthermore, this year’s HMICS assurance review on the service’s Contact Assessment Model (CAM) highlighted a number of successes in how calls are now triaged by handlers.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on Police Scotland 999 or 101 calls. Delivery of these services is a matter for the Chief Constable under the oversight of the SPA.

Police Scotland publish monthly reports on call handling which are available at: https://www.scotland.police.uk/about-us/what-we-do/how-we-are-performing/.

Question reference: S6W-12706

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of (a) 999 and (b) 101 calls have been abandoned or discontinued in each year since 2014.

Question reference: S6W-12871

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many drink-driving (a) incidents, (b) charges, and (c) convictions there have been in each year since 2014.

The latest available information is provided in the following tables.

(a) N umber of offences related to drink/drugs driving, recorded by the police 2014-15 to 2021-22.

	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
Driving motor vehicle while unfit through drink or drugs	450	540	653	719	771	742	897	883
In charge of motor vehicle while unfit through drink/drugs	54	71	123	137	148	159	138	147
Driving motor vehicle with blood alcohol content above prescribed limit	3,161	3,239	3,465	3,262	3,201	3,275	2,756	2,972
In charge of motor vehicle while blood alcohol content above limit	390	364	331	333	333	324	255	299
Failure to provide breath specimen at roadside	477	509	569	602	591	630	637	592
Failure to provide breath, blood or urine specimen at police station	686	735	776	810	803	848	923	906
Driving motor vehicle while under influence of controlled drug above prescribed limit	-	-	-	-	-	573	2,336	1,886
In charge of motor vehicle while under influence of controlled drug above prescribed limit	-	-	-	-	-	43	155	88
Total	5,218	5,458	5,917	5,863	5,847	6,594	8,097	7,773

(b) Driving under the influence charges reported to COPFS, 2014-15 to 2021-22.

2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
5,434	5,486	5,884	5,770	5,840	5,990	6,272	7,120

Source: COPFS.

(c) The latest available information on the number of people convicted for ‘driving under the influence’ is published in the ‘Criminal Proceedings in Scotland – 2020-21' statistical bulletin, table 4(b).

A breakdown of the various crime types that make up this category is provided in the following table, please note that we are unable to separate alcohol offences from drug related offences in some crime groups.

People convicted of offences related to driving under the influence, where main crime, by crime type, 2014-15 to 2020-21.

	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Driving motor vehicle while under influence of controlled drug above	-	-	-	-	-	4	119
Driving motor vehicle while unfit through drink or drugs	203	196	239	255	315	304	145
Driving mv with blood alcohol content above prescribed limit	2,791	2,654	2,746	2,734	2,548	2,460	1,535
Failure to provide breath, blood or urine specimen at police station	382	406	352	368	404	368	231
Failure to provide breath specimen at the roadside	55	48	51	53	42	43	16
In charge of motor vehicle while under influence of controlled drug	-	-	-	-	-	-	6
In charge of motor vehicle while unfit through drink/drugs	26	31	34	48	34	44	26
In charge of mv while blood alcohol content above limit	224	202	212	202	209	179	107
Total convicted	3,681	3,537	3,634	3,660	3,552	3,402	2,185

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 indicative of long term trends.

The latest available data is for 2020-21. 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 in 2023.

Question reference: S6W-12485

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) adults and (b) children have been admitted to hospital with a primary diagnosis of asthma in NHS (i) Greater Glasgow and Clyde and (ii) Ayrshire and Arran in (A) 2011, (B) 2016, (C) 2020, (D) 2021 and (E) 2022 to date.

Question reference: S6O-01699

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport last met with CalMac representatives.

Question reference: S6W-12472

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 7 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much of its Justice Directorate's budget has been spent on first class train travel for (a) ministers and (b) civil servants in each year since 2016.

The Justice Portfolio has spent £11,610.31 on first class rail travel for civil servants since 2016. Ministerial travel costs are paid for from a separate budget. A breakdown of the total cost is provided in the following table:

Calendar year	Calendar year spend (£)
2016	£1860.55

2017	£3975.54

2018	£3392.43

2019	£1009.24

2020	£292.25

2021	£998.35

2022 to date	£81.95

The Scottish Government’s rail travel policy dictates that civil servants should use standard class for all rail journeys. Scottish Government staff are also encouraged to aim to buy reduced rail fares, including day returns, saver tickets and also avoid expensive flexible/anytime rail fares whenever possible.

Civil Servants are, however, allowed to make use of first class rail travel on overnight journeys such as the Caledonian Sleeper or Eurostar. These journeys are reflected in the costs noted above.

Question reference: S6W-12487

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 7 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many times Legionnaires' disease has been detected on the Police Scotland estate in each year since 2013.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information to answer this question. I have asked Police Scotland to write to you providing the information you have requested. However, Police Scotland has reassured me that they conduct regular legionella testing across the Police Estate and if legionella bacteria is detected an immediate mitigation plan is put in place. Police Scotland has confirmed that there have been no cases of Legionnaires disease reported since 2013.

The Member will be aware of the temporary closure of the Scottish Police Collage at Tulliallan from 6 December. This was the result of routine testing and, as a precaution, Police Scotland’s leadership team has decided to temporarily close Tulliallan to allow further investigations and action to be undertaken.

There are no confirmed cases and the risk to individuals remains extremely low. However, Police Scotland has been clear that the safety and wellbeing of officers and staff is paramount. The closure will allow for a full flush of all water systems to be carried out, and further testing done to ensure there is no trace of bacteria remaining. There will be no impact on operational policing as a result of this.

Responsibility for the management of the police estate sits with Police Scotland, which is accountable to the Scottish Police Authority.