- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 28 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether the practice of the Lord Advocate and/or Solicitor General attending meetings of the Cabinet is still in place; how many meetings one or both have attended in each of the last 10 years; what their current remit is when attending meetings, and whether the current arrangements are substantively the same, or different, to the arrangements under the previous two First Ministers.
Answer
The Scottish Law Officers are not members of the Scottish Cabinet. Consistent with long standing practice, the Lord Advocate (or, in their absence, the Solicitor General) attends Cabinet meetings whenever it is required. In practice this means when Cabinet is discussing a matter with a legal aspect, or to represent their own Ministerial interest, in particular as head of the systems of criminal prosecution and investigation of deaths in Scotland.
The following table sets out, for each of the previous 10 years, the number of occasions on which the Scottish Law Officers have attended meetings of the Scottish Cabinet.
YEAR (and total number of Cabinet meetings (mtgs.) held) | No. of Cabinet meetings attended by Scottish Law Officers |
2015 (40 mtgs) | 14 |
2016 (34) | 17 |
2017 (38) | 28 |
2018 (38) | 35 |
2019 (41) | 41 |
2020 (50) | 50 |
2021 (41) | 35 |
2022 (41) | 27 |
2023 (39) | 24 |
2024 (41) | 27 |
2025 (12) as at 1 April | 5 |
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 15 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) arrests and (b) prosecutions there have been each year under the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021, also broken down by how many (i) convictions and (ii) other disposals there were.
Answer
COPFS does not hold records of arrests: not all persons who are arrested by the police are subsequently reported to Procurator Fiscal.
The following table shows the number of charges, not accused persons, reported to COPFS under the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-Restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) 2021 section 1 or any charge with an Enforcing Statutory Age Restriction aggravation. It is highlighted that the figures for the year 2021- 22 start from 24 August 2021. Under further explanation that some prosecutions may be taken against an accused where the specific statutory charge is not prosecuted however some of the libel in the charge might have been included.
Charges reported to COPFS under:- | | | | |
Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021 S1 or |
any charge with "Enforcing Statutory Age Restriction" aggravation | |
| | | | | |
1) Charges Reported | | | | |
| | Financial Year Reported | |
| | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
Total | 534 | 1,276 | 2,183 | 2,584 |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
2) Charges Prosecuted & Outcomes | | | | |
| | Financial Year Reported | |
| | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
Convicted | 364 | 699 | 1,016 | 617 |
Not Convicted | 86 | 165 | 290 | 215 |
Ongoing | 3 | 58 | 297 | 1,091 |
No Further Action | 35 | 127 | 201 | 75 |
Total | 488 | 1,049 | 1,804 | 1,998 |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
3) Other Disposals | | | | |
| | Financial Year Reported | |
| | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
Direct Measures | 13 | 127 | 219 | 228 |
No Action | 6 | 48 | 44 | 73 |
No Decision | 0 | 0 | 10 | 143 |
Not Separately Actioned | 27 | 52 | 106 | 142 |
Total | 46 | 227 | 379 | 586 |
| | | | | |
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 28 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 14 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that the Lord Advocate remains independent in her capacity as the chief public prosecutor while also being politically accountable as the senior Law Officer.
Answer
As protected by section 48(5) of the Scotland Act 1998, the Law Officers operate entirely independently of any other person as they undertake their prosecutorial and investigation of deaths functions. The Lord Advocate is accountable to the Scottish Parliament for prosecutions and the investigation of deaths (but may decline to answer questions which might prejudice criminal proceedings or would otherwise be contrary to the public interest under section 27(3) of the Scotland Act).
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 6 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-36007 by Angela Constance on 3 March 2025, whether it will provide the information requested regarding what the reasons were for (a) the five-year delay in publishing an updated memorandum of understanding/agreement and (b) it missing the "end of 2024" commitment to do so, and for what reason it did not provide this information in its answer.
Answer
Answer expected on 6 May 2025
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 7 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much court time it estimates is currently being lost per month on average due to any delays in establishing remote links and re-establishing failed remote links during virtual court hearings, and what the reasons are for any such delays.
