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For individuals who have joined the Victim Notification Scheme, and have expressed a desire to make representations in relation to licence conditions under section 17 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003, Scottish Prison Service will write to seek their representations no less than two weeks before any decision will be taken on release. This includes prisoners who are: on Home Detention Curfew; on temporary release (but only on the first occasion that the prisoner is considered); or being considered for release by the Parole Board for Scotland.

Information on the number of officer deployed in ‘on the beat’ roles is not held centrally.

Police Officer Quarterly Strength Scotland (POQS) gives the total number of full-time equivalent police officers employed by Police Scotland. First published as Official Statistics in December 2008, POQS was designed to measure the implementation of the 2007 manifesto commitment to increase officer numbers by 1,000. As such, figures include all police officers appointed by the Chief Constable of Police Scotland and senior police officers appointed by the Scottish Police Authority, excluding those on career breaks.

The latest edition of POQS was published on 6 August 2019, and reports that there were 17,259 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in Scotland on 30 June 2019, up 87 police officers (+0.5%) in the last year, from 30 June 2018 and up 1,025 police officers (+6.3%) from the position at 31 March 2007. In contrast, police officer numbers in England and Wales fell by around 19,000 (13.3 per cent) from March 2007 to March 2019.

Further information on POQS can be found in the Statistical Release Notes that accompany each publication, available online at the following link:

https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PublicationPoliceStrength/POQS2019Q2 .

Deployment of police officers is a matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland. Police Scotland publish sub-national police officer numbers on a quarterly basis in parallel with the Scottish Government’s Police Officer Quarterly Strength Statistics. A link to Police Scotland’s latest sub-national officer numbers publication, providing information on the number of police officers deployed nationally, regionally and within the 13 local policing divisions, is given below:

https://www.scotland.police.uk/assets/pdf/138327/212520/
police-scotland-officer-numbers-quarter-1-30th-june2019?view=Standard .

The Scottish Government consults regularly on the modernisation of civil law, often as a consequence of the law reform work carried out by the Scottish Law Commission in this area.

By way of example in the past year we have or are consulting on: Judicial Factors (August 2019); the law of Succession (May 2019); Defamation in Scots Law (April 2019); Success Fee Arrangements in Scotland (January 2019); The future of civil partnerships in Scotland (December 2018); and Review of Part 1 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 and creation of family justice modernisation strategy (September 2018).

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. Information regarding clinical equipment should be directed to individual NHS Boards.

In the Programme for Government 2018-19, the Scottish Government committed to taking steps to allow animals taken into the protection of the Scottish SPCA or local authorities to be rehomed much more quickly and efficiently than at present.

A public consultation was run between 1 February 2019 and 26 April 2019 on a number of proposed amendments to the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, including proposals to speed up the process for making permanent arrangements for seized animals. The analysis of responses to this consultation was published on 17 July 2019.

We expect to announce shortly our plans to take forward legislation to increase the penalties for cruelty offences and to allow animals seized to protect their welfare to be quickly rehomed.

I have not visited the site in question, nor met with any representatives from the Newtonhill community to discuss the appeal at Park Place, Newtonhill (Case ref no. PPA-110-2372). The appeal in question was a delegated appeal and therefore Ministers played no part in the decision making process. Ministers become directly involved in only a very small minority of cases. This is in line with Ministers' proportionate approach in the handling of planning matters. It would not be appropriate to discuss the merits of an appeal either during the course of that appeal or after the decision has been made. The decision of a reporter is final subject to review by the Court of Session. The appeal in question remains subject to challenge until 24 September 2019.

The Scottish Government proactively publishes Ministerial engagement data on the Scottish Government website and may be accessed using the URL https://beta.gov.scot/publications/?term=Ministerial&publicationTypes=transparency_data .

The procurement process for Montrose is now complete, and the formal papers are due for submission for funding agreement with Transport Scotland week beginning 26 August.

Works are due to commence in the Autumn, with a 12 week delivery programme leading to completion of the works by early 2020.

This Government is committed to improving rail connectivity, reliability and journey times throughout Scotland. However, any transport project which requires Government funding, must be supported by a transport appraisal to ensure that the solution is arrived at impartially, based on evidence and is objective rather than solution led. The Scottish Government’s £2 million Local Rail Development Fund can help with the cost of these appraisals and NESTRANS has recently secured £80,000 to carry out a multi-modal transport appraisal to look at opportunities to improve connectivity across Aberdeen.

The Scottish Government and partners are committed to delivering new railway stations at Kintore and Dalcross. In addition, NESTRANS has recently been successful in securing a share of the Scottish Government’s £2 million Local Rail Development Fund. This funding will allow NESTRANS to carry out a multi-modal transport appraisal to look at opportunities to improve connectivity across Aberdeen.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-24772 on 2 September 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .