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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.

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Question reference: S5W-19687

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance is provided regarding the use of video links in criminal courts.

Question reference: S5W-19683

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many courtrooms in each court (a) have and (b) do not have video link technology.

Question reference: S5W-19685

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to facilitate court appearances from prison by video link; what its position is on the effectiveness of such appearances, and whether it plans to take action to increase the use of this method.

Question reference: S5W-19684

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) accused and (b) witnesses have given evidence or appeared from prison using a video link in each of the last five years, broken down by type of hearing.

Question reference: S5W-19659

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 29 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 6 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether the independent review of P1 assessments will take into consideration the effect and usefulness of the use of assessments for those with both identified and undiagnosed learning difficulties and neurodevelopmental disorders.

The expectation is that the independent review of P1 assessments will consider both the effect of the assessments on children and young people and the usefulness of the diagnostic information provided to teachers. The detailed remit of the review will be finalised shortly, including whether this consideration will focus on specific groups of children and young people, such as those with additional support needs.

Question reference: S5T-01303

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 November 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to protect emergency workers during the firework season, in light of the reported increase in levels of violence and intimidation that they face at this time of year.

Question reference: S5W-19405

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many prisoners there are, broken down by (a) prison (b) gender and (c) age, and whether they (i) are untried, (ii) have been convicted and are awaiting sentence and (iii) are serving a sentence.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

At 9.00 hours on 22 October 2018 there were 7,789 people in SPS Care.

There are 2 legal statuses which apply to those in prison: Convicted or Untried. Those who are deemed as Convicted Awaiting Sentence (CAS) are counted within the untried population. A breakdown of the CAS population is provided in Table 4.

a) Table 1 provides a breakdown of the SPS population by prison and legal status.

Table 1:

Prison	Convicted	Untried
Addiewell	567	132
Barlinnie	903	436
Castle Huntly	176	0
Cornton Vale	78	16
Dumfries	157	17
Edinburgh	700	183
Glenochil	660	0
Grampian	365	104
Greenock	194	40
Inverness	81	45
Kilmarnock	398	104
Low Moss	596	171
Perth	478	185
Polmont	332	132
Shotts	539	0
Total	6,224	1,565

b) Table 2 provides a breakdown of the prison population by gender and legal status.

Table 2:

Gender	Convicted	Untried
Female	298	92
Male	5926	1473

c) Table 3 provides a breakdown of the prison population by age group and legal status.

Table 3:

Age Group	Convicted	Untried
16 -20	228	112
21-30	1,825	560
31- 40	2,055	532
41-50	1,155	246
51- 60	661	94
61- 70	231	16
71+	69	5

It was not possible to provide information on those who are CAS, broken down by age as this data is not aggregated.

Table 4 gives a breakdown of those who are convicted CAS by prison and gender.

Table 4:

Prison	CAS Male Adults	CAS Female Adults	CAS Young Women	CAS Male Young Men	CAS Total
Addiewell	18	0	0	0	18
Barlinnie	64	0	0	0	64
Castle Huntly	0	0	0	0	0
Cornton Vale	0	6	1	0	7
Dumfries	5	0	0	0	5
Edinburgh	22	10	0	0	32
Glenochil	0	0	0	0	0
Grampian	3	0	0	0	3
Greenock	7	3	0	0	10
Inverness	8	0	0	0	8
Kilmarnock	28	0	0	0	28
Low Moss	18	0	0	0	18
Perth	34	0	0	0	34
Polmont	0	3	1	25	29
Shotts	0	0	0	0	0

Question reference: S5W-19412

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many cells there are in Scotland's prisons, broken down by prison.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

The following table provides a breakdown of cells in each Scottish prison.

Prison	Total Number of Cells
Addiewell	702
Barlinnie	966
Castle Huntly	182
Cornton Vale	97
Dumfries	136
Edinburgh	723
Glenochil	530
Grampian	501
Greenock	263
Inverness	83
Kilmarnock	501
Low Moss	708
Perth	484
Polmont	609
Shotts	538
Total	7,023

Question reference: S5W-19414

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the total prison capacity is, broken down by prison.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

The design capacity of the prison estate is 7918. The following below shows this broken down by prison.

Establishment	Design Capacity
Addiewell	702
Barlinnie	987
Castle Huntly	284
Cornton Vale	114
Dumfries	176
Edinburgh	867
Glenochil Prison	668
Grampian	552
Greenock	263
Inverness	93
Kilmarnock	501
Low Moss	784
Perth	631
Polmont	758
Shotts	538
Total	7918

Question reference: S5W-19410

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many two-prisoner cells there are in Scotland’s prisons; of these, how many currently hold two prisoners, and how many prisoners this equates to, broken down by (a) prison and (b) prisoners’ (i) gender, (ii) age, and (c) whether they (A) are untried, (B) have been convicted and are awaiting sentence and (C) are serving a sentence.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

There are currently 768 Scottish prison cells designed to be occupied by 2 people. Of these cells, 497 are currently occupied by 2 people, equating to 994 people in total.

Table 1 provides a breakdown by prison on the number of double cells occupied by 2 people.

Table 1:

Prison	Number of Double Cells Currently Occupied by 2 people
Barlinnie	7
Castle Huntly	4
Cornton Vale	1
Dumfries	6
Edinburgh	120
Glenochil	124
Grampian	37
Inverness	5
Low Moss	66
Perth	121
Polmont	6
Total	497

In relation to query relating to those who are Convicted Awaiting Sentence (CAS), SPS has 2 legal statuses: Convicted and Untried. Those who are CAS are counted within the untried numbers. It is not possible to disaggregate this information to provide you with a breakdown by gender or age.

1. Table 2 and 3 give the breakdown of gender and legal status for those currently occupying a double cell.

Table 2:

Prison	Women in SPS Care
Prison	Convicted	Untried	Female Total
Cornton Vale	0	2	2
Edinburgh	14	14	28
Grampian	3	3	6
Polmont	9	3	12
Grand Total	26	22	48

Table 3:

Prison	Men in SPS Care
Prison	Convicted	Untried	Male Total
Barlinnie	14	0	14
Castle Huntly	8	0	8
Dumfries	12	0	12
Edinburgh	197	15	212
Glenochil	248	0	248
Grampian	45	23	68
Inverness	10	0	10
Low Moss	85	47	132
Perth	120	122	242
Grand Total	739	207	946

Table 4 provides a breakdown of the age ranges of those living in the 497 Scottish prison cells occupied by 2 people.

Table 4:

Prison	Age Range
Prison	16- 21	21-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60-69	70+	Total
Barlinnie	0	3	7	3	1	0	0	14
Castle Huntly	0	5	1	1	1	0	0	8
Cornton Vale	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	2
Dumfries	0	3	3	5	0	1	0	12
Edinburgh	0	79	69	37	32	13	10	240
Glenochil	0	53	70	63	39	18	5	248
Grampian	0	36	24	7	3	3	1	74
Inverness	0	3	3	0	3	1	0	10
Low Moss	0	63	40	26	3	0	0	132
Perth	0	87	86	55	12	2	0	242
Polmont	0	5	7	0	0	0	0	12
Grand Total	0	337	312	197	94	38	16	994