Chamber and committees

As outlined in the Scottish Government’s IT Code of Conduct attempts to access, active accessing, downloading, displaying, storing and the distribution of pornographic, racist or other offensive material, or material relating to illegal activities is considered a disciplinary matter.

Under the Scottish Government’s discipline policy, line managers are expected to deal with concerns about inappropriate behaviour at an early stage and where appropriate, on an informal basis. Informal action could include addressing concerns through discussion, feedback, training and coaching. There is no requirement to report informal action to HR. However, where an allegation of misconduct is more serious, formal disciplinary procedures would apply.

Since 2018, there have been two formal disciplinary cases taken in response to incidents of accessing or attempting to access pornography on Scottish Government devices or computers. One outcome was a 6-month formal written warning, and the other outcome was a one-year written warning.

The total cost of operating the Scottish Government Resilience Room as calculated below includes salary costs for the teams responsible for developing and maintaining the SGORR function including co-ordination of resilience communications; on call allowances for 24/7, 365 days a year on call cover to monitor and where required respond to incidents; overtime pay for evening and weekend working in response to incidents; and travel and subsistence payments relating to incident response. This amounts to the following for each of the past five financial years: 2020-2021: £834,819; 2021-2022: £738,458; 2022-2023: £817,262; 2023-2024: £829,416; 2024-2025 (as of 5 February 2025): £574,682.

It is not possible to separately identify which prosecutions for assault were specifically for assaults on nurses

SGORR’s information security is guided, like information security in all other parts of Scottish Government, by three key principles: confidentiality (information is classified correctly following government guidance), integrity (information is verified and comes from a reputable source), and availability (it is stored securely on Government systems, can only be accessed by those who have the right to see it, and is only shared where appropriate).

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the audiology workforce.

Responsibility for delivery and commissioning of services lies at a local level - with local authorities, NHS Boards and integrated health and social care partnerships. Operational decisions, including whether there is a need for audiologists, are therefore matters for those bodies to make and should take into account the numbers of patients in their local areas.

The Scottish Government does not hold this data.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-34080 on 13 February 2025. 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

Decisions relating to the investigation and prosecution of crime, including speeding offences, are a matter for Police Scotland and COPFS, who are operationally independent of the Scottish Ministers.

Restrictions brought in to reduce the spread of coronavirus in 2020 led to a significant increase in the length of time it took for cases to progress through the court system. However, there has been considerable progress in addressing backlogs in the summary court system, aided by investment provided by the Scottish Government, with the number of outstanding scheduled summary trials reducing from an average of 38,089 in 2021-22 to 19,848 as of December 2024.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-34075 on 18 February 2025. 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