Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-21661

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 22 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 4 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans for the work of the Orkney Ferries Replacement Taskforce to feed into the budget process for 2024-25.

The Task Force has been meeting during 2023, most recently in August, to progress this work. Minutes of the Ministerial meetings are published on the Transport Scotland website.

Scottish Government and Orkney Islands Council (OIC) officials have also met regularly to support OIC’s consideration of options for the long term renewal of the Orkney internal ferry fleet. OIC is currently preparing an updated business case to inform future budget discussions.

Question reference: S6W-21662

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 22 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 4 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it still anticipates that the work of the Orkney Ferries Replacement Taskforce will conclude by September 2023.

The Task Force has been meeting during 2023, most recently in August, to progress this work. Minutes of the Ministerial meetings are published on the Transport Scotland website.

Scottish Government and Orkney Islands Council (OIC) officials have also met regularly to support OIC’s consideration of options for the long term renewal of the Orkney internal ferry fleet. OIC is currently preparing an updated business case to inform future budget discussions.

It is envisaged that the Task Force will continue to meet beyond September 2023 to support of OIC’s work on this important matter.

Question reference: S6W-21649

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 22 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-19180 by Angela Constance on 27 June 2023, whether it still expects the Scottish Prison Service's updated mental health strategy to be published by the end of October 2023.

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

The SPS anticipate the Strategy will be finalised by the end of October and will be published at the end of this year.

Continued competing priorities impacted stakeholder capacity to contribute within the planned timeframe, and a need to divert SPS resources to support several acute cases of mentally unwell people in SPS care have contributed to a delay in publication.

The revised date now reflects the impact of those delays, whilst ensuring sufficient time is allocated in order to analyse the evidence gathered from consultation with mental health experts and those in our care with lived experiences.

Question reference: S6W-21676

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 22 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 2 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions there have been under section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 in each of the last 10 years.

The latest available information on convictions is for the financial year 2020-21 and is provided in the following table.

Number of people convicted under section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, where main crime, 2011-12 to 2020-21.

2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
6,999	9,915	11,661	13,503	14,220	13,602	12,168	10,868	10,400	6,655

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.

Please note: Data for 2020-21 are affected by the pandemic and subsequent court closures and may not be reflective of long term trend.

Information for 2021-22 will not be available until publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2021-22 Statistical Bulletin. This is due to be published on 24 October 2023.

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/publications/official-statistics-forthcoming-publications/

Question reference: S6W-21680

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 22 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 2 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions there have been in Scotland under section 4A of the Public Order Act 1986 in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S6W-21678

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 22 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 2 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions there have been in Scotland under section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S6W-21677

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 22 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 2 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions there have been in Scotland under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 in each of the last 10 years.

The latest available information on convictions is for the financial year 2020-21 and is provided in the following table.

Number of people convicted under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, where main crime, 2011-12 to 2020-21.

2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
760	837	974	918	901	721	574	511	496	363

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.

Please note: Data for 2020-21 are affected by the pandemic and subsequent court closures and may not be reflective of long term trend.

Information for 2021-22 will not be available until publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2021-22 Statistical Bulletin. This is due to be published on 24 October 2023.

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/publications/official-statistics-forthcoming-publications/

Question reference: S6W-21353

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people made a non-directed kidney donation in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-21395

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 26 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-06805 by Keith Brown on 3 March 2022, how many hours of purposeful activity prisoners had, on average, per week in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023, broken down by prison.

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

The table below details the average number of purposeful activity hours per week for convicted prisoners across the prison estate, in each financial year that incorporates 2021, 2022 and 2023:

Year	April 2020 – March 2021	April 2021– March 2022	April 2022 – March 2023	April 2023 – August 2023
Establishment	Average PA hours	Average PA hours	Average PA hours	Average PA hours
Barlinnie	10	12	13	12
Bella	N/A	N/A	18	24
Cornton Vale/Stirling	20	17	18	18
Dumfries	8	11	16	16
Edinburgh	9	10	13	14
Glenochil	11	12	13	12
Grampian	19	19	20	21
Greenock	19	20	26	23
Inverness	24	21	27	33
Lilias	N/A	N/A	20	27
Low Moss	16	21	21	21
Castle Huntly	20	23	23	24
Perth	9	20	20	22
Polmont	14	24	29	29
Shotts	9	14	13	19

HMP Addiewell and HMP Kilmarnock are privately operated prisons and are not required to provide PA hours on a monthly basis. The delivery of PA hours within these two establishments is monitored through contractual arrangements with SPS Controllers and Contract Managers to ensure compliance.

Question reference: S6W-21233

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 26 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties have received Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan funding, since the scheme was established.

Seòmar agus comataidhean