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: S5O-03278

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5W-22851

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 29 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 15 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the average number of prisoners held at HMP (a) Addiewell and (b) Kilmarnock has been in each year since 2010-11.

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

The following table shows the average populations at HMP Addiewell and HMP Kilmarnock in each year since 2010-2011.

	HMP Addiewell	HMP Kilmarnock
2010-2011	700	565
2011-2012	771	631
2012-2013	767	577
2013-2014	699	501
2014-2015	700	501
2015-2016	699	500
2016-2017	699	499
2017-2018	696	499
2018-2019	700	504
2019-2020	705	593

Question reference: S5W-22655

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kezia Dugdale on 14 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what discussions it has had with the fund trustees regarding the investment policy for the Scottish Parliamentary Pension Scheme in relation to fossil fuels and related industries.

Following the completion of the recent triennial valuation of the scheme the trustees commenced a review of the scheme investment strategy. As part of the review process the fund trustees met with the SPCB, as the scheme sponsor, on Thursday 25th October 2018 to seek their views on the investment strategy. The meeting covered all aspect of the scheme investment strategy including investment in fossil fuels and related industries.

Question reference: S5O-03247

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5W-22552

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions or correspondence it has had with Police Scotland regarding the operational impact of the £8.3 million shortfall in the budget allocation for fleet in 2019-20 as identified in the Scottish Police Authority Board Papers of 28 March 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22555

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions or correspondence it has had with Police Scotland regarding the operational impact of the £5.7 million shortfall in the budget allocation for national cybercrime infrastructure/cyber security in 2019-20 as identified in the Scottish Police Authority Board Papers of 28 March 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22559

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions or correspondence it has had with Police Scotland regarding the operational impact of the £4.2 million shortfall in the budget allocation for business change and management programme in 2019-20 as identified in the Scottish Police Authority Board Papers of 28 March 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22551

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions or correspondence it has had with Police Scotland regarding the operational impact of the £4.2 million shortfall in the budget allocation for estates in 2019-20 as identified in the Scottish Police Authority Board Papers of 28 March 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22550

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions or correspondence it has had with Police Scotland regarding the operational impact of the £5.3 million shortfall in the budget allocation for custody and productions remodelling in 2019-20 as identified in the Scottish Police Authority Board Papers of 28 March 2019.

The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) is responsible for allocating the budget for the policing of Scotland, which includes allocations to the Chief Constable and also to the Director of the Forensics Service. The Scottish Government had a number of discussions with the SPA and Police Scotland finance leads during the course of the 2019-20 spending review. The SPA considered and approved its budget for 2019-20 at its meeting on 28 March 2019.

We are committed to protecting the police resource budget in real terms in every year of this Parliament – a boost of £100 million by 2021. The value of the real terms protection in 2019-20 is £19.1m.

Total Scottish Government funding for the Scottish Police Authority in 2019-20 is increasing by £42.3 million, meaning the annual policing budget is now over £1.2 billion. 87% of the policing budget pays for the salaries of police staff and officers and we have invested an additional £11.2 million in the workforce, including a 6.5% pay increase for police officers. This year’s budget also includes a 52% (£12 million) increase to the capital budget and £30.2 million of reform and change funding.

Question reference: S5W-22554

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions or correspondence it has had with Police Scotland regarding the operational impact of the £1.2 million shortfall in the budget allocation for specialist policing equipment in 2019-20 as identified in the Scottish Police Authority Board Papers of 28 March 2019.