Chamber and committees

Crimes and offences are grouped in the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistics to provide a high level overview. These groups have been chosen in consultation with users. Proceedings and convictions for assaults against emergency workers over the past ten years are currently published in supplementary tables alongside the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland publication. These tables present proceedings and convictions under sections 1, 2, 3, and 5 of the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005, section 41(1)(a) of the Police (Scotland) Act 1967, and Section 90 of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012. The latter two acts cover assaults against police officers, although the last also includes obstruction of a police officer. It is possible to further disaggregate proceedings and convictions under Section 90 of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 into assaults against officers and obstructing officers.

The supplementary tables can be found under the supporting files tab of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland 2018-19 publication webpage or directly accessed at the following link:

https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics/
2020/03/criminal-proceedings-scotland-2018-19/documents/additional-tables-ewa
-2018-19/additional-tables-ewa-2018-19/govscot%3Adocument/additional-tables-
ewa-2018-19.xlsx

We will publish these tables again alongside the next publication.

Note that the Criminal Proceedings statistics present the numbers of persons proceeded against and convicted, not number of charges. Someone may be convicted of multiple charges in the same case but be counted only once in the conviction statistics. Where the crime is given, this is for the main charge in a proceeding, which is the charge that received the highest penalty or is deemed to be the most serious crime. Therefore some assaults against emergency workers may not appear in the statistics as they were an additional charge to a main charge. Assaults may also be prosecuted under common law of assault, which cannot be distinguished as being against an emergency worker in the Criminal Proceedings statistics.

It is for the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland to develop their engagement with local partners. However, there are now significantly more local elected members involved in scrutiny of policing, with each local authority having its own scrutiny committee and elected members play a central role in the development and agreement of local police plans. Annual Police Plans sit alongside Local Police Plans and are developed in consultation with local partners and communities. The SPA and Police Scotland are also developing a new Police Performance Framework, which will reflect an outcomes-focused approach and provide performance information at a local and national level.

There are currently no plans to further reduce unpaid work hours given as part of community payback orders (CPOs).

The Community Orders (Coronavirus) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 will, subject to approval by the Scottish Parliament, reduce unpaid work hours imposed in CPOs by 35% for all existing orders, except those imposed for domestic abuse, sexual offences, or stalking.

We expect this will alleviate pressure on justice social work services, increasing available capacity to help ensure that existing orders can be completed within timescales expected by courts, and that any new orders can commence promptly.

However, considerable uncertainty still remains in relation to the pandemic and it is expected that the number of unpaid work hours will rise over the coming months if justice social work capacity remains significantly constrained by necessary public health restrictions while court business resumes.

We will continue to monitor the situation closely in the coming months, particularly with regard to capacity issues, and to work with partner organisations to address any further difficulties arising as a result of backlogs within the criminal justice system. Further action cannot be ruled out while the pandemic continues, but would be only considered if clearly necessary and proportionate in the context of the emergency powers in the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020, and would be subject to approval by the Scottish Parliament.

The victim support budget has provided substantial investment, via health boards, to support forensic medical services, with £2 million per year over 3 years since 2018-19. In 2020-21, funding was provided to further improve health boards’ forensic medical services, including to enhance existing, or to create new, healthcare facilities and to build workforce capacity. More specifically, this funding has contributed to a new forensic medical examination suite in the Borders General Hospital and has supported the recruitment and retention of Gender-Based Violence leads, forensically trained nurses and other essential workforce positions across all 14 territorial boards.

SPS staff have previously had access to tests while asymptomatic through their Health Board if it was required.

In addition SPS staff, as members of the public, have been able to access testing when they are symptomatic and as keyworkers, SPS staff have been able to gain priority access to symptomatic testing in times of high demand through the key worker portal.

In response to multi-agency arrangements during outbreaks at HMPs Addiewell, Dumfries and Kilmarnock in February and in HMP Barlinnie in November 2020, mobile testing units were deployed by local health boards for SPS staff and the prison population.

The closing date for applications to the Victim Surcharge Fund from victim support organisations was 12 February 2021. Five applications have been received.

More detailed information, including amounts awarded to successful applicants, will be available once the applications have been assessed and awards have been made. I also refer to the previous answer given to PQ S5W-34365 on 1 February 2021, that stated awards will be made before the end of March 2021.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

As I informed the Justice Sub-committee on 15 February 2021, I fully recognise the importance of transparency and am committed to sharing information on progress in a way that is meaningful and accessible to a range of audiences. A list of all 111 recommendations with a box to be ticked on completion would not give an accurate picture of the work underway as progress may be more nuanced than a binary tick box could convey.

Instead, a progress report will be published on the Scottish Government's website regularly with progress reported under thematic headings to provide an overall picture of developments. The report will also ensure it is easy to identify and audit the ownership and progress for each recommendation set out in Dame Elish Angiolini’s report. The report will show which partner is responsible for each recommendations and what progress has been made. What is proposed therefore will fulfil the desire for transparency which an action tracker could provide but will in addition provide narrative, context and additional information.

The Scottish Government recognise the important role of legal aid providers in supporting their clients and the justice system in Scotland, and also recognise that some will have encountered financial difficulties as a consequence of the Coronavirus pandemic.

That is why we are making up to £9 million available up to 31 March 2021 to legal aid businesses and law centres who have had an exceptional reduction in new cases starting because of the restrictions in place. Further information on the fund, including criteria can be found at - https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-resilience
-and-recovery-fund-for-legal-aid/

The Scottish Government expects all firms and law centres who may be eligible to apply, will do so. The Fund opened for applications on 10 February and as at 17 February the Scottish Legal Aid Board has received 119 applications.

As grants will be awarded based partly on information which we do not hold, but which will be provided to us by firms and law centres as part of the application process, at this stage, we cannot estimate what an average payment will be.

The Scottish Government has published its Deployment Plan which sets out how we will work as fast as supplies allow to vaccinate everyone over the age of 18 and those aged 16 and 17 who are frontline health and social care workers, young carers or have underlying health conditions.

As of 14 February, 122,856 individuals had received their first vaccination in the Grampian area which is 25.33% of the population.

Weekly updates are published by Public Health Scotland providing more detailed breakdowns by groups vaccinated and geography: https://publichealthscotland.scot/our-areas-of-work/covid-19/covid-19-data-andintelligence/covid-19-weekly-report-for-scotland/

The Scottish Government now publishes daily updates of the cumulative number of people receiving their vaccination:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronaviruscovid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/.

Qualified one-way costs shifting (QOCS) will be commenced as soon as possible.

Commencement needs to aligned with the production of court rules which are drafted independently of the Scottish Government by the Scottish Civil Justice Council. We are working closely with SCJC to ensure a smooth introduction and simultaneous commencement of the substantive provision in the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018 with the relevant rules of court.

It will be for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service to ensure operational readiness for the introduction of QOCS and they will be fully sighted on the commencement arrangements