Seòmar agus comataidhean

COPFS holds records of all concluded Fatal Accident Inquiries dating back to 1 April 2013.

For that period, the longest duration from the date of death to the conclusion of the Fatal Accident Inquiry was in relation to the FAI into the death of Boguslaw Kopec. The date of Mr Kopec’s death was 13 March 2011. A First Notice commencing the FAI process was issued on 24 August 2020 and the Inquiry commenced on 9 November 2020. Evidence was concluded on 3 December 2020 and the Sheriff’s Determination was published on 11 March 2021.

The investigation into Mr Kopec’s death was hampered by difficulties tracing and obtaining the evidence of essential witnesses. In addition, Inquiry proceedings could only be commenced after criminal proceedings had been ruled out. Nevertheless, the Crown at that time acknowledged that the time taken to conduct its death investigation in this case had been far too long and apologised for the fact that its investigation and the Inquiry proceedings were not concluded sooner.

COPFS has significantly reformed its processes in recent years to improve the quality of death investigations and reduce the time taken to investigate deaths and bring FAIs to court. However, in some cases FAIs have taken too long to commence and we understand the impact that waiting for investigations to conclude has on families.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who reply in writing within 20 days.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on cyber security training of staff across the public sector organisations.

Latest data from the Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy (LCREE) survey shows that, in 2022, Scotland’s nuclear power sector directly employed 2,700 (full-time equivalent) and had an estimated turnover of £763 million.

A five-year time series – of employment and turnover in the nuclear power sector - from 2018 to 2022, is presented in the following tables.

The results in LCREE are survey-based, as the data is gathered from a sample rather than the whole population. The estimates are therefore subject to uncertainty, and the level of uncertainty is expressed through confidence intervals. These are presented alongside the estimates in the following tables.

Not all of the data requested is recorded centrally. The Scottish Government publishes statistical data on FAIs annually on its website. The latest data is reproduced in the following table:

The recommendations in FAI determinations cover a wide variety of policy areas. Each area will consider what action to take in relation to each recommendation that is relevant to its own area of responsibility.

The pilot, facilitated by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS), has received more than 80 applications up until the start of February this year. We are working closely with SCTS to address the issues that have been raised in a minority of these applications, including how we ensure applicants are kept fully informed of progress in producing their transcript and how that process could be quicker.

The extension of the current pilot for a further twelve months will enable lessons to be learnt as part of the wider evaluation of the programme, so it can achieve its aim of helping improve victims’ experience of the justice system. This includes the potential opportunity to develop and test emerging technology that may assist in producing transcripts and a better understanding of the most efficient and effective operation of servicing applications.

As part of the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill I am also exploring how greater access to free transcripts can be provided in the future.

No.

The average time for applicants to receive a transcript under the pilot scheme has been seven months, however this does not reflect the length of time that all applicants have waited. The timeline varies across applications, influenced by several factors including the success of the pilot receiving a high number of requests, the volume of transcription work for live court proceedings, the length of the transcript requested, and the amount of redaction required.

SCTS are reviewing current processes and procedures with the aim of reducing the time taken to provide transcripts and to ensure the most efficient and effective service delivery.

As protected by section 48(5) of the Scotland Act 1998, the Law Officers operate entirely independently of any other person as they undertake their prosecutorial and investigation of deaths functions. The Lord Advocate is accountable to the Scottish Parliament for prosecutions and the investigation of deaths (but may decline to answer questions which might prejudice criminal proceedings or would otherwise be contrary to the public interest under section 27(3) of the Scotland Act).