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-07967

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many convicted (a) women and (b) men were (i) drunk and (ii) under the influence of drugs at the time of their offence in each year since 2010.

Question reference: S5W-07932

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many people (a) with and (b) without prior convictions in each year since 2010, have been given alternatives to prosecution, broken down by alternative.

Question reference: S5W-07968

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the briefing paper, Why focus on reducing women's imprisonment in Scotland?, by the Prison Reform Trust, which notes that, in 2014-15, 79% of prison sentences imposed on women were for low-level offences, what the rate (a) was in each year between 2010 and 2014 and (b) for men was in each year for these offences since 2010.

As published in the Scottish Government report "International Review of Custodial Models for Women" 79% of prison sentences imposed on women in 2013-14 were for low-level offences. This comprises crimes of dishonesty, common assault, breach of the peace and crimes of public justice (e.g. bail offences). The statistics requested, in line with this definition, are presented in the following table.

Custodial sentences by gender, 2009-10 to 2015-16

	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16

All custodial sentences for low level offences¹
Male Person	9,467	9,346	9,634	9,165	8,805	8,935	8,689
Female Person	930	925	1,034	999	956	1,052	941

All custodial sentences
Male Person	14,522	14,018	14,582	13,499	12,959	12,742	12,548
Female Person	1,280	1,302	1,368	1,290	1,213	1,293	1,187

Percentage low level offences
Male Person	65%	67%	66%	68%	68%	70%	69%
Female Person	73%	71%	76%	77%	79%	81%	79%

Source: Criminal Proceedings database

1 - Comprises crimes of dishonesty, common assault, breach of the peace and crimes of public justice (e.g. bail offences)

Question reference: S5W-07933

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many unpaid fixed-penalty fines the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service has (a) recovered and (b) not recovered in each year since 2010.

Question reference: S5W-07964

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether, in light of the briefing paper, Why focus on reducing women's imprisonment in Scotland? by the Prison Reform Trust, which notes that (a) the number of women imprisoned increased by 46% in the 10 years since 2003–04, growing at a faster rate than men’s prison population, (b) this growth can be attributed to the increasing use of custodial sentences by courts rather than changes in the pattern of offending, and (c) 85% of pregnant women in prison in 2015 were there on remand or serving sentences of 12 months or less, it will accelerate its consideration of raising the presumption against short-term sentences to 12 months.

The number of women in custody in Scotland has gone down in recent years - the average daily female prison population has in fact fallen by over 6% since 2013-14 in line with similar reductions in the overall prison population - and we are working hard to continue that trend.

The proposal to extend the presumption against short sentences is one part of this Government's wide ranging work to reduce the use of short-term imprisonment - for both men and women - in favour of more robust community sentences. As previously noted, we continue to discuss with the relevant stakeholders how best to take this proposal forward.

Question reference: S5W-07809

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making in developing its Circular Economy and Zero Waste Bill; what issues it has explored; what stakeholders have been engaged, and what the timeline is for its introduction.

We will work closely with business, industry and other stakeholders to develop ideas and proposals for the Bill during the course of 2017. As set out in the Programme for Government 2016-7, we intend to introduce the Bill in the second half of the parliamentary session.

The Bill will build on the priorities set out in our circular economy strategy 'Making Things Last' which identifies the areas in which we can make the biggest impact.

Question reference: S5W-07966

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of (i) male and (ii) female prisoners who began serving a prison sentence of less than 12 months in each year since 2010 had dependant children.

Question reference: S5W-07970

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government further to the answer to question S5W-07139 by Michael Matheson on 8 March 2017, what the timeline is for (a) the process of identifying the sites, (b) community consultation and (c) providing an update on this matter.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

The timeline will be dependent on the availability of suitable sites and planning permission being obtained. Community consultation will also form part of the planning process.

The SPS is currently working towards timescales to achieve the opening of community custody units from 2019 onwards and an update will be provided once the sites have been identified.

Question reference: S5W-07910

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the modern apprentices hired by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) each year completed their apprenticeship, and how many were subsequently hired by the SPS on a (a) part- and (b) full-time basis.

Question reference: S5W-07792

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases it expects the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service will process through the digital case management process in (a) its first 12 months and (b) subsequent years.

The Scottish Government welcomes the recent publication of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) report “Evidence and Procedure Review: A New Model for Summary Criminal Procedure”, which outlines a model underpinned by a digital case management process. We have been working with the senior judiciary, courts, Crown, and other key partners to consider the recommendations made in the earlier Evidence and Procedure Review and we welcome this paper as the next step in that process. The SCTS report makes a case for change and puts forward ambitious and far-reaching proposals for a new, modernised summary criminal court procedure. Further work is needed to evaluate and develop these proposals before decisions are taken about implementation.

To inform policy development SCTS is planning a programme of public consultation events in relation to the report during spring 2017. SCTS will evaluate the evidence on whether the propositions outlined in the paper are viable, assess the business, resourcing, financial and technological impacts, and what further analysis is necessary to help shape the way forward. Following this further development work SCTS will report back to the Justice Board with recommendations.