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The Scottish Environment Protection Agency collects statistical information on waste generated by a variety of sectors, including the commercial and industrial sector. Statistics are broken down into a number of categories; including animal and mixed food waste and textile waste. Note that these figures apply to source separated waste only and the increase reflects improved waste separation.

The Scottish Government has not carried out any analysis of migrant tenants who might be being exploited for their labour in exchange for rent.

The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is the framework for identifying victims of human trafficking and exploitation and ensuring they receive the appropriate support. The Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy published in May 2017, and subsequent progress reports, set out the approach being taken to address these issues. Labour exploitation or any other form of exploitation should be reported to the police, or to the national modern slavery helpline in the first instance. Evidence of any private landlord renting properties in exchange for exploiting tenants should also be reported to the relevant local authority.

The SPS’s Key Performance Indicators are reported in the SPS Annual Report and Accounts 2017 – 2018 and show the average annual cost per prisoner place was £35,293. This is the total cost for SPS as cost per individual establishments are not calculated.

Officials have met with representatives from COSLA and Scotland Excel to discuss how best to prioritise referrals to secure care from Scottish Local Authorities. A paper outlining the possible options has been drafted and further discussions are underway to expand on these.

The expanded options will be presented to Ministers in April 2019.

The Scottish Ministers cannot instruct the Sentencing Council to prepare or review sentencing guidelines.

Under section 7 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, the Scottish Ministers may request the Council to prepare sentencing guidelines or to review existing guidelines. The Council must have regard to any request made by the Scottish Ministers, but are not obliged to agree to any request. The Council must consult with, amongst other parties, the Scottish Ministers as they develop their business plan. The Scottish Ministers are pleased the Council indicated in their latest business plan that they will be preparing guidelines on sexual offences with this work being included as part of the business plan without the need for a formal request by the Scottish Ministers.

(a) Scottish Government does not gather or hold information on those cases as Scottish Ministers have no role in remand cases. Remand cases are a matter for local authorities and the courts, as per section 51 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995.

(b) Scottish Ministers are responsible for the choice of the place of detention of children sentenced on solemn proceedings under Section 205 and 208 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. There have been no children detained in HM Young Offenders Institution Polmont using those powers due to unavailable secure beds since 2013.

Children sentenced on summary proceeding matters under Section 44 of Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 are the responsibility of the Local Authority. The Scottish Government does not gather or hold information on those cases.

Police Scotland have never published a regular disaggregation of hate crime incidents. When the Scottish Government last published Official Statistics on Racist Incidents Recorded by the Police in Scotland [1] , we outlined for users our plan to investigate the availability of information on a wider range of hate-related activity – which covered other groups beyond race.

In February 2019, following joint work by Scottish Government statisticians and Police Scotland, the Scottish Government published a progress report on this topic titled ‘Developing Information on Hate Crime Recorded by the Police in Scotland’ [2] . This included summary information on hate crime recorded by the police for each of the four years from 2014-15 to 2017-18, in relation to race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and transgender identity.

The report also outlined that further information on the nature of each hate crime the police deal with is recorded in Police Scotland's Interim Vulnerable Persons Database (IVPD), for example the characteristics of the people involved.

Prior to any dissemination of a wider range of data collected within the IVPD, Police Scotland have been reviewing the process used by officers to enter this information into the database. This is with the aim of ensuring that should more detailed analysis on the nature of hate crime be regularly drawn from the IVPD, users can be assured of its quality.

Scottish Government statisticians will continue to engage with Police Scotland as they take this work forward, and will inform users through the SCOTSTAT network [3] of any new developments regarding the availability of hate crime information.

I have raised this issue directly with the Chair of the Scottish Police Authority and the Chief Constable.

[1] https://www.gov.scot/publications/racist-incidents-recorded-police-scotland-2013-14/

[2] https://www.gov.scot/publications/developing-information-hate-crime-recorded-police-scotland/

[3] Network for users and providers of Scottish Official Statistics ( https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/scotstat )

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

I meet the Chief Constable on a regular basis and discuss a range of topics. The use of Tasers is an operational matter for Police Scotland.

The SPCB supports short term paid internships with partners such as Career Ready and Inclusion Scotland.  We also offer one 3-week paid placement within the Parliament’s legal team as part of a competition for law students run annually by the Law Society of Scotland.  The SPCB offers unpaid work experience placements for school, college and University students.  Applicants for work experience apply to the HR Office who then co-ordinate with Parliament Offices to identify suitable placements. 

SPCB understands that some Members have their own arrangements in place and officials are reviewing how we support Members in their role as employers.  As part of this review we will seek feedback from Members on their arrangements for internships and unpaid work experience placements at Holyrood.