Questions and answers

Chamber and committees

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 ��˿�� 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-05991

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government which new psychoactive substances the Scottish Prison Service tests for when prisoners are subject to a drugs test.

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

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) does not test for New Psychoactive Substances (NPS). There are significant challenges around the detection and identification of NPS compounds and the availability of up-to-date testing kits due to the variants of such substances constantly changing.

SPS has adopted a therapeutic approach, alongside professional case management and the utilisation of existing drug testing powers to manage this evolving issue.

Question reference: S5W-05767

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking in response to reports of low morale among criminal justice nurses.

The National Nurse Advisor of the National Prisoner Healthcare Network will be liaising with the Scottish Executive Nurse Directors (SEND) Group in early 2017 to consider how best to respond to, and address, the matters raised in the Royal College of Nursing Scotland Review of the Transfer of Prison Health Care from the Scottish Prison Service to NHS Scotland. The report has also been viewed by NHS board Prison board Operational Leads and they now aim to consider local responses to the matters identified.

Nursing staff working in the criminal justice system are NHS employees and as such benefit from a number of workforce approaches that support staff including the online toolkit for the Knowledge and Skills Framework (eksf) and iMatter which are both intended to provide staff with an opportunity to have their views heard and acted on with the aim of enhancing their skill set and their employment experience.

The Scottish Government intends to refresh its approach to Staff Governance Standard Monitoring to ensure that the process is adding value and driving improvement. We are currently working in Partnership to develop proposals to ensure that a mechanism is in place which remains fit for purpose and which provides meaningful and relevant information both nationally and locally.

In addition, the Chief Nursing Officer has launched an engagement process to develop a 2030 Nursing Vision; this is an opportunity for nurses in all settings to contribute to the discussion about what skills and experience they will need to progress their career through knowledge, education and practice.

Question reference: S5W-05769

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 18 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the reconviction rate is among prisoners diagnosed with mental health conditions.

Question reference: S5W-05770

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 18 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will carry out a review of what links there are between mental health conditions and reoffending.

There is evidence from a wide range of sources that the prevalence of mental health conditions is higher among people in prison compared to the general population, and that such issues are likely to contribute to the underlying causes of offending. The international evidence base on mental health and offending was recently reviewed as part of an evidence review published by Scottish Government. This is available on the Scottish Government website at: .

Question reference: S5W-05766

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to reduce the amount of administrative work carried out by police officers.

Question reference: S5W-05768

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will undertake a review of healthcare in prisons.

Question reference: S5W-05765

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when the reported problems with Police Scotland’s payroll IT system will be resolved.

Question reference: S5W-05763

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many hours of police time has been lost due to duplicated IT systems, and what review it has conducted of this.

Question reference: S5O-00574

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is content with the way that it records crime.

Question reference: S5W-05910

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by James Wolffe QC on 11 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases in each of the last five years, where the charge of assaulting an emergency worker under the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005, have been dropped to pursue a charge relating to the same incident.

Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) Management Information Database records data on the basis of charges not “incidents”. One “incident” can involve multiple charges and multiple accused, sometimes reported and prosecuted under separate cases. From the statistical data held by COPFS, it is not possible to isolate this information. The number of charges under the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 in which no further action has been taken in the last five years was provided in the answer to question S5W-05909 on 11 January 2017.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at