Answer
This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who reply in writing within 20 days.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 7 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has conducted a review of (a) internet speeds in Scottish courts, (b) the effectiveness of video conferencing technology that is used in Scottish courts for virtual hearings and (c) the resourcing of the technology and infrastructure provided for such virtual hearings.
Answer
This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who reply in writing within 20 days.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 4 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether prioritising action on retail crime, including shoplifting, should form part of (a) its strategic police priorities and (b) the priorities of the Scottish Police Authority.
Answer
The Strategic Police Priorities (SPPs) are designed to provide high-level direction for the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) and Police Scotland, as set out in the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012. Prevention and detection of crime and working with key sectors is currently covered in the SPPs and the SPA and Police Scotland will use the SPPs to inform both their Strategic and Annual Police Plans, which will include putting in place objectives for the police service and the activities which will deliver them.
Police Scotland’s commitment to tackling retail crime has been underlined by last month’s launch of an action plan which includes a number of measures aimed at preventing such incidents and pursuing those responsible. This has been made possible through additional Scottish Government funding of £3 million for this year.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 1 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to encourage the reporting of crimes against retailers and their staff, including to make it easier for such incidents to be reported.
Answer
The Scottish Government continue to urge all retailers and their staff to keep reporting crimes. While it might feel like some minor incidents aren’t worth it, or individual retailers may feel like the police won’t be able to do anything, each crime report aids our collective understanding of who is doing this and why. Local officers may also well have intelligence they can use to catch the perpetrators.
Our Budget will make an additional £3 million available in 2025-26 to tackle retail crime.
This funding will support the formation of a Retail Crime Taskforce which will provide a visible and measurable impact on retail crime and will deliver on the following objectives:
- Prevent: Stop people from becoming perpetrators of Retail crime by developing and implementing intervention and diversion mechanisms with partners.
- Pursue: Target retail crime by bringing perpetrators to justice, with a focus on repeat offenders and organised criminals.
- Protect: Strengthen the collective protections against Retail Crime by engaging directly with retailers on crime prevention and training.
- Prepare: Mitigate against the impact of Retail Crime by exploring innovate opportunities for direct reporting systems.
New technologies will also be utilised to explore ways to make it easier for retail staff to directly report crimes to police, as well as capitalising on Police Scotland’s existing Digital Evidence Sharing Capability (DESC), to secure early criminal justice outcomes.
This builds on a successful proof of concept within Fife Division and will aim to provide an efficient and effective direct reporting system to retailers.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 1 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the suggestion by the Scottish Retail Consortium that the £3 million fund to deal with retail crime, which was announced in its 2025-26 Budget, should be made permanent.
Answer
I was pleased to welcome the launch of Police Scotland’s plans to tackle retail crime last month, which is being funded by an additional £3 million from the Scottish Government.
I hope to see these plans make a difference to the rates of shoplifting Scotland has seen in recent months, and we will continue to liaise closely with Police Scotland as their planned actions are rolled out.
We have increased police funding year-on-year since 2016-17, investing more than £14.6 billion since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government has initiated planning for the next Scottish Spending Review, that will identify opportunities to optimise the use of Scottish Government funding over the longer term.
The conclusion of the UK Government’s 2025 spending review will provide key funding information to underpin the Scottish Government’s own multi-year spending review. Provision of funding in future years will also be part of discussions with the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland to understand the budget requirement to deliver their three-year business plan.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 1 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when the Aberdeen–Central Belt 2026 Enhancement Project was renamed the Aberdeen–Central Belt Service Improvement Project; for what reason the name was changed; at the time that the name was changed, whether anything else was changed, such as the scope, outcomes or delivery dates, and which stakeholders were consulted prior to the name change.
Answer
The name change was made in early 2024 during the development of the Aberdeen Route Upgrade business case, to reflect the planned project output of service improvements. There was no change to project scope. This was a project level decision, as such no consultation was undertaken nor was required.
In respect of project timescales, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-32369 on 8 January 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
