Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-20883

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 01 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 25 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the introduction of the Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill, whether there are any recommendations of the Independent Review of Complaints Handling, Investigations and Misconduct Issues in Relation to Policing that it anticipates will not be implemented.

The Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill is part of a programme of work to respond to the recommendations made in the Independent Review of Complaints Handling, Investigations and Misconduct Issue in Relation to Policing. The Bill addresses recommendations that require primary legislation, and continues to build on improvements made through the delivery of a number of non-legislative improvements (set out in the most recent Thematic Progress Report ).

However, in Scottish Ministers commitment to broadly accepting the majority of the recommendations from the Review, they also made clear that the Scottish Government would explore options where other routes or mechanisms may achieve the desired outcome. Following the Scottish Government’s engagement with stakeholders, and due to improvements already made by policing partners, the following recommendations are not being implemented at this stage:

Recommendation 35. This is because current provisions within the Police Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2006 already provide appropriate and proportionate lines of accountability to Scottish Ministers, and in turn to the Scottish Parliament. This is in line with the governance and accountability arrangements in place for other office-holders the Parliament oversees.

Other recommendations, taken forward in secondary legislation, may also need to be taken forward in a manner that best takes account of circumstances at the time, therefore we are committed to working with policing partners and stakeholders as we develop secondary legislation and the written guidance that will underpin delivery of legislation.

Question reference: S6O-02582

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has plans to engage with Regional Screen Scotland regarding their call for funding for a new Screen Machine vehicle, in light of concerns that a lack of funding could lead to the end of the service.

Question reference: S6W-21127

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 19 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide further information on the commitment in its Programme for Government 2023-24 to "provide additional targeted investment to enhance the capacity of our renewables supply chain to trade internationally and identify critical markets to export to".

Question reference: S6W-20468

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 13 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many prisoners are being held in (a) individual cells and (b) cells holding more than one person, and how many are being "doubled-up" in individual cells.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

On 7 August 2023 the prison population was 7859. A breakdown is provided below in relation to the accommodation the individuals were located in:

4800 people were accommodated alone in a cell intended to accommodate one person;
165 people were accommodated alone in a cell that is designed to be double occupancy;
1098 people were accommodated in a cell, or dormitory, intended for more than one person; and
1796 people were accommodated with another person in a cell intended for one person.

Question reference: S6W-20469

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 13 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) design capacity, (b) number of occupants and (c) occupancy rate was in each prison in July 2023.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The following table details the average occupancy, the design capacity and the average occupancy rate of each prison for July 2023:

Establishment	Average Occupancy	Design Capacity	Average Occupancy Rate
Addiewell	724	702	103%
Barlinnie	1379	987	140%
Stirling	62	100	62%
Dumfries	193	176	110%
Edinburgh	930	867	107%
Glenochil	739	668	111%
Grampian	454	552	82%
Greenock	227	224	101%
Inverness	116	93	125%
Kilmarnock	547	501	109%
Low Moss	798	784	102%
Open Estate	152	284	54%
Perth	678	631	107%
Polmont	280	758	37%
Shotts	536	537	99%
Bella	8	16	50%
Lillias	11	24	46%

Question reference: S6W-20491

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been convicted of possession-only drug offences in each of the last five years.

A crime of drug possession may be disposed in criminal court or through direct measures such as a Fiscal Fine or Recorded Police Warning. The following tables provide the most recent five years of data for persons convicted in court, where main charge (Table 1) or given a non-court disposal (Table 2).

Data for 2020-21 are affected by the pandemic and subsequent court closures and should not be viewed as indicative of long term trends.

Table 1

Financial year	Total convicted
2016-17	4,389
2017-18	3,624
2018-19	3,407
2019-20	2,812
2020-21	1,278

Table 2

Financial year	Total NCDs issued
2016-17	11,493
2017-18	10,318
2018-19	11,085
2019-20	13,062
2020-21	12,969

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database

The Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database is not a live system and the latest available information is for the financial year 2020-21. Criminal proceedings data are published for financial years, i.e. from 1 April to 31 March. Therefore data for later years will not be available until the relevant publications are published. The Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2021-22 Statistical Bulletin is due to be published later this year. The dates of all Scottish Government Official and National Statistics publications are pre-announced, and the up to date list of future publications can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/ForthcomingPubs .

Question reference: S6W-20598

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 11 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion, in percentage terms, of the total crimes reported resulted in charges being brought by the procurator fiscal, in each of the last five years.

COPFS uses a live, operational database to manage the processing of reports submitted to the Procurator Fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies throughout Scotland. It is designed to meet business needs in the processing of criminal cases, rather than for statistical analysis, and the information within it is structured accordingly.

