Chamber and committees

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) Youth Volunteer Scheme (YVS) will become the first consolidated youth programme which will create opportunities to improve life chances and empower young people to work together for a safer Scotland.

Its main objective is to provide a safe environment in which young people can learn as individuals, develop positive relationships and actively support their community by volunteering and transferring key safety messages including first aid, fire safety, road safety, water safety and home safety.

The scheme will demonstrate various roles within the SFRS increasing capacity for further learning and employability whilst encouraging young people to make positive choices as they emerge into adulthood.

The YVS will engage with a range of young people which reflects the diversity of the local community. 10 schemes will be implemented across Scotland from November 2019 to April 2020.

Operational decisions, including the provision of training are a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS).

Training is a critical part of a firefighters journey beginning with a 14 week intensive training course at one of the SFRS training Colleges and on completion continues annually for the length of their SFRS career.

34 stations across Scotland have received training to support the introduction of Rapid Response Unit's (RRU) within the SFRS.

Personnel at these stations were trained in the use of Ultra-High-Pressure Firefighting System (UHPFS) equipment and associated techniques, leading to improved community and firefighter safety through the introduction of these modern firefighting and rescue technologies. They were also trained in the use of E-draulic cutting equipment, enhancing station rescue capability and reducing environmental impact.

Since September 2018 SFRS have appointed 18 RDS/Volunteer Support Watch Managers from existing Retained Duty System (RDS) establishment. These personnel support 18 "clusters" areas across Scotland that include a total of 125 RDS/Volunteer stations. These Watch Managers have been trained to provide local support in relation to; Incident Command, enhancing crew and community safety and rural resilience. They also provide Community Safety activities (prevention) including home safety visits, partnership initiatives for "at risk groups" and diversionary initiatives to reduce anti-social behaviour.

This contributes to enhanced Community safety and firefighter safety.

SFRS have just commenced a programme of installing charging points at ten strategically located sites across the country.

The Scottish Fire & Rescue Service (SFRS) intend to install two public charging points at each of five of its corporate sites in Cambuslang, Hamilton, Perth, Inverness and Dundee. This work has commenced and will be complete by February 2020.

The Dundee Asset Resource Centre was the first site in this programme and has just been fitted with six charging points, two of which are public. Newbridge has also been fitted with two public charging points.

As our Programme for Government for 2019-20 indicates, a campaign is now in an advanced planning stage.

Programme for Government 2018 committed the Scottish Government to investing an additional £2 million over the next three years to ensure that support can be provided for victims and survivors of gender based violence. Of this £2 million, Rape Crisis Centres have been allocated additional £1.5 million over 2018-21 to improve access to support and ensure that these services plan for the future. The remainder of the funding will be allocated from the next financial year onwards, and further details will be made available about this in due course.

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

Following several months of positive discussions with the POA(S) regarding prison officers’ pay, SPS made a pay offer on 9 August 2019.

The offer is a three year deal for 2019-22 providing a 6% pay rise for prison officers in year 1, with higher awards of 6.4% and 6.6% respectively for staff in Bands C and D at the top of their pay band maximum. This is followed by further 4% rises, for those earning up to £36,500, in years 2 and 3.

The POA(S) announced on 30 August 2019 that following a ballot of their members the offer had been overwhelming accepted.

We will shortly publish the analysis report of the responses to the consultation paper " Protecting Children: Review of section 12 of the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937 and section 42 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009" . The consultation sought views on potential changes to the criminal offence of cruelty to children to ensure it reflects modern understandings of what constitutes child abuse and neglect, including making it explicit that the offence covers emotional harm.

The response to our consultation shows there is a deep interest in this area and the overwhelmingly positive response to our proposals confirms there is interest in further reforms. Respondents also raised a number of potential issues and complexities with such a reform and we consider that further engagement on the detail of legislative reform is required.

This is a complex and sensitive area of the law and we are currently carefully considering responses to help shape our next steps before consulting on draft provisions.

The Scottish Government is committed to protecting Police Scotland’s revenue budget during this Parliament to deliver a £100 million boost by 2021. The Scottish Budget 2019-20 shows that the total Scottish Government funding for the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) in 2019-20 is increasing by £42.3 million, this includes continuing reform funding into 2019-20, meaning the annual policing budget is now over £1.2 billion.

In recognition of the range of challenges Police Scotland are currently facing, particularly in relation to a no-deal EU Exit, the Scottish Government has also assured the Scottish Police Authority that up to £17 million is available in 2019-20 to cover EU exit-related policing costs. In addition to this Police Scotland’s capital budget has been increased by £12 million – a 52% increase to support further improvements to ICT infrastructure which includes the introduction of improved mobile technology for officers which is currently rolling out across the country.

The Scottish Government also ensured that policing is benefitting from being able to reclaim VAT of around £25 million a year, money that was previously paid to the UK Government. The Scottish Government continues to press the UK Government for a refund of the £125 million paid by Police Scotland in VAT between 2013 and 2018.

The Scottish Government continues to engage closely with the SPA and Police Scotland to support them in keeping people safe.

This is a matter for the Scottish Police Authority. The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

A person is on life licence until their death. It is not an automatic right to terminate the supervision element of the licence conditions. Supervising officers may submit requests to do so after a period of 10 years or more has elapsed. Termination of supervision will not occur without a full Risk Assessment being carried out. The Parole Board will make these decisions on a case by case basis. However two licence conditions will always remain -

• that they are of good behaviour and keep the peace; and
• they inform the local authority if they are arrested or questioned by the police.

The Parole Board can reinstate the full licence or recall the person back to prison if they do not adhere to the conditions.