Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-25620

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 18 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the potential issues arising from the Post Office’s Horizon computer system in Scotland, whether it will publish any correspondence that it has had with the UK Government, including any related documents, regarding the method by which the sub-postmasters and mistresses whose wrongful convictions were based on Horizon evidence will be quashed.

The First Minister's letter to the Prime Minister of 10 January was published on the Scottish Government website at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/first-minister-letter-prime-minister-post-office-horizon-cases/

Letters I sent to the Secretary of State for Justice, Alex Chalk MP, and the Minister for Enterprise, Markets and Small Business, Kevin Hollinrake MP and the letter which the Deputy First Minister sent to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations concerning legislation to reverse convictions that may have resulted from the use of Post Office Horizon evidence are available on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/post-office-horizon/letters-to-uk-government.

It is for the UK Government to decide whether to publish letters sent with an expectation of confidence by UK Ministers to the Scottish Ministers.

Question reference: S6W-25624

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 18 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it will ensure that all sub-postmasters and mistresses whose wrongful convictions in Scotland were based on evidence from the Post Office’s Horizon computer system will be identified, and all such convictions quashed.

On 13 March 2024 the UK Government introduced the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill which, if passed, will automatically quash on coming into force any convictions which fall within the scope identified on the face of the Bill. Details of the UK Bill can be found on the UK Parliament website: Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament

The Scottish Government believes that the best way to deliver a quick, fair and equal solution for all affected sub-postmasters is through a UK-wide Bill, and will continue to press the UK Government to deliver a solution that provides this.

We will introduce Scottish legislation if necessary, but any such legislation cannot be passed in the Scottish Parliament until after the UK Bill has been passed to ensure full compatibility with both the UK legislation, and the UK compensation scheme in which the Scottish Government has no locus.

Question reference: S6W-25626

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 18 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the potential issues arising from the Post Office’s Horizon computer system in Scotland, what its response is to the comments of former sheriff Kevin Drummond KC that an approach to resolving the potential issues “could be done tomorrow… by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and Crown Prosecution Service bringing to their respective criminal appeal courts a list of convictions with case references and informing the court that investigations have revealed these convictions to be flawed and inviting the court to overturn the convictions”.

The Scottish Government is aware of this proposal. During the Lord Advocate’s statement to Parliament on 16 January 2024, I am aware there was discussion of this issue. The Lord Advocate explained that:

‘… It is misleading to suggest that I could simply attend the appeal court with a list of cases and tell the court of criminal appeal to quash the convictions. There is such a process but, for reasons of sound public policy and in recognition of the constitutional role of our court of appeal, prosecutors always have to be able to explain why they are no longer relying on a conviction. As I have explained, not every Horizon case will involve a miscarriage of justice. In some cases, there was sufficient evidence to support a criminal conviction. That is demonstrated by the material from England and Wales that shows that, of the cases that have been referred to the Court of Appeal in England, only some—not all—have resulted in a conviction being quashed because of a miscarriage of justice. Therefore, it is not as simple as my providing a list of convictions to be quashed.’

Question reference: S6W-25080

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 7 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government under whose ministerial direction the redactions to the Hamilton Report were made; whether it will provide the name of the lead official in charge of such redactions; how many civil servants were involved in the process of redaction; whether it will provide, where possible, the (a) names and (b) job titles of those civil servants; whether any special advisers were involved in the redaction process and, if so, whether it will provide their (i) names and (ii) job titles.

No ministerial direction was made in relation to the redactions to the Hamilton Report. The Ministerial Code sets out the appropriate process for any referrals by the First Minister to the independent advisors. In accordance with that process, the former Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, was the Minister with overall responsibility however he had no involvement in the redaction process.

The report was redacted for the purpose of ensuring compliance with the court orders, and to redact any personal data where processing of personal data would not be lawful under data protection law, by the Scottish Government’s Organisational Continuity Team. None of the civil servants from the Organisational Continuity Team was a special adviser and no Special Advisers were involved in the redaction process of the Hamilton Report.

