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-05837

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it or Transport Scotland has made of passengers’ ability to purchase the best value ticket at times when ticket offices are proposed to be closed, in light of ScotRail's consultation on the matter.

Transport Scotland has not undertaken any assessment however Abellio ScotRail advise they have carried out a full review of ticket buying at all ticket offices which have remained largely the same since the 1990s. During this period there has been significant investment in the station environment. ScotRail has installed 355 ticket vending machines which accounts for 26 per cent of all ticket sales.

Increased usage and familiarity of the internet has opened up an entirely new retail channel, which in 2019 accounted for 18 per cent of all ticket sales. All train services have two members of staff on board - one driver and one ticket inspector. These factors have all contributed to a drop in ticket office usage over the past three decades. Abellio ScotRail has also made clear that customers will always receive the best value ticket regardless of how they chose to purchase.

Question reference: S6W-05832

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it or Transport Scotland has made of the potential impact of Abellio ScotRail’s proposals to reduce ticket office opening hours on Scotland’s carbon reduction targets.

Transport Scotland has not undertaken any assessment however Abellio ScotRail advise that there is an estimated carbon reduction saving of 75 tons per annum if ticket office opening hours are reviewed however we should wait for the results of the consultation before finalising. It is worth noting there will be no reduction in jobs and any change in ticket office hours will be reinvested to visible frontline activity including passenger assistance or ticket checks.

Question reference: S6W-05836

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it or Transport Scotland has made of which services will no longer be available to passengers at times when ticket offices are proposed to be closed, in light of ScotRail's consultation on the matter.

Transport Scotland has not undertaken any assessment however Abellio ScotRail has carried out an assessment of all ticket sales, passenger assistance, ticket buying facilities, waiting areas, toilets, passenger footfall, links to local schools, colleges and businesses for every station with a ticket office. In addition, Abellio ScotRail also reviewed any instances of anti-social behaviour to ensure the proposed changes do not reduce the customer experience.

Abellio ScotRail has also confirmed that no job loses would occur and any change to opening times would be redeployed in the local area to ensure customers were better supported by having staff more visible and on the frontline.

Question reference: S6W-05829

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions its or Transport Scotland's officials had with representatives of Abellio ScotRail regarding its proposals to change ticket office opening hours, and on what dates these discussions took place.

Question reference: S6W-05835

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it anticipates any changes to ticket office opening hours being implemented prior to 1 April 2022, in light of ScotRail's consultation on the matter.

Question reference: S6W-05830

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether its or Transport Scotland’s permission was required for Abellio ScotRail to consult on changes to its ticket office opening hours.

Question reference: S6W-05831

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it or Transport Scotland has made of the potential impact of Abellio ScotRail’s proposals to reduce ticket office opening hours on passenger numbers.

Question reference: S6W-05489

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 1 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, between 1 January and 30 June 2021, what proportion of reports of domestic abuse incidents perpetrated by (a) men against women and (b) women against men were prosecuted.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) uses an operational database. The database is designed for the management of cases rather than for statistical purposes.

COPFS can provide data in relation to charges reported and prosecuted based on the sex of the accused (perpetrator). COPFS cannot provide data in relation to the sex of the alleged victim.

The information is provided in the following table:

Total Domestic Abuse charges reported to COPFS
1 January 2021 to 30 June 2021

Total charges reported	16,395

Charges reported - Male accused	14,193
of which prosecuted	13,296	93.7%

Charges reported - Female accused	2,202
of which prosecuted	1,800	81.7%

Charges prosecuted includes charges where the initial decision is to prosecute in court at either solemn level (i.e. before a jury) or summary level (i.e. without a jury). The figures also include charges which were not prosecuted in court, but where other charges for the same accused within the same case were prosecuted. In some cases, the charges which were prosecuted will have included details from the charges against the same accused which were not prosecuted.

COPFS uses a live operational database and the information contained within it is structured accordingly. Information provided may therefore be subject to change as our systems are updated for operational reasons.

Question reference: S6W-05490

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of domestic abuse were (a) reported and (b) prosecuted between 1 January and 30 June 2021.

The latest published Official Statistics on the number of incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police in Scotland are for the year to 31 March 2021. In the period from 1 January to 31 March 2021, the Police recorded 14,782 incidents of domestic abuse.

Figures showing police recorded domestic abuse incidents are also published in the monthly data reports on how the pandemic has affected the Justice system in Scotland. In the period from 1 April to 30 June 2021 the police recorded 15,749 incidents of domestic abuse. This data is based on management information provided each month by Police Scotland, based on their administrative data available at that time and will in due course be incorporated into the 2021-22 Official Statistics.

In the period 1 January to 30 June 2021, 16,395 domestic abuse charges were reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS). These are reported charges with a domestic abuse identifier. During the same period, 15,096 domestic abuse charges were prosecuted.

It should be noted that information on police recorded incidents of domestic abuse and cases prosecuted by COPFS are not strictly comparable as there is no direct relationship between the number of incidents (and the crimes they involve) recorded by the police and the number of follow-up actions taken by other agencies within the criminal justice system. For example, some incidents of domestic abuse do not involve any crimes or offences being recorded, whereas others may involve multiple crimes which lead to more than one prosecution. There are other comparability issues in that incidents recorded by the police may not be processed by COPFS or the courts in the same period they were recorded.

Question reference: S6O-00672

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what it considers its financial exposure to be in relation to its arrangements with GFG Alliance and its related companies.