Chamber and committees

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

‘‘As set out in Mr MacAskill’s response to S4W-21187, SPS set about a review of the capacity and capability of the current PR2 system as an adaptable framework within which to reconfigure the acquisition and management of rule 95 data. That review has demonstrated that the present configuration of PR2 is less flexible than was believed to be the case and as such, has not proved to be readily adaptable.

At this stage, and regrettably, the recording of rule 95 data remains as was reported in Mr MacAskill’s previous response. However, SPS is carrying out a detailed re-specification for a targeted update of PR2 which will provide the service with reliable and up-to-date corporate information in respect of rule 95 decisions. As outlined, this is a specialised and targeted reconfiguration and as such, SPS anticipates commissioning specialist support to have this work undertaken within the current financial year.’’

More time is required to publish 2013-14 statistics for these four areas because Police Scotland needs additional time to collate and review the data required to produce these official statistics. This is due to the information coming from a range of bespoke legacy databases (from the previous police forces) and new data systems within Police Scotland.

Sole responsibility for the timing of Scottish Government statistical publications rests with the chief statistician. Statistical users were informed of the decision to give Police Scotland more time to collate and review the relevant data on the 13 March 2015, with ministers informed shortly before this.

The Scottish Government’s position is clear: statistics should be published in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. This stipulates all reports should be published as soon as they are judged ready by those statisticians responsible for producing them. This judgement will be based upon several factors, including the availability of data and whether its quality is of a sufficient level to meet users’ needs. Once this judgement has been made, a specific date will pre-announced in line with established pre-release practices for official statistics.

The need for Police Scotland to have additional time to collate and review data does not affect any of the other official statistics on crime.

Drug testing in accordance with court orders occurs in a number of settings and as such information about facilities by NHS board area or other criterion is not held centrally.

The terms stated above would be recorded by the police as a crime under the relevant legislation. However, the police recorded crime data collected centrally is based on an aggregate count of crimes and offences recorded and cleared up by the police in Scotland. We do not hold sufficient detail to identify which crimes were committed online. For example, a crime of fraud will be counted in the available statistics as fraud, regardless of whether the crime took place online or on a doorstep etc.

The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) includes some information on whether the respondent had experienced card or identity fraud. Section 2.5.4 of 2012-13 SCJS report contains information on whether the respondent had experienced card fraud or identity theft and this information can be accessed via the following web-link:

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2014/03/9823/5

The SCJS 2012-13 estimated that 4% of adults had experienced card fraud in the 12 months prior to interview. Around 1% of adults had been a victim of identity theft, where someone had pretended to be them or used their personal details fraudulently.

There are also longer term plans to examine ways to integrate information on cybercrime into the SCJS, in the way that the Office for National Statistics is starting to examine for England and Wales:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/method-quality/specific/crime-statistics-methodology/methodological-notes/index.html

There was no nationally approved training programme for police civilian firearms licensing and enquiry officers under the legacy force arrangements.

Since 1 April 2014 Police Scotland has developed and introduced a national training programme which will be delivered to all police civilian firearms licensing and enquiry officers as well as police officers who will be involved in the licensing regime. This programme began on 3 March 2015 and will be delivered over a four month period.

The course is three days in duration and includes inputs on:

Legislation;

Home Office manual of guidance;

Risk assessment;

Grant and renewal process; and

Revocation and refusal procedures.

The course also includes a number of practical scenario based training inputs to test the learning of the participants. Over 300 members of staff and police officers will be trained during the four month period. Training will continue to evolve in line with firearms legislation and guidance.

Statistics relating to staff numbers and related issues are a matter for Police Scotland. I understand that it is not possible to provide figures for the period prior to the establishment of the single force on 1 April 2013. Since that date there have been the following numbers of civilian staff involved in firearms licensing:

Police Scotland is currently consulting staff on proposals to change the way the firearms licensing function is managed and delivered. No decisions have been taken as yet on the way forward, but I understand that there will be no compulsory redundancies as a result of the review. Any decision on a revised business model is a matter for the chief constable, with the approval of the Scottish Police Authority.

Following publication of the report of Lord Cullen’s inquiry into the tragic shootings at Dunblane Primary School the UK Government made a number of significant changes to the firearms regime, in line with the report’s recommendations. This included changes to the legislation, by way of the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 and to the Home Office guidance on firearms licensing.

Responsibility for the licensing of firearms under section 1 of the Firearms Act 1968 now rests with the Chief Constable of Police Scotland. Police Scotland recognises and acknowledges the recommendations of Lord Cullen in consolidating the previous work of the legacy forces.

Against this background, Police Scotland is carrying out a review of the firearms licensing service in order to help realise the benefits of a single national police force. Work has been undertaken to standardise practice across the country in terms of matters such as risk assessments, decision making and revocation and refusal thresholds. In addition, a new national training programme has been introduced to improve the skill base of all staff or officers involved in firearms licensing. The aim of the proposals is to retain a number of staff firearms enquiry officers along with a core group of trained police officers to embed the necessary skill set across the country. This model is designed to maintain the experience of the officers involved in the process.

Information on new and renewal firearms certificate applications was published by calendar year to the end of December 2013 in Table 2 of the Scottish Government’s annual statistical bulletin Firearm Certificate Statistics, Scotland, 2013. This was published on 30 May 2014 and can be found at:

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2014/05/4588/downloads

Information for the subsequent three months to end March 2014 was published in Firearm Certificate Statistics, Scotland, March 2014, published on 7 October 2014. Changes to national reporting mean that the statistical bulletin now reports on the total number of firearms certificates on issue. Information can be found at Table 1 of the bulletin at: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2014/10/4039/downloads

From 2014-15 onwards, statistics on firearm and shotgun certificates will be published for the end of a financial year, for example to 31 March 2015, instead of the end of a calendar year.

On 22 October 2014 Police Scotland introduced a national firearms licensing database (Shogun). There was no single system or process in place to record the requested information prior to that date and, as a result, I understand that the full information sought is not currently available. Work is underway to enable this level of information to be extracted accurately from the system in the future.

Police Scotland processes the majority of renewals within a 12 week period.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court Service (SCS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCS who will reply in writing within 20 days.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court Service (SCS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCS who will reply in writing within 20 days.