- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government on which dates the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans has visited police stations, fire stations, courts or prisons in the South Scotland region since his appointment in May 2021, and whether it will provide specific details of each visit.
Answer
All Ministerial engagements, including visits to police stations, fire stations, courts or prisons, is routinely published on the Scottish Government website and can be found at: www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/ .
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that more than half of inmates released early during the COVID-19 pandemic have gone on to reoffend.
Answer
The early prisoner release power within the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act was used once, in May 2020. This power was used to protect the security and good order of prisons and the health, safety and welfare of prisoners and prison staff alike. Such measures were taken across the world, including elsewhere in the UK.
Steps were taken to manage the risks around those being released early to as low a level as realistically possible. That included statutory exclusions and a governor veto where there was a known risk to a specific individual. Furthermore, the scheme applied only to those sentenced to eighteen months or less, with 90 days or less left to serve in custody, at the time of the power being used.
A proportion of those prisoners were returned to custody for a number of reasons including, in some cases, due to reoffending.
No level of reoffending is acceptable. That is why this Government is focused on driving a greater shift away from short-term prison sentences, which those released under this power were serving, towards community-based interventions which we know are more effective at reducing reoffending.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Elena Whitham on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the letter of October 2022 from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to the Criminal Justice Committee regarding follow-up points on its pre-budget scrutiny, whether it will list the (a) 220 fire stations that were assessed as “poor or bad with regards suitability”, (b) 11 fire stations identified that do not have a water supply and (c) fire stations that do not have “sufficient” showering facilities.
Answer
The facilities in place at the 357 fire stations in Scotland are an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS).
Decisions on the allocation of its capital budget, including whether to prioritise fleet, equipment or buildings is a matter for SFRS.
The Scottish Government is in regular contact with SFRS to ensure it has the resources it needs to keep communities safe. SFRS is currently undertaking an assessment of the risks faced by communities and the assets which are needed to deal with those risks and this will inform future discussions on both capital and resource budgets.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government on how many occasions ministers have met with the developers of onshore windfarms in each of the past five years; which companies ministers met with, and when, and which ministers were involved in these meetings.
Answer
Since May 2016, the Scottish Government has maintained a public record of all ministerial engagements, overseas travel, car journeys, domestic travel and gifts received. This includes meeting dates and attendees.
The Member for North East Scotland can find this information online at www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts .
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many prosecutions of alleged perpetrators of modern slavery there have been in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
In terms of Criminal Proceedings statistics, there is no single crime of 'modern slavery'. However multiple types of crime involve, or can involve, 'slavery'. A list of these is provided below. Further information on slavery related activity is also available from the Anti-Slavery Commissioner, within their Annual Report .
- Slavery or forced labour
- Human organ offences
- Immoral traffic
- Procuration (excluding homosexual offences)
- Procuration (homosexual offences)
- Breach of trafficking and exploitation order
Most of these crime types fall under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015. This came into effect on 31 May 2016. Prior to the 2015 Act, there were a number of offences under which crimes of modern slavery could be prosecuted.
The latest available information on the number of people prosecuted for modern slavery related crimes, since 2011-12, is provided in the following table.
Number of people prosecuted for modern slavery related crimes (where main crime) in Scottish courts, 2011-12 to 2020-21.
| | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 |
Immoral traffic | CRIMINAL JUSTICE (SCOTLAND) ACT 2003 SECTION 22(1)(A)(I) | 4 | - | 1 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - |
CRIMINAL JUSTICE (SCOTLAND)ACT 2003 SECTION 22(1)(A)(I)&(II) | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - |
CRIMINAL LAW (CONSOLIDATION) (SCOTLAND) ACT 1995 SECTION 11(1)(A) | - | - | 1 | - | 1 | - | 2 | 1 | - | - |
HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND EXPLOITATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2015 SECTION 1(1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | - |
Procuration (excluding homosexual acts) | CRIMINAL LAW (CONSOLIDATION) (SCOTLAND) ACT 1995 SECTION 7(1)(B) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - |
Procuration of homosexual acts | CRIMINAL LAW (CONSOLIDATION) (SCOTLAND) ACT 1995 SECTION 13(4) & 5(C) | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Slavery or Forced Labour | HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND EXPLOITATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2015 SECTION 1(1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | 1 |
HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND EXPLOITATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2015 SECTION 4(1)(B) | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | - | - |
Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database
Please note: 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 Spring 2023.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many dash camera systems on Police Scotland vehicles have been reported as either not working, broken, corrupted or defective in each year since 2013, and what the average time taken to replace or repair broken dash camera systems is.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information as responsibility for the maintenance of Police vehicles sits with the Scottish Police Authority and the Chief Constable. Police Scotland has confirmed that they hold a stock of replacement dash cameras which can be fitted to their vehicles should one develop a fault; dependant on the locality of the vehicle, type of equipment fitted and the type of fault, this can be done on the same day.
I have asked Police Scotland to write to the member with this information.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many public electric vehicle (EV) charging points have been installed in each year for which records exist, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The Charge Place Scotland (CPS) network currently hosts 2445 publicly available electric vehicle charge points. Historical data relating to CPS’ development is not available broken down by Local Authority area.
