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: S6T-00713

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the anticipated delivery date of the ferries under construction at Ferguson Marine, in light of recent reports that the number of faults in the two vessels has risen.

Question reference: S6W-08142

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 10 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many local authority social work departments have developed their own policy to manage risk and to respond to and track missing children, as stated at paragraph 621 of the National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland (2014).

Local authorities are distinct corporate bodies whose powers and duties are set out in statute. The Scottish Government does not have a record of how many social work departments have their own policy in place for missing children.

Multi-agency risk assessment and co-ordination is essential to managing risk, responding to and tracking missing children. Local Child Protection Committees should ensure that there are specific and appropriate arrangements in place through policy, guidance, protocols and procedures which are known and implemented by relevant services. Local authority social work departments are a core multi-agency partner. The National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021, which replaced the 2014 guidance, states that each agency needs to develop its own policies and protocols to manage risk and track missing children. These should sit alongside and make reference to the multi-agency Child Protection Committee guidance reflecting that other agencies, for example, Police Scotland, will have to become involved very quickly when a child goes missing.

Question reference: S6W-08143

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ash Regan on 4 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many local authorities have developed their own multi-agency, collaborative missing persons strategy and protocols to respond to and track missing children.

Through the National Missing Persons Framework for Scotland, which was launched in 2017, the Scottish Government has developed and strengthened local multi-agency partnerships. A survey in 2020 by the Working Group for Missing People in Scotland showed that there are now multi-agency groups in 27 local authority areas and we aim to work with all areas to implement them by 2025.

The Scottish Government has funded the Missing People charity to deliver a Framework Implementation Project; and funds a National Coordinator to deliver a programme of consultancy, training and best practice sharing in local areas in Scotland.

Since 2019 the Implementation project has worked with local partners in Edinburgh, Fife, Dundee, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Moray, Dumfries and Galloway, East Dunbartonshire, North Ayrshire, Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire to develop their multi-agency partnerships, protocols and strategies. A further seven local authority areas will be engaged with the project in 2022-23.

Thankfully, the overwhelming majority of children who go missing in Scotland return home safely – but, any child who goes missing is one too many. Through these actions, Police Scotland, the lead agency for tracking missing people, is working more closely with families, friends and statutory bodies to track and safely return those children who go missing.

Question reference: S6T-00659

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported planned boycott of solicitors taking on summary cases brought under section 1 of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, from 3 May 2022.

Question reference: S6F-00962

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 March 2022

To ask the First Minister what immediate safeguarding measures will be in place to ensure that arrivals from Ukraine are protected from organised criminal activity, human trafficking and exploitation.

Question reference: S6W-07230

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 25 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to recent statistics from the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service stating that the courts backlog at the end of January 2022 reached a reported record high of 43,606 trials.

As I outlined in response to a recent portfolio question S6O-00869 on 16 March 2022, the statistics reaffirm that the pandemic has had a significant impact on our justice sector, just as it has on every other sector in Scotland. The Scottish Government continues to support justice agencies to take action to address the court backlog, which was exacerbated by the pandemic, in common with many legal jurisdictions worldwide. For example, a recent Report from the UK Public Accounts Committee suggested that the crown court backlog had almost doubled since March 2019, to 60,000 of the most serious criminal cases waiting to be heard. The important point is that we have a plan and strategy in place—including an extra £53.2 million for a justice recovery fund in 2022-23—to move matters forward, recognising that unnecessary delays are not in the best interests of victims, witnesses or the accused . Answers to Portfolio Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at Meeting of the Parliament: 16/03/2022 | Scottish Parliament Website .

Question reference: S6W-07364

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 23 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to lay commencement regulations for the provisions of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2021 that are not yet in force.

The Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021 makes provision in two areas relating to protection for people at risk of domestic abuse.

Part 1 of the Act will provide additional protection for people who are at risk of domestic abuse by providing the police and courts with new powers to remove a suspected perpetrator of domestic abuse from the home of a person at risk through a scheme of domestic abuse protection notices and orders.

An implementation group including Police Scotland, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and Scottish Women's Aid is continuing to consider how to progress the necessary elements to allow for commencement of Part 1 of the Act.

The group is overseeing the development of training and operating procedures, legal aid issues, court rules and associated processes for courts’ consideration of applications for protective orders; including how input of views of relevant children can be provided to inform the court’s consideration of applications within the short timescales set by the Act, support for people for whose protection an order is made, any guidance that may be needed for those using the legislation and steps needed to monitor and evaluate the use of the legislation once in effect. It is also considering the impact on court programming of the new powers including the likely significant financial costs arising. Within this context the group is giving consideration to the timetable for when this Part of the Act can be commenced.

Part 2 of the Act makes it easier for a local authority or registered social landlord to transfer a tenancy to a victim of domestic abuse. This aspect of the Act is not directly linked to Part 1 of the Act. The steps necessary for implementation are being taken forward and include secondary legislation, changes to court procedures, forms and model tenancy agreements as well as working with stakeholders to develop statutory guidance. Commencement of the provisions and publication of the guidance on the social tenancy provisions is scheduled for the end of 2022.

Question reference: S6W-07231

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 18 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its estimate is of the reduction in offenders going to jail as a result of its policy on the presumption against short-term sentences.

The presumption against short sentences was extended from 3 months or less to 12 months or less in July 2019. While relevant sentencing data is being monitored, the impact of COVID-19 on court business means it is not possible to confidently identify and attribute cause to any trends in court disposals in the period monitored to date. Caution is also required generally in attributing changes in sentencing patterns to any particular factor.

A bulletin ‘Extended presumption against short sentences: monitoring information - January - December 2020’ was published on 23 March 2021 and is available at . In addition, the latest criminal proceedings bulletin presents data for the financial year 2019-2020, which includes 9 months of sentencing data after the extension.

While there is no estimate in the reduction of people receiving custodial sentences as a result of the presumption, the criminal proceedings statistics show that between 2018-19 and 2019-20, there was a 13 percent reduction in the number of custodial sentences of 12 months or less from 9,585 to 8,324. The number of custodial sentence of “up to 3 months” decreased by 19% from 3,139 in 2018-19 to 2,551 in 2019-20, and is less than half the number ten years ago.

Question reference: S6W-07169

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-06718 by Keith Brown on 2 March 2022, whether it will provide the information requested regarding precisely how many hubs for regional restorative justice services it plans to establish by 2023, and for what reason it did not provide this information in its answer.

A final decision on the number of hubs has not yet been taken. A paper to the Restorative Justice Stakeholder Group, published on the Scottish Government website in 2021, set out a proposal to develop up to 6 administrative restorative justice hubs based on sheriffdom areas, and discussion is underway with our stakeholders and partners on this. The precise number of regional hubs in place by 2023 will be subject to these discussions and a range of factors such as level of demand, and cannot be confirmed at this stage.

Question reference: S6O-00890

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether a mix of energy sources, including renewables, could facilitate a reduction in energy prices for consumers.