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: S6W-20491

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been convicted of possession-only drug offences in each of the last five years.

A crime of drug possession may be disposed in criminal court or through direct measures such as a Fiscal Fine or Recorded Police Warning. The following tables provide the most recent five years of data for persons convicted in court, where main charge (Table 1) or given a non-court disposal (Table 2).

Data for 2020-21 are affected by the pandemic and subsequent court closures and should not be viewed as indicative of long term trends.

Table 1

Financial year	Total convicted
2016-17	4,389
2017-18	3,624
2018-19	3,407
2019-20	2,812
2020-21	1,278

Table 2

Financial year	Total NCDs issued
2016-17	11,493
2017-18	10,318
2018-19	11,085
2019-20	13,062
2020-21	12,969

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database

The Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database is not a live system and the latest available information is for the financial year 2020-21. Criminal proceedings data are published for financial years, i.e. from 1 April to 31 March. Therefore data for later years will not be available until the relevant publications are published. The Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2021-22 Statistical Bulletin is due to be published later this year. The dates of all Scottish Government Official and National Statistics publications are pre-announced, and the up to date list of future publications can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/ForthcomingPubs .

Question reference: S6W-20401

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 31 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been distributed through the Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan scheme for energy efficiency measures in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-20398

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 31 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many households have received Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan funding for renewable systems, including energy storage systems and district heating scheme connections, in each of the last five years, broken down by system type.

Question reference: S6W-20397

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 31 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been distributed through the Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan scheme for renewable systems, including energy storage systems and district heating scheme connections, in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) system type and (b) local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-20489

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 31 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its report, A Caring, Compassionate and Human Rights Informed Drug Policy for Scotland, which are the further changes to drugs policy “not dependent on constitutional change” that it has identified.

The Scottish Government committed an additional £250 million in the term of this parliament to deliver the national mission on drugs. We also committed in January 2023 to delivering a cross government plan that addresses the systemic stigma that keeps people from seeking support as well as a number of initiatives designed to make it easier for people who use drugs to access all the services they might need to improve their lives.

Question reference: S6W-20481

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 31 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has undertaken any research into regulated markets for the reduction of harm and the safe control of substances.

The Scottish Government, in preparation for it's Paper " A caring compassionate and Human Rights Informed Drug Policy for Scotland" published on July 7th 2023, researched a wide range of sources and consulted with a number of international partners to learn what other models of drug policy exist and what the evidence is for their efficacy. This included administrations who have fully or partially regulated their markets for drugs. We will continue to learn from best practice around the world to ensure Scottish Government Policies are based on the best evidence available.

Question reference: S6W-20399

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 31 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many households have received Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan funding for energy efficiency measures in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-20400

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 31 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many households have received Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan funding for secondary improvements in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-20402

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 31 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been distributed through the Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan scheme for secondary improvements in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-20482

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 30 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on plans to create a specific Deaths in Custody unit within the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.