The COPFS systems do not count “crimes” per se. The information we can provide is based on the total number of accused reported in criminal cases to prosecutors. Any questions relating to the overall level of reported crime should be directed to Police Scotland.

Thereafter, prosecutors do not “bring charges” per se. Where there is sufficient admissible and credible information, as set out in the Prosecution Code, prosecutors will decide what action, if any, is appropriate in the public interest. Prosecutorial action is not limited to court proceedings but includes a range of direct measures, e.g., Warning Letter, Fiscal Fine, referral to the Children’s Reporter etc.

The information provided is therefore based on the first substantive marking decision in relation to the individual accused in reported cases.

The following table sets out information relating to prosecutorial action taken as a percentage of the total number of accused receiving a first substantive marking. The numbers are broken down to show the proportion of accused marked for court proceedings and the proportion of accused receiving a direct measure. No action markings are included for comparison.

Year	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Solemn	6.8%	6.8%	8.6%	9.4%	9.2%
Summary	34.2%	37.1%	37.3%	37.3%	39.2%
JP	16.0%	15.0%	8.9%	8.5%	8.7%
Children’s Reporter	1.0%	1.0%	1.0%	1.0%	1.4%
Warning letter	3.4%	3.0%	4.3%	3.4%	2.4%
Combined Offer (Fiscal Fine + Compensation Order)	2.2%	2.3%	1.4%	1.7%	3.1%
Compensation	0.5%	0.4%	0.7%	0.4%	0.5%
Fiscal Fine	11.4%	10.6%	8.9%	7.8%	7.3%
Fiscal Work Order	0.5%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%
Road Traffic Fixed Penalty	10.1%	11.1%	14.7%	16.4%	15.1%
Possible Diversion	1.9%	2.0%	2.7%	3.2%	3.1%
No Action	12.0%	10.4%	11.3%	10.8%	9.8%
COURT PROCEEDINGS TOTAL	56.9%	58.9%	54.8%	55.3%	57.1%
DIRECT MEASURES TOTAL	31.0%	30.7%	33.8%	33.9%	33.1%

Question reference: S6W-20599

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 11 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many crimes were reported in each of the last five years, and of those, how many resulted in charges being brought by the procurator fiscal.

COPFS uses a live, operational database to manage the processing of reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies throughout Scotland. It is designed to meet business needs in the processing of criminal cases, rather than for statistical analysis, and the information within it is structured accordingly.

For the reasons above, we are not able to provide information about the total numbers of crimes reported or the charges brought by prosecutors. The following table sets out the number of accused in criminal reports received marked for court proceedings and the number of those accused receiving a direct measure as the first substantive marking. No action markings are included for comparison.

Year	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Number of accused in criminal reports received	185,068	184,297	174,752	160,893	156,487
Solemn	11,536	12,092	14,012	13,994	13,701
Summary	58,300	65,705	60,990	55,575	58,590
JP Court	27,180	26,556	14,552	12,664	13,082
Children’s Reporter	1,760	1,855	1,563	1,537	2,082
Warning letter	5,762	5,355	7,017	5,030	3,596
Combined Offer (Fiscal Fine + Compensation Order)	3,685	4,092	2,334	2,555	4,693
Compensation	799	718	1,123	592	750
Fiscal Fine	19,505	18,705	14,610	11,568	10,858
Fiscal Work Order	867	497	250	135	307
Road Traffic Fixed Penalty	17,280	19,710	23,999	24,331	22,566
Possible Diversion	3,218	3,515	4,383	4,741	4,624
No action	20,510	18,449	18,476	16,080	14,705
TOTAL	170,402	177,249	163,309	148,802	149,554

Notably, the total accused reported in each year will not necessarily tally with the number of accused marked in each year as not all accused reported in each year are marked in the same reporting year. In some cases, there may be a time lag between a case being reported and a case being marked which can straddle reporting years.

Note: whilst the number of reported cases has decreased in the past five years, there has been an increase in the number of complex investigations and trials requiring teams of highly skilled prosecutors spending more time on each case. Sexual crime makes up almost 70% of cases in the High Court whilst the number of charges reported to COPFS with a domestic abuse identifier increased by 7% between 2019-20 and 2021-22. It is anticipated that cases involving violence against women and children, sexual crime and domestic abuse will form a substantial part of our caseload for some years to come and COPFS is committed to rising to meet these challenges and continuously improving the levels of service we provide to the public.

Question reference: S6W-20399

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 31 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many households have received Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan funding for energy efficiency measures in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-20397

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 31 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been distributed through the Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan scheme for renewable systems, including energy storage systems and district heating scheme connections, in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) system type and (b) local authority area.

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