Chamber and committees

The decision to deploy Taser conductive energy devices at railway stations in Scotland was an operational policing decision for the British Transport Police Chief Constable. Ministers have been briefed on the changes, which are intended to strengthen security at major stations, but are not in response to any specific threat.

The Scottish Government review of data relating to satellite-tagged birds of prey is expected in Spring 2017.

This will involve a substantial amount of statistical analysis which will examine information from over 200 tagged golden and white-tailed eagles, hen harriers, red kites and ospreys. Once completed, the results of the analysis will provide us with a far greater insight into where these birds are going missing, and that will help to inform future action.

The Scottish Government has not made any formal assessment of the impact of the vicarious liability provisions in the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011. There have been two successful prosecutions under these provisions so far. It is likely that the provisions will have had a positive effect as landowners and their agents have put in place arrangements to ensure that their staff and contractors have appropriate training, and understand and comply with the law in this area.

The numbers of requests being dealt with by the Scottish Government vary from day to day as requests are received and answered. Information about the number of requests made to the Scottish Government, and how many were answered within 20 working days, is available from the FOI Annual Reports which are published on our website at: http://www.gov.scot/About/Information/FOI/Reporting.

This Government has allocated almost £650 million since 2009 and, as announced in the programme for government we will make available, through Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Programme, a further half a billion pounds over the next four years, meaning over £1 billion will have been committed by 2021 to tackle fuel poverty and improve energy efficiency.

The programme for government also announced a further £10 million for domestic energy efficiency helping make Scotland’s homes cheaper to heat and reducing the costs of energy bills for householders. Including this investment, in 2016 we are making available £113 million to improve the energy efficiency of Scotland’s homes, building on the one million energy efficiency measures delivered to almost one million Scottish households since 2008.

If fuel prices had only increased in line with inflation since 2002, the fuel poverty rate in Scotland would have been 9.5 per cent in 2014, instead of 35 per cent.

Other factors such as an increased ageing population or those with limiting long term illnesses, which require a higher heating regime under the fuel poverty definition, are also contributing to higher reported fuel poverty rates. Conversely, improvements in the energy efficiency in the housing stock and increases in average household incomes since 2002 are contributing to lower fuel poverty rates. Changes in the technical energy modelling, used to derive fuel poverty, also impact on the estimates.

As a fuel poverty rate of 9.5 per cent is lower than the 13 per cent reported in 2002, the net effect of all other factors combined over the period from 2002 to 2014 was a small decrease in the fuel poverty rate. On this basis, we can attribute all of the increase in fuel poverty rates since the introduction of the fuel poverty target in 2002 to above-inflation energy prices.

Police Scotland do not currently hold this information centrally. However, in June 2013 Police Scotland completed a custody data exercise which captured the solicitor access waiver percentage over a one month period. They were then able to extrapolate for a 12 month period, and concluded that 75% of all persons brought into police custody who had the right of access to a solicitor waived their rights. The final report of Lord Bonomy’s Post Corroboration Additional Safeguards review also refers to analysis of 1000 interviews by Police Scotland in October and November 2014 which showed 71% of those in custody did not seek a consultation with a solicitor.

Police Scotland are currently developing a national custody system and it is intended that the system will record the number of people who are informed of their rights, including those of intimation to a solicitor, consultation and for solicitor to be present during interview. It will also record the acceptance and waiving of the right, and any reason given for the waiver. The national custody system is expected to be in use across Police Scotland by summer 2017, in conjunction with the implementation of Part 1 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016.

The Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 extends the rights of those in police custody. It provides that all persons held in police custody have the right to speak to a solicitor, regardless of whether they are going to be interviewed by the police or not. It also introduces a statutory requirement on the police to give everyone who is arrested specific information on their rights, including the right to speak to a solicitor. Suspects receive a letter of rights explaining this, which has been translated into 35 languages and is available in an easy read version.

The Solicitor Access Recording Form has not been recently revised, but the process is currently under review and will continue until Part one of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 is commenced in summer 2017. The Solicitor Access Recording Form will not be necessary once the National Custody System has been introduced on commencement of Part one of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-02299 on 14 September 2016 for more detail about the national custody system. 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

The requirement on the Lord Advocate to issue a code of practice will be commenced in the summer of 2017, along with the other provisions within Part one of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016. The code of practice will come into effect, once a full review and consultation process are carried out by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal service.

The information requested is an operational policing matter for the British Transport Police. I have alerted the Chief Constable to your questions and I have requested that he writes to you.