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The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service have already publicly outlined how they will look to manage the impact of COP26 on our Courts. While trials are suspended in the sheriff courts during COP26, the High Court trials will continue as programmed. However, given the proximity of the conference to Glasgow High Court and the potential for disruption, trials assigned for Glasgow during the two-week period from 1 November to 12 November will instead be heard at sheriff courts out with Glasgow. Similarly we have outlined how the additional £50m allocated towards the Justice Recover, Renew, and Transform (RRT) programme, will help drive further reform, including greater use of digital tools and improved support for victims and witnesses. We will also see an increased court capacity from September 2021, which includes the expansion of remote jury centres and a daily increase of 4 additional High Courts, 2 additional Sheriff Solemn Courts and up to 10 Sheriff Summary Courts, all of which will have a positive impact in addressing the case backlog as a consequence of the pandemic. It would be prudent to see how that significant development works in practice before considering what potential and broader impact of any further expansion thereafter might have across the Justice system.

COP26 will be the biggest international summit the UK has ever hosted, meaning that the policing operation is considerable and will require large deployments of both Police Scotland officers and mutual aid officers brought in from other parts of the UK.

Decisions on how to allocate these resources are a matter for the Chief Constable. However, the recent HMICS review into Police Scotland’s planning for the event offers a high degree of assurance around the service’s ability to balance business as usual policing with delivering a safe and secure COP26.

The Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) proactively notifies victims of decisions not to prosecute in all solemn cases and all summary cases within the specified case remit of the COPFS Victim Information and Advice (VIA) service, including Domestic Abuse and Hate Crime. COPFS proactively notifies victims of decisions to discontinue prosecutions in all categories of cases. COPFS advises all victims of all decisions not to prosecute on request.

COPFS is exploring possible approaches to extending the current notification scheme to all relevant summary cases, including possible IT solutions.

Assaults on police officers including by spitting or coughing are despicable and this is especially during times with prevalence of Covid-19 in communities.

Deliberately spitting and coughing on police officers is a form of assault and the maximum sentence for an assault is life imprisonment. This is the most severe form of penalty available under the criminal law and is available under the common law of assault.

In addition, there are specific offences in the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 which also provide protection for police officers.

The combination of these laws provide full protection under the law with the independent court deciding what an appropriate sentence is in a given case. The Scottish Government fully supports independent courts having extensive powers to deal robustly with perpetrators.

We continue to ask all organisations to support staff who experience violence in the workplace including Police Scotland themselves with encouragement of the reporting of such incidents for appropriate action to be taken.

No-one should be the victim of abuse or violence while at work. Assaults on emergency service workers and police officers are despicable and the Scottish Government fully supports courts having their current extensive powers to deal robustly with perpetrators.

The maximum sentence for an assault on emergency workers including the police is life imprisonment. This is the most severe form of penalty available under the criminal law and is available under the common law of assault.

In addition, there are specific offences in the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 which also provide protection for emergency service workers and police officers.

The combination of these laws provide full protection under the law with the independent court deciding what an appropriate sentence is in a given case.

We continue to encourage all organisations to support staff who experience violence in the workplace including reporting such incidents for appropriate action to be taken by Police Scotland.

The criminal law is always kept under review to assess whether changes can be made to improve how it operates. In the context of maximum penalties for assaults on emergency workers being life imprisonment, the Scottish Government has no current plans to change the laws in this area given the extensive powers courts have.

Information on arrivals into the UK are published by the Home Office and can be found here: Immigration statistics, year ending March 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

All travellers have to take a COVID-19 test within 72hrs of their departure; evidence has to presented to the carrier prior to boarding the aircraft at their port of origin. To be allowed to enter the country, all travellers need to be in possession of the relevant managed quarantine or test package dependent on which country they have come from or transited through. This is checked at the UK border.

Baseline ICU capacity in Scotland is 173 adult beds providing level 3 care. NHS Boards retain the ability to double their baseline ICU capacity to 360 within one week, treble to 585 in two weeks and, if required, extend this to over 700, subject to staff and supplies. The double capacity figures by board (excluding NHS Golden Jubilee) are given in the following table and are published in Coronavirus (COVID-19): modelling the epidemic (issue no. 32).
Coronavirus (COVID-19): modelling the epidemic (issue no. 32) - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Driver and vehicle licensing and testing is reserved to the UK government. Matters relating to the delivery mechanism and conduct of the driving theory test are the responsibility of the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) although they are required to follow the regulations and guidance in force in Scotland to suppress transmission of Covid-19. The Scottish government is in regular dialogue with the DVSA to discuss its progress in reducing the backlog of theory and practical driving tests that have arisen following the introduction of Covid-19 restrictions but we are not aware of any plans to deliver the driving theory test on an online basis.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6T-00019 on 26 May 2021. The answer is available on the Parliament's website at: Official Report - Parliamentary Business : Scottish Parliament .

To clarify, the one off pro rata thank you payment for all eligible health and social care staff is £500. We are working at pace with our key stakeholders to establish an effective way to pay Personal Assistants. We will issue further details as soon as this is agreed. We are confident that we have developed an online portal to reach all eligible Personal Assistants and we are aiming to have it open very soon.