Chamber and committees

This is an operational matter for Police Scotland and I have asked the Chief Constable to write to the member with the information requested.

The Scottish Government has a long and proud history of supporting the development of marine energy technologies and we remain strongly committed to the wave and tidal energy sectors.

In a year when the marine energy sector has made outstanding progress, it is extremely disappointing that no budget has been ring-fenced for marine energy projects by the UK Government in the next Contracts for Difference allocation round.

The Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy and his officials are having discussions with the UK Government to consider what additional support can be provided to the industry. He is also convening a round table of representatives from the marine energy sector in December to understand their priorities.

The number of people prosecuted and convicted in Scotland under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 is shown in the following table

The overall absence rate for all civilian staff, as reported to the SPA Board in August 2016, was 4.8%, which is a 0.1% reduction in comparison with quarter one last year.

The welfare of police staff and police officers is taken very seriously by Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority and they provide a range of support to help manage their health and wellbeing in the workplace.

The results of the independent review being undertaken by Audit Scotland into the cancellation of the Police Scotland i6 project will be a matter for the Scottish Police Authority.

It is important that the Scottish Police Authority carefully considers how best to deliver cost effective, efficient and fit for purpose systems for Police Scotland to ensure that our police officers have access to modern technology to support the important work that they do.

The wellbeing of police officers and staff is a matter for Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority. Police Scotland are currently embarking on the delivery of its largest ever training programme for police officers and police staff which will be focused on how they can better assist members of the public, as well as colleagues and partners who may be suffering from mental ill health.

A full breakdown of Scottish Government Equality Budget funding for violence against women is available online at:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Equality/violence-women/VAWFund2012-15 (for years 2012-15)

https://beta.gov.scot/publications/vaw-funding-15-16/ (for years 2015-16)

https://beta.gov.scot/publications/equality-funding-2016-17-violence-women-and-girls-fund/ (for years 2016-17)

The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 makes provision for the licensing of premises in Scotland where alcohol is sold remotely, for example, by means of telephone, fax or internet and despatched from Scottish premises.

For internet sales a premises licence is required for the premises from which alcohol is specifically selected for and despatched to the purchaser, such as a warehouse.

The application for a licence is made to the appropriate licensing board where the premises is located. It is therefore for individual licensing boards to consider any applications for a new licence whether relating to online sales or not, in line with the existing legislation.

The Scottish Government (SG) had discussions with the UK Government during 2014-15 regarding amendments to the Computer Misuse Act 1990 (CMA 1990) which were introduced under the UK Government’s Serious Crime Act 2015.

SG liaised with the UK Home Office on the development of the draft clauses for the amendments to the CMA 1990, as it was proposed for such amendments to extend to Scotland and so the discussions were to ensure there would be no unintended implications for Scotland.

On 6 January 2015, the Scottish Parliament agreed to Legislative Consent Motion S4M-11986 for the Serious Crime Bill, the Bill which became the Serious Crime Act 2015.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-04784 on 29 November 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.