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The Scottish Courts and Tribunals (SCTS) have confirmed that all Sheriff Courts have functioning wireless access, with the exception of Dunoon. SCTS have not upgraded their wide area network connection in Dunoon due to factors outwith the court building, and must reserve the existing capacity of the legacy network connection for essential court business, including video conferencing. The wireless service will be enabled once a new connection is established.

Police Scotland are currently dealing with air weapon licence applications received between 1 November and 31 December 2016. We have now been advised by Police Scotland that the figure of 5,436 applications received during this period, which was provided in response to your question S5W-06022, was incorrect. The correct figure was 5,278. This error emerged when a change to the Police Scotland administration process for air weapon licences uncovered duplication of certain applications in the records.

Police Scotland are processing applications in the order in which they were received. They have processed 3,763 of the applications received between 1 November and 31 December 2016, of which 3,066 have so far been approved.

There have been 2,011 applications received between 1 January 2017 and 4 May 2017. Each application has been reviewed to ensure all necessary information has been completed and photographs received. These applications will be processed once those received by 31 December have been completed.

Up to 4 May 2017 there have been a total of 107 refusals in respect of all applications received since 1 July 2016.

In addition to these figures solely for air weapon licences, up to 4 May 2017 there have been 2,394 applications for co-terminous applications, where the applicant already has a shotgun and/or firearm certificate. There have been no refusals.

Police Scotland are unable to provide a regional breakdown of these figures.

HITRANS has developed an innovative proposal for linking Caithness directly with the Central Belt. It has submitted the proposal to its Board, and shared with us for our information.

We are aware that HITRANS has now engaged consultants to assist in the development of a detailed report supporting its outline proposal, and we are happy to give evidence to that process. On completion, it will then be for HITRANS to determine whether it wishes to promote this proposal further. We would, of course, then review its content and discuss directly with Hitrans.

Data in relation to the number of witnesses sent a text reminder is not available prior to 2013 as the technical IT script written to provide an output in relation to the numbers of texts sent was not implemented until that time.

The following table sets out the number of text reminders sent to witnesses from 2013 to April 2017. These figures relate to the reminders of the trial diet sent to all witnesses who have received a witness citation (either served personally or postally) 3 days prior to the trial.

The following table sets out the number of text reminders in relation to cases in which the witness was cited by post, where a message was sent to remind him/her to return the reply form confirming his/her attendance at court or the reason for his/her non-attendance. Witnesses could, however, be countermanded after this text reminder was sent and the table does not include any witnesses who may have been cited personally.

Information in relation to the number of witnesses who have failed to appear as a result of a text reminder is not available as this information is not recorded within COPFS’ case management systems.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

As a result of the recommendations of the Audit Scotland report to which the question refers, the Scottish Government publishes, on a monthly basis, additional statistical information about the performance of the summary criminal justice system. This information is available at http://www.gov.scot/About/public-bodies/SheriffdomCriminalJusticeBoards/SummaryCriminalJusticePerformanceStatistics

COPFS maintains a permanent cadre of 38 Advocate Deputes to prosecute cases in the High Court, to mark High Court cases, to issue instructions as required to COPFS and to assist the Law Officers in their prosecutorial functions as required.

Advocate Deputes are recruited from a wide range of backgrounds and have a wide range of specialist skills. They effectively prosecute the full range of serious crime in the High Court. In addition, a group of practitioners are instructed from time to time as the need arises as ad hoc Advocate Deputes. Ad hoc Advocate Deputes likewise have a wide range of skills upon which the Crown can call when the need arises.

The Justice Committee report on the Role and Purpose of the Procurator Fiscal Service, published on 25 April 2017, contains a recommendation at paragraph 180 that COPFS consider whether there is merit in recruiting locum prosecutors to prosecute High Court cases turning on complex and specialist aspects of criminal law. I am considering this recommendation and will write to the Justice Committee in due course.

The Scottish Government welcomes the recent publication of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) report “Evidence and Procedure Review: A New Model for Summary Criminal Procedure”, which outlines a model underpinned by a digital case management process. The SCTS report makes a case for change and puts forward ambitious and far-reaching proposals for a new, modernised summary criminal court procedure.

However, further work is needed to evaluate and develop these proposals before decisions are taken about implementation. As part of that, SCTS has organised a programme of public consultation events in relation to the report. This is presently under way. SCTS will thereafter lead work, involving justice agencies and the legal profession, to evaluate the evidence on whether the propositions outlined in the paper are viable; assess the anticipated business, resourcing, financial and technological consequences; and consider what further analysis is necessary to help shape the way forward. Following this further development work SCTS will report back to the Justice Board with recommendations.

I am grateful to the Justice Committee for the care with which it has approached this Inquiry, and also to all those who gave evidence to it. It is gratifying that the Committee agrees that COPFS is an effective, rigorous, fair and independent public prosecutor. The report states that, in general, the public in Scotland is fundamentally well served by the COPFS in that core role. That is, in large part, a tribute to the professionalism and commitment of the staff of the Service. I am also pleased that the Committee has recognised the importance of systemic reform. The Committee has made a number of recommendations, and I will wish to take appropriate time to reflect on all of those recommendations.

The recommendations in the report will be of interest not only to COPFS, but to partners across the justice system, who will each consider the report’s terms for their own areas of interest.

The Scottish Parliament is scheduled to debate the report on 6 June 2017. The Scottish Government and COPFS aim to respond to the report by 30 May 2017.

Information received from the Police Service of Scotland is that, as a key partner, they are in the process of reviewing the report and considering its contents in line with other ongoing partnership work.

The Scottish Government’s priority for waste, as laid out in our ‘Making Things Last’ Circular Economy Strategy, is to keep valuable materials in as high value use as possible. This includes increasing recycling and encouraging re-use.

We are therefore keen to see less waste from ‘on the go’ beverages. There has been no formal, specific engagement on the issues raised by the Cardiff University research. However, these issues, along with findings and possible solutions proposed by other sources, will be discussed with stakeholders in coming months. This approach fits within wider action to explore extending producer responsibility and will further inform the way forward.