The following table shows the total number of installations across the CPS network in each year since its inception. There are 105 charge point installations that cannot be reconciled with a specific year due to different methods of recording installs employed by CPS’ operators since the network was established, hence the current publicly available total is higher than the figures in the following table.
The information provided only presents charge points registered on the Scottish Government funded CPS network. The Scottish Government does not hold information relating to commercial electric vehicle charging networks.
Year | Publicly Available Installs |
April 2014 – March 2015 | 157 |
April 2015 – March 2016 | 253 |
April 2016 – March 2017 | 82 |
April 2017 – March 2018 | 161 |
April 2018 – March 2019 | 219 |
April 2019 - March 2020 | 513 |
April 2020 - March 2021 | 394 |
April 2021 - March 2022 | 273 |
April 2022 – December 2022 | 288 |
Unattributable to a specific year | 105 |
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13242 by Humza Yousaf on 11 January 2022, whether it has any plans to produce the cost information related to delayed discharge for the NHS again in the future.
Answer
As stated in the answer to S6W-13242 responsibility for the publication of costs on delayed discharges rests with Public Health Scotland, and future plans for publication of this information is currently being reviewed by PHS .
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Patrick Harvie on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many households do not have central heating, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
Data from the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) provides estimates of the number and percentage of households with no central heating at a local authority level by averaging three years of data. The most recently available local authority data is for the 2017-19 period and is presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Number and percentage of households with no central heating by local authority, 2017-2019.
Local Authority | No Central Heating (Number) | No Central Heating (Percentage) |
Aberdeen City | 1,000 | 1% |
Aberdeenshire | 2,000 | 2% |
Angus | 1,000 | 2% |
Argyll and Bute | 2,000 | 4% |
Clackmannanshire | [c] | [c] |
Dumfries and Galloway | 2,000 | 3% |
Dundee City | 3,000 | 5% |
East Ayrshire | [z] | [z] |
East Dunbartonshire | [c] | [c] |
East Lothian | 1,000 | 2% |
East Renfrewshire | [c] | [c] |
City of Edinburgh | 9,000 | 3% |
Na h-Eileanan Siar | 1,000 | 6% |
Falkirk | 2,000 | 2% |
Fife | 1,000 | 1% |
Glasgow City | 7,000 | 2% |
Highland | 4,000 | 4% |
Inverclyde | [c] | [c] |
Midlothian | | 1% |
Moray | 1,000 | 2% |
North Ayrshire | 1,000 | 2% |
North Lanarkshire | [c] | [c] |
Orkney Islands | | 2% |
Perth and Kinross | 1,000 | 1% |
Renfrewshire | 2,000 | 2% |
Scottish Borders | 2,000 | 4% |
Shetland Islands | | 1% |
South Ayrshire | [c] | [c] |
South Lanarkshire | 2,000 | 2% |
Stirling | 1,000 | 2% |
West Dunbartonshire | [c] | [c] |
West Lothian | [c] | [c] |
Scotland | 49,000 | 2% |
Notes
1. Figures are based on a three-year average from the Scottish House Condition Survey 2017- 2019.
2. All numbers are rounded to the nearest 1,000 and percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.
3. The following symbols are used in this analysis: [c] indicates base sample too small to report (below 30 cases) or estimate representing 2 or fewer sampled households and [z] indicates no sample cases in this category.
It should be noted that at a Scotland level over the period 2017 to 2019, less than 2% or 49,000 of households were estimated to not have central heating in their homes. Given this low prevalence, robust estimates from the SHCS are not available for some Local Authority areas.
Data on homes with full central heating is published in the Scottish House Condition Survey: Local Authority Analysis 2017-2019 Data Tables . These tables show that 96% of homes in Scotland had full central heating. A further 2% had no central heating (as shown in Table 1) and 2% had partial central heating. Generally a home is considered to have partial central heating if only rooms representing up to 50% of the floor area of the dwelling are heated from the main heating system.
The latest available local authority data is for the 2017-2019 period, as due to Covid-19, the fieldwork for the 2020 SHCS was suspended in March 2020 and did not resume. The methodology used in the 2021 SHCS was also impacted by Covid-19, with more details to be published in May 2023.
- Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Elena Whitham on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government which fire stations are currently recorded as (a) lacking sufficient showering or toilet facilities, (b) lacking basic bathroom facilities, (c) lacking shower facilities, (d) lacking drying facilities, (e) lacking a water supply, (f) being in “poor or bad condition” and (g) held up at least in part by internal scaffolding, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The facilities in place at the 357 fire stations in Scotland are an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. There are 14 stations that have been identified with defective roofing material requiring remedial action that are located in Crewe, Cumbernauld, Dalkeith, Galashiels, Hawick, Helensburgh, Huntly, Liberton, Livingston, Marionville, Milngavie, Portree, Stewarton and Tranent.
It is worth noting that the listed stations above were inherited legacy buildings which contribute to the Services capital backlog investment requirement.