- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 January 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 February 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6F-02720 by Humza Yousaf on 18 January 2024 that “all homes and businesses in Scotland can currently access a superfast broadband service”, how many properties in Orkney currently have access to superfast broadband, defined as access to download speeds between 30-300mbps.
Answer
Every home and business across Scotland, including on Orkney, should be able to access a superfast broadband connection – either through fixed line broadband, mobile broadband, fixed wireless access or using newer technologies such as Low Earth Orbit satellites.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 January 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 February 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6F-02720 by Humza Yousaf on 18 January 2024, whether the First Minister plans to request the addition of a correction in the Official Report in relation to his claim that "All homes and businesses across Scotland can currently access a superfast broadband service", in light of Ofcom statistics reportedly showing that superfast availability across Scotland is at 94.7%.
Answer
As outlined in response to question S6W-24707 on 6 February 2024 every home and business across Scotland should be able to access a superfast broadband connection – either through fixed line broadband, mobile broadband, fixed wireless access or using newer technologies such as Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites.
The superfast broadband figure quoted in Ofcom’s latest Connected Nations Report published on 19 th December 2023 relates to the availability of fixed line broadband only, which currently stands at 95% across Scotland.
The same Ofcom 2023 report also states that “Starlink [an LEO satellite service] currently… delivers nationwide broadband coverage, including in harder-to-reach areas” and that “Ofcom home broadband performance measurements suggest measured speeds on its [Starlink] network average around 100 Mbit/s download and 14 Mbit/s upload.”
All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 January 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Patrick Harvie on 2 February 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-23961 by Patrick Harvie on 15 January 2024, what plans are (a) in place and (b) being considered for future expansion of existing projects supported through Scotland’s Heat Network Fund (SHNF) and the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP), and, based on these plans, whether it will provide an estimate of the (i) number of additional properties that could be connected and (ii) amount of heating and cooling in terawatt-hours that these additional connections would equate to.
Answer
Scotland’s Heat Network Fund (SHNF) and the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP) has to date provided over £62 million to support the roll out of several heat networks across Scotland. The SHNF also offers funding to specifically support the extension of heat networks. All projects are encouraged to use our funding to establish heat networks that are futureproofed and have capacity for expansion. SHNF is currently supporting the extension of the Torry Heat Network. Phase 1 of the project received grant funding from the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP) and will complete this year. Phase 2 will see the network increase its connections by 587 homes and various non-domestic buildings. In addition, West Dunbartonshire Council also received LCITP grant support to deliver the Queen’s Quay heat network which has been constructed with the intention to extend to further buildings in the area.
Although projects funded through LCITP and SHNF have the potential for expansion, many projects are currently in the early stages of multi-year construction programmes and any future expansion is dependent on the heat network owners.
We are also resourcing all local authorities to produce Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies, and these identify many heat network opportunities across Scotland. This is the vital first step in the expansion of heat networks, and we will work with our partners in local government to undertake further economic analysis to provide a clear pipeline of commercial heat network projects.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 January 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Patrick Harvie on 2 February 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-23961 by Patrick Harvie on 15 January 2024, how many terawatt-hours of heating and cooling these existing projects will deliver.
Answer
In order to obtain accurate data from projects funded through Scotland’s Heat Network Fund and the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme we need to gather information for a reasonable time period post commissioning of the project to ensure accurate data is collated. As we do not have a full data set, we are unable to provide a reliable figure at this time.
In addition, due to heat supply agreements currently being developed by a number of projects, Scottish Government is unable to provide accurate estimates of heat supply for pre-capital projects as figures supplied by projects are estimates only and could change in the future.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 January 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 29 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-20497 by Jenni Minto on 28 August 2023, whether it will provide an update on the timeline for producing a draft strategy for consultation.
Answer
The Scottish Government aims to publish our new palliative and end of life care strategy for consultation in spring 2024.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 16 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how many instances there have been where a person under the age of 18 was held on remand in a prison facility for adults in (a) 2020-21, (b) 2021-22, (c) 2022-23 and (d) 2023 to date.
Answer
Data covering the period 2020-23 is available via the published National Statistics on the Scottish Prison Population.
Over this period, under 18s were held on remand in the following establishments: HMP YOI Cornton Vale, HMP YOI Grampian, HMP YOI Polmont, HMP YOI Stirling, HMP Edinburgh and HMP Inverness.
Section 20 of the 1989 Act permits SPS to hold young offenders (YOs) in a prison whilst arrangements are made to transfer them to a young offenders institution (YOI). A direction made under section 20A(2) of the 1989 Act may also allow a prisoner under 18 years to be detained in a prison but only for a “temporary purpose?. There is no definition of “temporary purpose? in the 1989 Act but an example would be for a young person to attend court.
The following table provides the number of individuals spending any time in each establishment or group of establishments in the course of each year covered by the National Statistics.
Period | HMP Edinburgh | HMP Inverness | HMP YOIs Cornton Vale, Grampian, Polmont or Stirling |
a) 2020-21 | 1 | 4 | 74 |
b) 2021-22 | 0 | 2 | 62 |
c) 2022-23 | 0 | 2 | 49 |
Each individual held on remand in HMPs Edinburgh and Inverness was only held for a single instance, i.e. over the period 2020-21 to 2022-23 there were 9 instances where a person under the age of 18 was held on remand in a prison establishment that was not a designated YOI.
Data for the period d) April 2023 to December 2023 is only available via Scottish Government collections of daily management information. These data indicate that under 18s were only held in HMP YOIs Grampian, Polmont and Stirling in this period.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 16 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how many hours of outdoor exercise prisoners had, on average, per day, in each of the last 12 months.
Answer
I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:
SPS does not record this information.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 16 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how many instances there have been in the last 12 months, in the form of the total prisoner days, where a prisoner has been allowed less than one hour of outdoor exercise on any given day.
Answer
Angela Constance: I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:
SPS does not record this information.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 16 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how many people under the age of 18 entered remand in (a) 2020-21, (b) 2021-22, (c) 2022-23 and (d) 2023 to date.
Answer
Data covering the period 2020-23 is available via the published National Statistics on the Scottish Prison Population.
Financial Year | Individuals under 18 arriving to remand |
a) 2020-21 | 92 |
b) 2021-22 | 82 |
c) 2022-23 | 57 |
Information about the number of individuals under the age of 18 arriving to remand for the period d) April 2023 to December 2023 is only available via Scottish Government collections of management information. The values provided by this source are not directly comparable with those provided by our National Statistics data.
Using this management information, the number of individuals under 18 arriving to remand in 2023 Q2-Q4 was 29.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 16 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) longest and (b) average time spent on remand was for people under the age of 18 in (i) 2020-21, (ii) 2021-22, (iii) 2022-23 and (iv) 2023 to date.
Answer
Data covering the period 2020-23 is available via the published National Statistics on the Scottish Prison Population.
Period | a) longest | b) average (median) days |
i) 2020-21 | 301 | 17 |
ii) 2021-22 | 263 | 8 |
iii) 2022-23 | 387 | 9 |
In line with prison statistics reporting conventions, we provide here the average expressed as the median rather than the mean due to the long-tailed shape of the distribution.
Information about time spent on remand for the period iv) April 2023 to December 2023 is only available via Scottish Government collections of management information. The values provided by this source are not directly comparable with those provided by our National Statistics data.
Using this management information, the longest time spent on remand by under 18s was 242 days in 2023 Q2-Q4, and the average (median) time spent on remand was 8 days.