Chamber and committees

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: S5W-03684

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many assaults there have been on prison staff in each year since 2006, also broken down by how many were recorded as "serious".

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

Prisoner on Staff Assaults from 2006 to 2017 (Present) broken down by Establishment and injury criteria:

Serious Assaults

	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
Aberdeen	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Addiewell	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	1
Barlinnie	0	1	0	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	0
Cornton Vale	0	0	0	1	2	1	0	0	1	1	0
Dumfries	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Edinburgh	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	2	0	1
Glenochil	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0
Grampian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Greenock	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	0
Inverness	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kilmarnock	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Low Moss	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0
Open Estate	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Perth	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	0
Peterhead	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Polmont	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0
Shotts	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	1
Totals	0	4	2	3	8	5	1	2	9	4	3

Minor/No Injury Assaults

	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-2016	2016-2017
Aberdeen	6	2	6	8	7	2	10	7	0	0	0
Addiewell	0	0	14	48	22	13	17	12	5	10	15
Barlinnie	32	19	28	21	29	22	12	20	27	22	21
Cornton Vale	23	23	49	41	66	50	43	13	30	42	6
Dumfries	0	3	3	1	1	3	2	4	1	2	1
Edinburgh	15	13	9	14	67	13	28	9	15	9	9
Glenochil	4	8	3	3	2	3	4	13	3	11	0
Grampian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	16	29	12
Greenock	5	1	0	4	3	3	1	2	2	1	2
Inverness	3	3	1	0	5	0	1	0	5	2	1
Kilmarnock	12	19	11	9	11	21	20	13	8	14	7
Low Moss	0	0	0	0	0	0	15	20	7	9	4
Open Estate	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0
Perth	9	14	11	15	11	5	20	13	13	26	5
Peterhead	4	1	2	0	7	2	2	5	0	0	0
Polmont	17	7	7	14	8	19	19	23	22	17	10
Shotts	8	3	10	6	15	5	9	7	6	8	5
Totals	138	116	154	184	254	161	203	161	161	204	98

The figures for 2016-17 denotes figures to date.

Question reference: S5W-03706

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many sheriff court staff have (a) had training to support and (b) supported the function of domestic abuse courts in each year since 2011, and what percentage of the sheriff court workforce this represents.

Question reference: S5W-03702

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government in what month it will introduce its proposed Domestic Abuse Bill.

The First Minister announced in the Scottish Government's Programme for Government in September 2016 that legislation to create a specific offence of domestic abuse will be introduced in this Parliamentary year.

The Scottish Government is currently considering the responses received to the consultation on the draft offence of domestic abuse and, as a part of this work, has published a document outlining a number of proposed reforms to criminal procedure that relate to the creation of a specific offence of domestic abuse. This document can be viewed at http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/10/3259/0.

The Bill will be introduced following the outcome of this further work.

Question reference: S5W-03687

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many prisoner suicides there have been in each year since 2006.

Question reference: S5W-02100

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by James Wolffe on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of alleged hate crime have been taken to court in each of the last three years.

The following table contains the total number of hate crime charges reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) from April 2013 to March 2016 where court proceedings were commenced. All figures provided are based on data extracted from the COPFS case management system on 6 May 2016, which was the basis of the 2016 report on hate crime in Scotland.

Financial Year

2013-14

2014-15

2015-16

Total

5104

4677

4740

14521

Table one. All hate crime charges taken to court during the last three financial years.

Question reference: S5W-02099

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by James Wolffe on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of alleged hate crime have been reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in each of the last three years.

The following table contains the total number of hate crime charges reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) from April 2013 to March 2016. All figures provided are based on data extracted from the COPFS case management system on 6 May 2016, which was the basis of the 2016 report on hate crime in Scotland.

Financial Year

2013-14

2014-15

2015-16

Total

5855

5398

5588

16841

Table one. All hate crime charges reported to COPFS during the last three financial years.

Question reference: S5W-03482

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02503 by Michael Matheson on 22 September 2016, how many times spit hoods have been used by the police in each of the last three years, and how many complaints there have been about their use.

Question reference: S5W-03486

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02503 by Michael Matheson on 22 September 2016, what procurement criteria are used by the police when sourcing spit hoods, and which companies supply these.

Question reference: S5W-03483

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to quesiton S5W-02503 by Michael Matheson on 22 September 2016, what (a) technical and (b) medical evaluation has been carried out regarding the use of spit hoods by Police Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-03488

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02503 by Michael Matheson on 22 September 2016, how many (a) deaths and (b) injuries have been attributed to the use of spit hoods by the police, and what other data on their use is collected by (i) Police Scotland and (ii) the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government. Operational policing is a matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland, under the oversight of the Scottish Police Authority. The Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) advises that it has no management information on the use of spit hoods use as they are not a ‘weapon’ as defined by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Investigations Procedure, Serious Incidents and Specified Weapons) Regulations 2013. PIRC has never investigated a death or serious injury attributable to the use of a spit hood.

2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
9	10	6	6	10	6	8	5	3	1	0