Aberdeen Roads Limited has confirmed that, of the 59 Carillion staff on the AWPR site offered a position, 57 individuals accepted positions with Balfour Beatty and Galliford Try who are the remaining contractors on the project.

Aberdeen Roads Limited has confirmed that the remaining contractors are continuing to explore the best option going forward to ensure the agency staff and operatives can remain on the project, with the least impact to both employees and the agencies supplying them.

We are continuing to work with the contractor and our stakeholders, with a view to delivering the benefits associated with opening areas of the project as soon as it is safe to do so.

The Victims Code is available online and in hard copy in a range of languages and formats, with additional languages also available on request. We are also developing an easy read version, which will be available by Summer 2018.

As required by section 3C of the Victims and Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2014, Police Scotland are responsible for informing victims of how to access the Victims' Code. Where the victim does not have access to the internet, the victim may request a copy of the Code. This is reflected in Police Scotland’s published Standards of Service for Victims and Witnesses which state ‘We will ensure that you receive a Victims’ Care Card if you are a victim of crime which provides you with the details of your enquiry officer, the crime you report and information on how you can access victim support and the Scottish Government’s Victims Code’.

Scottish Ministers, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service, the Scottish Prison Service and the Parole Board Scotland are also required under the same legislation to provide access to the Code on request. These organisations will also routinely draw victims’ attention to the Code if it appears they are not already aware of it.

Victim support organisations, such as Victim Support Scotland, also play an important role in ensuring victims are aware of the Code and its contents.

The Scottish Government do not hold the data requested. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) manage the process of informing victims if they are eligible to make a Victim Impact Statement (VIS). COPFS do not collect data on the number of victims who have provided a VIS ahead of sentencing as their case management database does not enable such data to be collected automatically and the time taken to complete this task manually is considered to be prohibitive.

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.

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.

The Scottish Government has written to each Scottish Government supplier, who is not already signed up to the Scottish Business Pledge, encouraging them to consider it further.

The Scottish Business Pledge is a voluntary commitment by business. There is no such target.

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:

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.

Network Rail has advised that the transition process underway for Carillion’s rail projects in Scotland is expected to conclude in the forthcoming weeks. Network Rail has also advised that at the conclusion of the transition process, the impact on staff either directly employed with Carillion or through a labour only sub contract through a Carillion subsidiary will be known.