Please note we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested relating to names. This information is personal data of a third party, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and Section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Question reference: S6W-25079

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 7 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide full details of the timetable leading up to the redacted version of the Hamilton Report being issued to the public on 22 March 2021, including (a) when the report was delivered to it by James Hamilton, (b) when information was redacted from the report and (c) whether there was more than one process of redaction.

In preparation for issuing Mr Hamilton’s report, civil servants seconded to the Secretariat applied draft redactions in the period 15 to 21 March 2021. The Scottish Government received Mr Hamilton’s final report on 22 March 2021 at 00:02. The report was then redacted by civil servants in the Organisational Continuity Team for the purpose of ensuring compliance with the court orders made by Lord Woolman and Lady Dorrian and to remove any personal data where processing of personal data would not be lawful under data protection law.

The report was published on the same day, 22 March 2021, in line with the commitment given to Parliament on 4 March 2021 by Nicola Sturgeon , at https://www.gov.scot/publications/independent-report-by-james-hamilton-on-the-first-ministers-self-referral-under-the-scottish-ministerial-code

Question reference: S6W-25078

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 7 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Decision 004/2023 of the Scottish Information Commissioner, whether it will list the (a) name and (b) job title of each of its civil servants that were appointed to the secretariat that assisted James Hamilton in his investigation into whether the former First Minister had complied with the Scottish Ministerial Code, as described in the Commissioner's decision; whether any of the civil servants appointed to this secretariat were special advisers, and, if so, and in the event that any special advisers were involved in the process of deciding what parts of the Hamilton Report to redact, whether it will propose the scheduling of time for a ministerial statement on this matter.

The Scottish Government seconded one individual to provide a Secretariat function to the Independent Advisor on the Ministerial Code while he conducted his review. Ahead of publication, Mr Hamilton requested additional secretariat support. Four additional permanent civil servants below the grade of Senior Civil Service were seconded to support the Secretariat from the SG Organisational Continuity Team (OCT) for a limited period from 15 March 2021, primarily to support the redaction and publication process. None of those civil servants was a Special Adviser and Special Advisers were not involved in the process of deciding what parts of the Hamilton Report to redact.

Please note we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested relating to names. This information is personal data of a third party, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and Section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Question reference: S6W-25081

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish any record of correspondence, notes, emails, text or WhatsApp messages, as well as the documents themselves, in the month of March 2021, between or on behalf of James Hamilton and civil servants or Scottish Government ministers, regarding the redactions made to the version of the Hamilton Report that was published on 22 March 2021.

Mr Hamilton’s report was published on 22 March 2021. In his letter, which is published alongside the report, Mr Hamilton makes clear that redactions were necessary in order to comply with the court orders in place (made by Lord Woolman and Lady Dorrian), in order to avoid the risk of jigsaw identification.

It would not be appropriate to publish further material that was provided in confidence to Mr Hamilton for the purpose of his investigation. Following a Freedom of Information request for the full text of the Hamilton Report, the Scottish Government provided the Scottish Information Commissioner with the full text of the report, and, in Decision 135/2022 , the Commissioner confirmed that he was satisfied that disclosing the information would lead to the identification of complainers, either directly or indirectly, contrary to the civil and criminal orders, and that the Scottish Government had complied with the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act in responding to that request.

Question reference: S6F-02848

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 February 2024

To ask the First Minister, regarding the delivery of the Scottish Government's recently published depopulation action plan, what will be different about this approach, which is described as "local by default, national by agreement", particularly towards the approval of new developments supported by local communities.

Question reference: S6W-25018

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 16 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the proposed introduction of a non-domestic rates public health supplement on retailers, as set out in its Budget for 2024-25, whether it will provide further details of what its position is on whether the introduction of such a levy is consistent with the New Deal for Business Group’s Implementation Plan recommendation to maintain a competitive and less complex rates regime.

Question reference: S6W-25020

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 16 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the proposed introduction of a non-domestic rates public health supplement on retailers, as set out in its Budget for 2024-25, whether it has estimated the level of additional retail sales that would be required each year by retailers to offset the cost of the surtax.

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