Chamber and committees

It is not possible to compare the current proposal with the previous one at this point. The Full Business Case is still under development and project cost estimates will be revised to reflect the impact of inflation, net zero carbon targets, plot change and updated clinical brief to align with national treatment targets.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

At present there are no current plans to review the SPS Prisoners Wage Earning Policy within the current financial year. It is however anticipated that a review will be scheduled for 2024.

SPS have implemented a range of measures to lessen the impact of price increases including a temporary £1 per week supplement introduced to offset some of the price rises of canteen goods available to purchase, some of which have also been reduced to help with the rising costs.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19963 on 7 August 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

National Treatment Centres (NTCs) require an appropriate mix of new and experienced staff to operate safely and efficiently. Management information provided by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) shows that at 31 March 2023, 98 people were employed in NTC Forth Valley. 19 are new entrants meaning they are undertaking their first role in NHS Scotland. Whilst these figures from NES are classed as management information at this stage, NES will continue to work with data providers to develop these as Official Statistics. The next step in this process will be to release these statistics within the NHS Scotland workforce publication as Experimental Statistics in December 2023. NTC workforce data will be reported every six months thereafter.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19965 on 7 August 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The information requested is not held centrally.

Estimates of Police Recorded cybercrime were most recently published in the Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2022-23 - (gov.scot (www.gov.scot) statistical publication and are based on a review of a sample of recorded crimes which are considered likely to include a cyber element. The amount of money defrauded through cybercrime is not recorded.

Estimates of Police Recorded cybercrime were most recently published in the Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2022-23 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) statistical publication and are based on a review of a sample of recorded crimes which are considered likely to include a cyber element. The amount of money defrauded through cybercrime is not recorded.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS has assessed the procurement and installation costs for the project at HMP Grampian as £554,995 (excluding VAT). The cost includes all cabling and preparatory works associated to the project at HMP Grampian, as well as the materials and the associated required testing and commissioning works.

Permanent In Cell Telephony means individuals in prison can maintain purposeful family contact, including with children, which we know is important for good mental health and wellbeing, and for reducing the risk of reoffending upon return to communities. In Cell Telephony will also support SPS’ longer term ambitions for in-cell technology, with additional educational opportunities and giving those individuals in prison greater control over their own lives, again supporting reintegration into the community and reducing the risk of reoffending.

There is no agreed upon definition of cyber-crime and a range of different types of crime may be either cyber-dependent or cyber-enabled. The table below shows people prosecuted and convicted in Scottish courts in 2020-21 where the main charge is under either the Computer Misuse Act 1990 or Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, the only charges that are identifiable as cyber-crimes in Criminal Proceedings in Scotland data. Note that data for 2020-21 are effected by the pandemic and subsequent court closures and should not be considered indicative of long term trends.

In 2022-23 there were an estimated 14,890 police recorded cyber-crimes, accounting for 5% of all recorded crime in Scotland. This estimate is based on a review of crime records, whereby a random sample of cases was drawn across Scotland for those types of crime that could in theory involve a cyber-element.

Of these 14,890 estimated cyber-crimes, the most common types were crimes of fraud (57%), sexual crimes (26%) and crimes of threats and extortion (12%).

The estimate of Police recorded cyber-crime does not provide information on the characteristics of all cyber-crime committed in society, as not all these crimes are reported to the police. To better understand cyber-crime committed in Scotland, including those cases not reported to the police, an updated section on fraud and computer misuse has been included in the 2023-24 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey.

The consultation on the draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan closed on 9 May and we received a very high level of responses. We will shortly publish all consultation responses on the Scottish Government’s Citizen Space website (according to the preferences stated by respondents in their Respondent Information Form).