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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S5W-22248

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) remand and (b) sentenced prisoners have been sent to HM Young Offenders Institution Polmont since 2013 as a result of space being unavailable at secure care units.

(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.

Question reference: S5W-22250

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the average annual cost is of a prison place (a) at HMP Addiewell, (b) at HMP Kilmarnock and (c) across the prison estate.

Question reference: S5W-22249

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5O-02689 by Humza Yousaf on 13 December 2018, whether it will set out the options that have been considered by the justice secretary and the Deputy First Minister regarding secure unit availability, and whether any of these options are being taken forward.

Question reference: S5W-22246

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government on what dates since May 2016 the Cabinet Secretary for Justice has instructed the Scottish Sentencing Council to prepare or review sentencing guidelines, broken down by offence.

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.

Question reference: S5W-22213

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many police officers (a) nationally and (b) in each division have been issued with a taser in each of the last five years, also broken down by how many times the devices were deployed.

Question reference: S5W-22214

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it had with the chief constable regarding the use of tasers to ensure that their deployment does not become the norm for day-to-day policing,

Question reference: S5W-22190

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 15 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason Police Scotland has not published a disaggregation of hate crime incidents since 2013-14, and when it will resume doing so.

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 )

Question reference: S5O-03051

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kezia Dugdale on 21 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what its policy is regarding unpaid work and internships within the Parliament.

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.

Question reference: S5O-03053

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5W-21865

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 14 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the second supplementary to question S5T-01518 by Ash Denham on 26 February 2019 (Official Report, c. 8), in light of the minister's comment that "I agree that a review [of fatal accident inquiries] is required", whether it will confirm the scope, purpose and timeline of any such review.

As previously stated, the commitment given was that the issue of legal aid for families involved in fatal accident inquiries will be considered as part of wider planned reforms to legal aid legislation arising from the Independent Review of Legal Aid.

Such consideration will include the current statutory tests of probable cause, reasonableness and financial eligibility.

A comprehensive independent review of the legislation on fatal accident inquiries was undertaken by Lord Cullen, the former Lord President, and reported in November 2009. The Inquiries into Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc. (Scotland) Act 2016 was passed unanimously by Parliament. The main provisions were implemented in June 2017, less than 2 years ago.

In August 2016, the independent Inspector of Prosecution published a thematic inspection of fatal accident inquiries. The Inspector has confirmed that she will undertake and publish during the first half of 2019 a follow-up on her review of fatal accident inquiries. It will be for the Lord Advocate to consider that report when it is published.