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: S6W-04305

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been provided in the current financial year to police divisions that operate in rural areas for the purpose of tackling (a) sheep theft and (b) rural crime.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

This year the Scottish Government has increased funding for policing in Scotland by £75.5 million to more than £1.3 billion. The allocation of these resources across policing priorities is a matter for the Scottish Police Authority and the Chief Constable to determine.

People living in Scotland’s rural areas are less likely to be a victim of crime now than a decade ago, as detailed in the 2019-20 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey. Over three-quarters (76%) of those living in rural areas believed that the local crime rate had been stable or fallen in the previous two years.

The Scottish Government will continue to bear down on crime in Scotland, through protecting police budgets as well as through substantial investment in preventative programmes.

Question reference: S6W-04290

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much will be distributed to victims groups from the next round of funding applications to the Victim Surcharge Fund.

Question reference: S6W-04303

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) reported incidents of, (b) prosecutions for and (c) convictions for wildlife crime there have been in each of the last five years.

(a) The latest available information for Recorded crime data is for the financial year 2020-21 and is presented in the following table:

Wildlife crime Recorded by Police Scotland, 2016-17 to 2020-21

Financial year	Total
2016-17	231
2017-18	236
2018-19	171
2019-20	198
2020-21	308

Source: Recorded Crime in Scotland National Statistics Dataset

(b)(c) The latest available information for criminal proceedings is for the financial year 2019-20 and is presented in the following table:

People proceeded against in Scottish courts for wildlife crimes, where main charge, 2015-16 to 2019-20

Financial year	Total prosecuted	Total convicted
2015-16	25	20
2016-17	23	22
2017-18	29	25
2018-19	15	10
2019-20	12	11

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database

The statistics dealing with recorded crime and court proceedings are not directly comparable for a number of reasons. Recorded crime statistics count crimes and offences at the time that they came to the attention of Police Scotland while criminal proceedings statistics report on cases which have concluded in court. This means that a crime may be recorded by the police in one year and court proceedings concluded in a subsequent year. In addition, a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime, or a set of crimes with more than one victim, in a proceeding, but only the main charge is counted in these court proceedings statistics. There is also the possibility that the crime recorded by the police may be altered in the course of judicial proceedings. Crimes and offences alleged to have been committed by children under 16 years old are also generally dealt with through the children’s hearings system rather than through the courts.

Question reference: S6W-04289

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when the next round of funding from the Victim Surcharge Fund will be distributed to victims groups.

Question reference: S6W-04253

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ash Regan on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its current estimate is of the number of people who have been trafficked into Scotland or are being held against their will through acts of modern slavery.

Human trafficking is a hidden and often complex crime. Accurately assessing the scale of the problem in Scotland and beyond is challenging, although a range of estimates exist around the prevalence of the issue, both in the UK and globally.

Data on the number of trafficking victims in Scotland is drawn from the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). The NRM is the UK-wide framework for identifying potential victims of trafficking and ensuring they receive appropriate support and assistance.

Information from the NRM is released by the Home Office Single Competent Authority quarterly and in an end of year summary. Data relating to 2020 and 2021 can be found at .

Question reference: S6F-00519

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 November 2021

To ask the First Minister what discussions have taken place between the Scottish Government and the postal and banking sectors regarding the continued access to everyday services, particularly for rural, digitally excluded and vulnerable consumers.

Question reference: S6W-04342

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 22 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people it estimates are awaiting dental treatment as a result of the reported backlog in (a) North Ayrshire and (b) Inverclyde.

Question reference: S6W-04245

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 22 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many solicitors it and its directorates directly employ, and what the average salary is for those roles, broken down by bandings related to seniority or other factors.

The Scottish Government currently directly employs the following number of solicitors, set out below by pay band/grade. SCS - Director is the most senior grade with legal trainees being the most junior grade. It should be noted that there are other individuals who may be qualified solicitors employed in non-legal roles in policy/operational directorates across the Scottish Government but that information is not centrally known or held.

Directorate for Legal Services

Grade	Total Headcount
SCS - Director	1
SCS - Deputy Director	12
C3	4
C2	52
C1	142
Legal Trainee	13
Total	223

Parliamentary Counsel Office

Grade	Total Headcount
SCS - Director	1
SCS - Deputy Director	8
C3	2
C2	3
C1	9
Total	23

The Scottish Government average annual salaries (full time equivalent) for 2021 – 22, for each pay band, are shown in the following table:

Grade	Annual average salary (full time equivalent) per band
SCS - Director	£102,980
SCS - Deputy Director	£81,259
C3	£76,060
C2	£69,044
C1	£55,181
Legal Trainee	£27,704

Question reference: S6W-04244

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 22 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the current (a) permanent, (b) temporary and (c) contract workforce is at Ferguson Marine shipbuilding yard in Port Glasgow; how this compares with figures for the same date in each of the last five years; what the current job vacancy rate is, expressed in number of FTE roles, and for how long these vacancies have been live and unfulfilled.

In the following table, the data provided covers the period from when the Scottish Government took control of the shipyard to the present day. The table includes a yearly workforce count, and a count taken when the shipyard entered administration on 16 August 2019. The Agency/Contracted count includes workers employed through agencies and contractors working under FMPG management control, including interims.

	16 August 2019	18 November 2019	13 November 2020	17 November 2021
Permanent	158	150	323	365
Temporary	117	172	45	45
Agency/ Contracted	10	10	56	39
Total	285	332	424	449

Currently, there are 10 roles that the shipyard is in the process of recruiting.

Question reference: S6W-04255

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 19 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many body-worn cameras are currently being used by Police Scotland officers; how much funding it has allocated to Police Scotland to procure or introduce such devices, and what plans are in place to increase (a) funding for and (b) the quantity of such devices.

Police Scotland have advised there are currently over 250 body worn cameras in use within North East Division. In addition, Police Scotland also equipped all armed police officers across Scotland who were deployed at COP26. A consultation on a wider roll-out of body worn cameras to all front line operational officers and staff closed in September and work is ongoing to consider a national introduction.

For 2021-22, the Scottish Government increased the policing budget by £75.5m to over £1.3bn and provided one off funding of £0.5m in 2021-22 to the SPA, to support the use of body-worn cameras. The allocation of resources is a matter for the SPA and the Chief Constable.

Funding for the policing budget for 2022-23 will be set out at the Scottish budget on 9 December.