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: S6O-03953

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure appropriate oversight of the police use of facial recognition technology.

Question reference: S6W-30512

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of the Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews (Scotland) Bill, what its position is on what any differences in principle are between the proposed domestic homicide and suicide reviews and existing fatal accident inquiries.

Part two of the Criminal Justice Modernisation & Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews (Scotland) Bill, introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 24 September 2024, includes provisions to create the statutory framework for what will be Scotland’s first national multi-agency domestic homicide and suicide review model.

The purpose of domestic homicide and suicide reviews is to learn lessons following a death where domestic abuse is suspected to improve services and help prevent further deaths. The reviews will be undertaken by a review panel which will include an independent chair with a review oversight committee overseeing the completing of a review.

The Lord Advocate, is the Head of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and is also responsible for investigating all sudden, suspicious and unexplained deaths. Supported by Procurator’s Fiscal, in circumstances where a death is sudden, suspicious or unexplained, the Lord Advocate will investigate the death and seek to establish the cause of death and the circumstances of the death. A death investigation may lead to a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI.) The legislative framework which governs the holding of an FAI is the Inquiries into Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc. (Scotland) Act 2016.

The purpose of a Fatal Accident Inquiry is to establish:

• where and when the death took place;

• the cause of the death;

• reasonable precautions whereby the death might have been avoided;

• the defects, if any, in any system of working that contributed to the death or any accident resulting in the death; and

• other facts relevant to the circumstances of the death.

As with the aims of a domestic homicide and suicide review, to prevent future deaths from happening in similar circumstances. However, unlike a domestic homicide and suicide review, FAI’s are a judicial process and a public examination of the circumstances of a death conducted before a Sheriff with the Sheriff issuing a determination at the conclusion of the Inquiry.

A domestic homicide and suicide review will take place where domestic abuse is suspected. An FAI is broader and can either be ‘mandatory’ in terms of Section 2 of the Act, and conducted where the death occurred (i) as the result of an accident when the deceased was acting in the course of their employment or occupation or (ii) when the deceased was in legal custody or was a child detained in secure accommodation at the time of the death or ‘Discretionary’ in terms of Section 4 of the Act, or ‘discretionary’ and conducted, on the Authority of the Lord Advocate, where the Lord Advocate considers that the death was sudden, suspicious or unexplained or that it occurred in circumstances that give rise to serious public concern and it is decided that it is in the public interest for an Inquiry to be held in to the circumstances of the death.

It is anticipated that the majority of cases likely to be reviewed under the domestic homicide and suicide review model, would not result in a FAI. The information gathered as part of a domestic homicide and suicide review will be information rather than ‘evidence’ and the reviews will have a specific focus on domestic abuse which will follow through to the learning and recommendations made from a review which will likely have a broader reach to safeguarding victims of domestic abuse in addition to the prevent of deaths.

Question reference: S6W-30611

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work of the Orkney Ferries Task Force, including a list of all of the occasions when the Task Force has met in 2024.

The Scottish Government remains committed to the Orkney Ferry Replacement Task Force, which is supporting the Council address its fleet replacement challenges.

The Task Force has met twice in 2024, on Thursday 18 April and on Wednesday 2 October and meeting minutes will be published on the Transport Scotland website in due course.

Through the work of the Task Force we have confirmed that £3 million additional funding will be allocated to the Council. This funding will support the Council's electric ferry trial, design work for a North Isles ferry and desk top based work on the proposed port upgrades. These are all important steps in the development of a robust business case.

Question reference: S6W-30365

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to publish the report that it commissioned on the constitutional role(s) of the Law Officers for Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-30346

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether Police Scotland has corresponded with the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner about the reported proposals to deploy live facial recognition technology in Scotland, and, if so, whether this correspondence was undertaken before the Chief Constable outlined the proposals to the media.

Question reference: S6W-30330

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 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-30343

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported proposals from the Chief Constable of Police Scotland, what its response is to reports that the use of live facial recognition by South Wales Police has produced 2,833 false alerts, compared with only 72 resultant arrests.

Question reference: S6W-30345

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported proposals from the Chief Constable of Police Scotland to deploy live facial recognition systems in Scotland, what its response is to the European Parliament's reported decision to classify the use of real-time biometrics in public spaces as posing an unacceptable risk.

Question reference: S6W-30318

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is regarding any expected risks of using the live facial recognition technology that the Chief Constable of Police Scotland has reportedly proposed deploying for law enforcement purposes.

Question reference: S6W-30339

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported low incidence of violent and criminal behaviour among the public at large, what its understanding is regarding how the risk of base rate neglect will be factored into the operational use of live facial recognition technology, under the reported proposals by Police Scotland's Chief Constable.