Chamber and committees

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows: A decision on the future of prisoner phone services including pricing mechanisms is currently under active consideration.

SPS estimate that to continue with the current scheme, it will cost approximately £60,000 per month.

The decision to use any technology with facial recognition capability is an operational matter for Police Scotland, whilst having regard to the relevant laws.

The Scottish Government understands from Police Scotland that they are not and have no plans to use live facial recognition technology/cameras at this time.

In line with the Scottish Government's commitment to the legal, ethical and proportionate use of technologies in policing, an Independent Advisory Group on Emerging Technologies, whose membership includes policing, human rights and data protection stakeholders, is currently developing recommendations and is due to report to Ministers later this year.

Mid-Market homes are let under private tenancy arrangements, mostly Private Residential Tenancies. There are therefore no plans to re-categorise mid-market rental properties owned by registered social landlords as social housing, and no decision has been taken about the use of the emergency measures beyond 31 March 2023. Any decision regarding the emergency measures will take into consideration the cost of living situation as it develops, and will be also be informed by our engagement with tenants, landlords and other stakeholders.

The independent report commissioned by the Scottish Government earlier this year is actively being considered by Ministers. Our priority is to ensure our offer compliments peace work already underway in Scotland and internationally and the report will be made available once a timetable of work has been agreed.

As we set out in our 2022 Programme for Government we will introduce a Wildlife Management (Grouse) Bill which will: ‘ implement the recommendations of the “Werritty Review” and introduce licensing for grouse moor management to ensure that the management of driven grouse moors and related activities is undertaken in an environmentally sustainable manner. The Bill will also include provisions to ban glue traps.’

We have been working with NatureScot to develop proposals for a licensing scheme for grouse moor businesses and launched a public consultation on those proposals on 26 October 2022. The consultation will run until 14 December 2022 and can be found here: Wildlife management: consultation - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

As outlined in response to question S6W-11944 on 21 November 2022 , NatureScot, as the licensing body, will be responsible for the issuing and monitoring of licences. They will work closely with Police Scotland and other key stakeholders to address any suspected breach of licensing conditions.

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

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

SPS do not record information on the number of staff who may have been hospitalised as a result of assaults by prisoners.

NatureScot, as the licensing body, will be responsible for the issuing and monitoring of licences. They will work closely with Police Scotland and other key stakeholders to address any suspected breach of licensing conditions.

The previous answer detailed the percentage of vessels fitted with the specified capability, this has been amended to include the number of vessels.

I welcome the recently published briefing from Carnegie UK and the five recommendations to put wellbeing at the centre of policymaking in Scotland. I look forward to their engagement as part of the forthcoming review of the National Outcomes.

The National Performance Framework is Scotland’s wellbeing framework. Increasing wellbeing is central to its purpose, with the 11 National Outcomes setting out the type of country that we want to be. The development of the proposed Wellbeing and Sustainable Development Bill will consider the best way to ensure the interests of future generations are taken into account in decisions made today.