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 MSPs 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: S5W-14972

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-14146 by Keith Brown on 26 February 2018, how many of the Carillion employees working on Network Rail projects in Scotland, both directly or through a labour-only sub-contract through a Carillion subsidiary, have been made redundant as a result of the company's liquidation.

Question reference: S5W-15007

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason prisoners who have failed to comply with a home detention curfew release licence are not automatically excluded from being considered for another, and whether it plans to amend the law in this regard.

In December 2016 the Scottish Parliament made the Home Detention Curfew Licence (Amendment) (Scotland) Order 2016 (SSI 2016/416) to specifically remove the existing prohibition on prisoners who had previously been released on licence and recalled to custody for non-compliance with their licence conditions or for committing a new crime from being considered for HDC. This was in response to a recommendation to do so made by the Electronic Monitoring in Scotland Expert Working Group in October 2016.

Allowing these prisoners to be considered for HDC provides an opportunity to recognise an individual’s progress in terms of their rehabilitation and improvements in compliance and motivation to desist from reoffending.

Question reference: S5W-15006

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason prisoners with domestic abuse convictions are not automatically excluded from the Home Detention Curfew Scheme, and whether it plans to amend the law in this regard.

The Home Detention Curfew (HDC) scheme came into force in July 2006 through provisions contained in the Management of Offenders etc (Scotland) Act 2005. The Act requires that the decision to release a prisoner on HDC must be taken having regard to considerations of:

Protecting the public at large
Preventing reoffending by the prisoner
Securing successful reintegration into the community

HDC offers the opportunity to aid prisoner reintegration back into the community while maintaining an appropriate element of control. The list of statutory exclusions is tightly drawn to ensure that the individual circumstances of each prisoner's case can be considered in determining whether to grant HDC. Where it appears that a prisoner may qualify for release on HDC the proposed curfew address requires to be assessed for suitability by criminal justice social work services. The Scottish Prison Service conducts a thorough risk assessment of suitability for release and guidance requires that this must have regard to a number of factors including whether the prisoner’s conviction includes an element of domestic violence.

Question reference: S5W-14996

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Victim Notification Scheme only provides details of an offenders release date, date of death within prison, transfer outwith Scotland, eligibility for temporary release, escape and return to prison, where the sentence is for 18 months or more, and what legislation prescribes this.

The Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 prescribed the Victim Notification Scheme (VNS), which provided victims of certain prescribed offences with the rights to receive information about an offenders’ progression within prison and eventual release. At this time, the VNS applied to offenders who were sentenced to 4 years or more.

The Victim Notification Scheme (Scotland) Order 2008, then extended these rights to victims of offenders who had been sentenced to 18 months or more and the Victims and Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2014, removed the list of prescribed offences so that victims of all offences were potentially eligible.

Extending the full VNS to all victims, irrespective of sentence length, was considered during the development of the 2014 Act. It was concluded that doing so would create significant practical difficulties, particularly in cases involving a very short custodial sentence or where the offender was released early due to time spent on remand prior to sentencing.

However the Victims’ Rights (Scotland) Regulations 2015, now extend the right to receive certain information to victims of offenders sentenced to less than 18 months. Such victims can contact the Scottish Prison Service and ask to receive information on the date of release of the offender or if they have escaped from custody.

Question reference: S5W-14976

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-14146 by Keith Brown on 26 February 2018, how many of the Carillion employees working on Network Rail projects in Scotland, both directly or through a labour-only sub-contract through a Carillion subsidiary, have been recruited by other contractors involved in the projects.

Question reference: S5W-15066

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how it defines "inclusive growth", and how it ensures that all its agencies use the same definition.

Inclusive Growth is growth that combines increased prosperity with greater equity; that creates opportunities for all and distributes the dividends of increased prosperity fairly.

Promoting a shared inclusive growth agenda across Scotland is a key objective of this Government – evidenced, for example, by the inclusive growth conference we hosted in Glasgow last year and by the announcement of the Centre for Regional Inclusive Growth – which will work to drive improvements in inclusive growth outcomes across Scotland’s communities.

It is vitally important that all our agencies are aligned in terms of promoting inclusive growth – indeed this is why the Enterprise and Skills Strategic Board aims to ensure the whole Enterprise and Skills system delivers Scotland’s Economic Strategy, of which inclusive growth is a central priority, and is looking specifically at creating the conditions that are conducive to delivering inclusive and sustainable growth.

Question reference: S5W-15065

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by James Wolffe QC on 14 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether (a) it and (b) the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) collects any data regarding the length of time that bodies are retained between death and burial/cremation due to an ongoing criminal investigation.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is responsible for the investigation of deaths where there is an ongoing criminal investigation. COPFS does not collect data regarding the length of time that bodies are retained between the death and burial/cremation. Since September 2016 COPFS has recorded the date when the body is released to the nearest relative in deaths where there is an ongoing criminal investigation.

Question reference: S5W-14640

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13901 by Keith Brown on 31 January 2018, what work ministers are planning to increase the number of suppliers that have signed the Business Pledge.

Question reference: S5W-14641

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13901 by Keith Brown on 31 January 2018, what consideration it gives to whether a company has signed the Business Pledge when awarding contracts to suppliers, and whether it has considered making this a mandatory requirement.

The Scottish Government highlights the values promoted by the Scottish Business Pledge by including a standard question in the invitation to tender, requesting that potential suppliers confirm whether they have made a commitment to the Pledge.

By signing up to the pledge and making such a commitment to deliver elements through current actions and future plans, a supplier can also demonstrate a positive and progressive approach to meet Fair Work criteria.

Question reference: S5W-14642

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13901 by Keith Brown on 31 January 2018, what target has been set to increase the number of its suppliers that have signed the Business Pledge.