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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-20759

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 13 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much NHS Scotland and other agencies spent on all forms of smoking cessation in the last year for which figures are available.

The Scottish Government provides funding annually to Health Boards for smoking cessation and prevention services. The funding is provided as part of a wider Outcomes Framework allocation, whereby budget is provided to Health Boards to cover a range of outcomes. It is up to Health Boards to decide how much of this funding to allocate to each outcome. The published Scottish Budget for 2023-2024 includes £74.1 million for the Outcomes Framework.

Question reference: S6W-20757

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 13 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it estimates the cost to NHS Scotland of treating diseases caused by smoking was in the last year for which figures are available.

Question reference: S6O-02491

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-20174

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 15 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when Police Scotland will have access to Scottish laboratory facilities that can test if someone has ingested rohypnol or sodium nitrite.

Question reference: S6W-20112

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 14 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of police resource is currently allocated to tackling cybercrime.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the percentage of police resources that are dedicated to tackling cybercrime.

The police budget has increased by £80 million in 2023-24 bringing the overall budget to over £1.45 billion. The allocation of this budget is a decision for the Chief Constable and Scottish Police Authority, including the allocation of resources to tackle cybercrime.

Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority work together to ensure the necessary resources and expertise are in place to tackle emerging areas of threat, such as cyber-crime and fraud.

The Scottish Government works closely with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Police Scotland to ensure Scotland is well prepared for cyber threats and would urge all organisations to follow the NCSC’s advice and guidance.

Question reference: S6W-20111

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of reported cybercrimes were successfully prosecuted in the last year for which figures are available.

There is no agreed upon definition of cyber-crime and a range of different types of crime may be either cyber-dependent or cyber-enabled. The table below shows people prosecuted and convicted in Scottish courts in 2020-21 where the main charge is under either the Computer Misuse Act 1990 or Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, the only charges that are identifiable as cyber-crimes in Criminal Proceedings in Scotland data. Note that data for 2020-21 are effected by the pandemic and subsequent court closures and should not be considered indicative of long term trends.

Act	People prosecuted	People convicted	Conviction rate
Computer Misuse Act 1990	1	1	100%
Communications Act 2003, Section 127	387	363	94%
Total	388	364	94%

Question reference: S6W-20109

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of all crimes were cybercrimes in the last year for which figures are available.

In 2022-23 there were an estimated 14,890 police recorded cyber-crimes, accounting for 5% of all recorded crime in Scotland. This estimate is based on a review of crime records, whereby a random sample of cases was drawn across Scotland for those types of crime that could in theory involve a cyber-element.

Of these 14,890 estimated cyber-crimes, the most common types were crimes of fraud (57%), sexual crimes (26%) and crimes of threats and extortion (12%).

The estimate of Police recorded cyber-crime does not provide information on the characteristics of all cyber-crime committed in society, as not all these crimes are reported to the police. To better understand cyber-crime committed in Scotland, including those cases not reported to the police, an updated section on fraud and computer misuse has been included in the 2023-24 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey.

Question reference: S6W-20110

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much was defrauded through cybercrime in the last year for which figures are available.

The information requested is not held centrally.

Estimates of Police Recorded cybercrime were most recently published in the Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2022-23 - (gov.scot (www.gov.scot) statistical publication and are based on a review of a sample of recorded crimes which are considered likely to include a cyber element. The amount of money defrauded through cybercrime is not recorded.

Estimates of Police Recorded cybercrime were most recently published in the Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2022-23 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) statistical publication and are based on a review of a sample of recorded crimes which are considered likely to include a cyber element. The amount of money defrauded through cybercrime is not recorded.

Question reference: S6W-20235

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 3 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government which NHS boards are now testing pregnant women for pre-eclampsia using the placental growth factor (PlGF)-based test, following the recommendation on 23 March 2023 that all do so as part of routine maternity health care.

The Scottish Government expects all NHS Boards in Scotland to consider the recommendations in the Scottish Health Technologies Group report, published on 23 March 2023, and take steps to ensure that women who require access to placental growth factor (PlGF) based tests as part of their maternity care can do so.

The Scottish Government has recently written to all NHS Boards for an update on progress towards implementation of PlGF testing. We will be able to give an update on this in due course.

Question reference: S6W-19243

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 27 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many fishers there are in Scotland, and how many of these are migrant workers.

The National Statistics publication Provisional Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics: 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) provides information on the number of fishers on Scottish registered vessels. On 31 December 2022, there were 4,117 fishers employed on Scottish registered fishing vessels.

We do not routinely collect information on the nationality or migrant status of fishers. We last collected information on the nationality of fishers in 2015 from around 15% of the Scottish fishing fleet. This is published in Scottish Sea Fisheries Employment 2015 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and showed that 28% of the crew surveyed were from outside the UK.

Some more recent information on the nationality of fishers was collected from a sample of vessels by Seafish in 2021. This is published in 2021 Employment in the UK Fishing Fleet — Seafish. This publication shows that, based on the sample of Scottish vessels surveyed, 31% of the workers were from outside the UK. If a similar proportion of non-UK workers were employed on Scottish fishing vessels in 2022, then approximately 1,300 fishers were from outside the UK.