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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 3605 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5W-03129

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 5 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the finding in the report, HMICS Crime Audit 2016, that some crime is being displaced and is now taking place online, and how it is working with Police Scotland to improve capabilities to identify, record, and investigate cybercrime.

The increasing use of the internet offers greater opportunities for criminals to conduct their activity at a distance from their intended victims. Police Scotland is investing significant funds in developing its cybercrime infrastructure through the development of a network of state of the art hubs to ensure that knowledge and skills are maintained to a high level.

It is essential that Police Scotland has all available resources at its disposal to support its efforts to combat the ever increasing threat of cybercrime. It is therefore critical that Police Scotland continues to be able to access the support and expertise available from the European Cybercrime Centre at Europol.

Question reference: S5W-03130

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 5 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of online child sexual abuse there have been in each year since 2013.

The information requested is not held centrally. The Scottish Government publishes annual National Statistics on both sexual crimes recorded by the police and convictions in court, however the data we receive is based on a simple count of all crimes and convictions and we cannot distinguish whether these cases both involve children and have an online element. Furthermore one case or incident can involve multiple recorded crimes or convictions or vice-versa.

Question reference: S5W-03127

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 5 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what strategy it has developed in cooperation with Police Scotland to counter cybercrime.

Question reference: S5W-02948

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 19 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 5 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government on what date it will launch the nuisance calls commission, as set out in the Programme for Government, and what its membership will be.

Question reference: S5W-03154

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 23 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) police inspectors and (b) chief inspectors have (i) retired, (ii) resigned or (iii) left their post for other reasons at Police Scotland each year.

Question reference: S5W-03152

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 23 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) police inspectors and (b) chief inspectors there have been in Police Scotland each year.

Question reference: S5W-03153

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 23 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many new (a) police inspectors and (b) chief inspectors have been recruited by Police Scotland each year since.

Question reference: S5W-03138

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government further to the answer to question S5W-02405 by Michael Matheson on 22 September 2016, whether it will provide the minutes of those meetings.

Question reference: S5W-03137

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02404 by Michael Matheson on 22 September 2016, whether it will provide information on the input that it has had on the setting of local priorities.

Question reference: S5W-03128

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the findings of the report, HMICS Crime Audit 2016, and what action it will take to implement its recommendations.

The Scottish Government welcomes the HMICS 2016 Crime Audit and its overall finding that the quality of most incident and crime recording decisions by Police Scotland is good. This gives the public confidence in Scotland’s statistics on recorded crime. Responsibility for implementing the recommendations linked to the Audit are predominantly a matter for Police Scotland with appropriate oversight by the Scottish Police Authority. In our capacity as a member of the Scottish Crime Recording Board, the Scottish Government will work with partners to consider the recommendation which relates to crime recording practices for cyber-enabled sexual crime and associated victimisation.