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

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Question reference: S5W-02294

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 02 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when operational deployment of conductive energy devices to British Transport Police officers at major rail stations in Scotland will commence.

Question reference: S5W-02292

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 02 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what training and guidance will be provided to British Transport Police officers equipped with conductive energy devices at major rail stations in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-02296

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 02 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to inform and engage the public regarding the use of conductive energy devices by British Transport Police officers at major rail stations in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-02302

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 05 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of suspects of crime have been offered the Solicitor Access Recording Form in each year since 2013-14.

Police Scotland do not currently hold this information centrally. However the Solicitor Access Recording Form is provided to every individual detained under section 14 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, or is arrested but not charged with an offence, and being detained in custody (i.e. held in custody, not detained under section 14) at a police station for the purposes of being questioned in connection with an offence.

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

Question reference: S5W-02182

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 26 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether the special team set up by Police Scotland to examine the the implications of the EU Referendum vote (a) will report to Parliament and (b) will provide a timeline of its meetings and reports, and if so, when.

Question reference: S5W-02044

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been (a) charged, (b) prosecuted and (c) convicted in each year since 2010-11 for a suspected drug trafficking or drug supply offence.

Information on number of people charged is not held centrally.

For information on number of people charged, I would refer the member to contact The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

The available information is shown in the following table.

Persons prosecuted and convicted in Scottish courts for drugs trafficking¹, 2010-11 to 2014-15.

	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15
Not Guilty	557	577	542	538	430
Guilty	2,384	2,373	2,292	2,132	1,890
Total Prosecutions	2,941	2,950	2,834	2,670	2,320

1 - Where main charge.

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database

Question reference: S5W-01987

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 8 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of all ministerial visits to (a) Orkney and (b) Shetland since May 2007.

Question reference: S5O-00109

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 7 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with SSE regarding the possibility of fibre being laid as part of planned work to upgrade sub-sea cabling in Orkney.

Question reference: S5W-02280

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the appointment of an independent review panel for the i6 programme.

Question reference: S5W-01861

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 6 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-01347 by Annabelle Ewing on 2 August 2016, what guidance it gives to stakeholders regarding referring people convicted under the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act (Scotland) Act 2012 to the programmes.

As a condition of funding from the Scottish Government, we require Sacro to promote and provide guidance to potential referrers to ensure that awareness of these programmes is high.

The scheme is designed for individuals accused of offensive behaviour at football, and referrals can come from a range of sources including Criminal Justice Social Work teams; Early and Effective Intervention teams; and Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. We look to these partners to decide, based on the facts and circumstances of individual cases, whether to make use of these programmes or if appropriate to prosecute individuals in court.