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-30315

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has received a reliable estimate of the false positive rate of the live facial recognition technology that the Chief Constable of Police Scotland has reportedly proposed deploying for law enforcement purposes.

Question reference: S6W-30314

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether live facial recognition technology could disproportionately misidentify the faces of ethnic minority people, and what implications this might have for the use of the technology.

Question reference: S6W-30334

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the use of live facial recognition systems, as reportedly proposed by Police Scotland's Chief Constable, will result in fewer officers on duty on Scotland's streets.

Question reference: S6W-30323

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government where the training data for live facial recognition systems will come from under the reported proposals outlined by the Police Scotland Chief Constable.

Question reference: S6W-30317

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the overall accuracy of the live facial recognition technology that the Chief Constable of Police Scotland has reportedly proposed deploying for law enforcement purposes.

Question reference: S6W-30330

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its understanding is regarding whether, under the reported proposals by the Chief Constable, Police Scotland would use live facial recognition only temporarily for major events, or whether permanent installations would be set up.

Question reference: S6W-30322

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ensure that Police Scotland deletes and does not retain any images or video used for live facial recognition under the reported proposals outlined by the Chief Constable, and, if so, how it will ensure this.

Question reference: S6W-30327

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether the live facial recognition systems that Police Scotland's Chief Constable has proposed deploying for law enforcement purposes could be used to corroborate other pieces of evidence in criminal proceedings.

Question reference: S6W-30060

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 20 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 1 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-29797 by Angela Constance on 19 September 2024, whether there have been any recorded instances of requests that were unknowingly or inadvertently made in conflict with what was recorded in the Cell Sharing Risk Assessment, and what policy governs the response to such a situation.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

A Cell Sharing Risk Assessment (CSRA) must be completed before any individual is allocated to share a cell. SPS has no recorded instances of individuals sharing a cell that conflicts with a CSRA.

The CSRA will be used to make an informed decision on the individual's suitability to share a cell and if required alternative options are explored with the safety, security, health and wellbeing at the forefront of any decision made.

The CSRA process is used as the assessment process in accordance with Rule 28 (Accommodation of Prisoners) of the Prison Rules (Scotland) 2011.

Question reference: S6W-30003

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 1 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-29541 by Fiona Hyslop on 18 September 2024, when it expects the present refresh of the Decarbonisation Action Plan to be concluded.