Chamber and committees

In relation to concluded Fatal Accident Inquiries where the Determination was published in 2024-25, 74% featured public bodies as interested parties. The public bodies were as follows: Scottish Prison Service (53% of all FAIs), NHS boards (50%), Prison Officers’ Association of Scotland (17%), Police Service of Scotland (6%), Scottish Ambulance Service (4%), Health and Safety Executive, Scottish Fire & Rescue Service, The British Army and the Office of the Advocate General for Scotland (all 2%).

In relation to concluded Fatal Accident Inquiries where the Determination was published in 2023-24, 80% featured public bodies as interested parties. The public bodies were as follows: NHS boards (51% of all FAIs), Scottish Prison Service (46%), Prison Officers’ Association of Scotland (20%), Police Service of Scotland (9%), Scottish Ambulance Service, Health and Safety Executive and Home Office (all 3%).

In relation to concluded Fatal Accident Inquiries where the Determination was published in 2022-23, 62% featured public bodies as interested parties. The public bodies were as follows: NHS boards (50% of all FAIs), Scottish Prison Service (45%), Prison Officers’ Association of Scotland (24%), Police Service of Scotland, Health and Safety Executive, Scottish Fire & Rescue Service, Glasgow City Council, Maritime & Coastguard Agency, Orkney Islands Council and the Attorney General of the Republic of Cyprus (all 2%).

At the end of the reporting year 2024-25, there were 246 mandatory Fatal Accident Inquiries where a First Notice had not been lodged with the Sheriff Clerk. Of those 246 cases, 92 were less than one year old (from the date the death was reported to COPFS), 75 were more than one year old and 79 were more than two years old.

At the end of the reporting year 2023-24, there were 250 mandatory Fatal Accident Inquiries where a First Notice had not been lodged with the Sheriff Clerk.

At the end of the reporting year 2022-23, there were 218 mandatory Fatal Accident Inquiries where a First Notice had not been lodged with the Sheriff Clerk.

For the reporting years 2022-23 and 2023-24, we hold no data on the age profiles of those cases.

A Fatal Accident Inquiry is mandatory following all deaths in custody.

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.

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).

The pilot, facilitated by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS), has received more than 80 applications up until the start of February this year. We are working closely with SCTS to address the issues that have been raised in a minority of these applications, including how we ensure applicants are kept fully informed of progress in producing their transcript and how that process could be quicker.

The extension of the current pilot for a further twelve months will enable lessons to be learnt as part of the wider evaluation of the programme, so it can achieve its aim of helping improve victims’ experience of the justice system. This includes the potential opportunity to develop and test emerging technology that may assist in producing transcripts and a better understanding of the most efficient and effective operation of servicing applications.

As part of the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill I am also exploring how greater access to free transcripts can be provided in the future.

The recommendations in FAI determinations cover a wide variety of policy areas. Each area will consider what action to take in relation to each recommendation that is relevant to its own area of responsibility.

The average time for applicants to receive a transcript under the pilot scheme has been seven months, however this does not reflect the length of time that all applicants have waited. The timeline varies across applications, influenced by several factors including the success of the pilot receiving a high number of requests, the volume of transcription work for live court proceedings, the length of the transcript requested, and the amount of redaction required.

SCTS are reviewing current processes and procedures with the aim of reducing the time taken to provide transcripts and to ensure the most efficient and effective service delivery.

Antisocial Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) may be issued by either criminal or civil courts in Scotland. ASBOs do not carry a custodial sentence and a civil court cannot impose a custodial sentence. A criminal court may only impose a custodial sentence where a separate case is brought for a breach of an ASBO which results in a conviction.

Between January 2024 and September 2024, 71 charges prosecuted in Scottish criminal courts receiving a disposal of an ASBO.

Between January 2024 and December 2024, 76 Civil ASBOs were granted in Scottish sheriff courts.

It is not possible to identify how many of these ASBOs have been breached and resulted in imprisonment. The data that the Scottish Government holds does not allow linkage of a specific ASBO, whether civil or criminal, with a criminal charge of breach of ASBO and therefore a conviction resulting in a custodial sentence cannot be identified. Furthermore, any potential breach of a specific ASBO listed above may not yet have occurred, or if it has occurred, its’ associated case may not yet have been disposed in court.

Latest data from the Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy (LCREE) survey shows that, in 2022, Scotland’s nuclear power sector directly employed 2,700 (full-time equivalent) and had an estimated turnover of £763 million.

A five-year time series – of employment and turnover in the nuclear power sector - from 2018 to 2022, is presented in the following tables.

The results in LCREE are survey-based, as the data is gathered from a sample rather than the whole population. The estimates are therefore subject to uncertainty, and the level of uncertainty is expressed through confidence intervals. These are presented alongside the estimates in the following tables.