- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 January 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Christina McKelvie on 27 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government by what date it expects further engagement to take place following the publication of the consultation, Improving Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Interventions for Victims of Domestic Abuse, as outlined in the next steps action 3e, in light of the latest Victims' Taskforce workplan referencing the date as "end 2019", which had already passed by the time of publication.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to tackling violence against women and girls through Equally Safe, our co-owned strategy with COSLA. This strategy identifies effective multi-agency risk assessment processes as a key component in addressing violence against women and girls in Scotland.
At the end of 2019, we published our analysis of responses to the Improving Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Interventions for Victims of Domestic Abuse consultation. Unfortunately, due to the global pandemic and the reprioritisation of work to meet immediate needs arising from COVID, work in this area was paused until November 2020 when officials held a virtual workshop with stakeholders from across the VAWG sector to help prioritise key themes and outputs from the consultation and inform our next steps.
Following on from this discussion, officials will be undertaking a series of virtual mini work-shops or ‘deep dives’ into these key areas and will convene a short life advisory group comprised of key stakeholders to monitor progress.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 January 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 26 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, for what reason the 2019-20 Scottish Prison Service (SPS) annual report did not record information regarding addiction prevalence testing and, if this information is no longer recorded, (a) for what reason the SPS reached this decision and (b) how the SPS will monitor the scale of drug misuse in prisons.
Answer
I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:
Addictions Prevalence Testing (APT) for Performance Measurement purposes was suspended in November 2019 and therefore not included in the latest annual report. The APT process at that point was considered to be no longer fit for purpose as it did not acknowledge the changing trends in drug taking evidenced through the Management of Risk from Substances (MoRS) Policy and drug-find results .
SPS is currently reviewing its approach with the aim of procuring a comprehensive solution which improves the validity of testing and its connection to subsequent monitoring, intervention and action. In the interim period, further investment in technology has been made to prevent the introduction of illicit articles to prisons and relevant adaptations have been made to the existing testing arrangements.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 January 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 26 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether the Transforming Parole proposals allow victims to speak at parole hearings, and what the reasons are for the position on this matter.
Answer
The changes which will come into force on 1 March 2021, through the Parole Board (Scotland) Amendment Rules 2021, set out a procedure for victims and family members of victims, who are registered with the Victim Notification Scheme (VNS), to be silent observers at parole hearings with the aim of allowing increased transparency to victims.
Allowing victims to make oral representations to the Parole Board members hearing the case that victims are involved with, would require an amendment to primary legislation. The Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 permits certain victims, registered with the VNS, to make oral representations but only to a Parole Board member who is not involved with the case.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 January 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 19 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what additional support it is providing to households that are undertaking home learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answer
Scottish Government has invested £25m to support digital inclusion for school-aged learners across Scotland. At end-December 2020, almost 59,000 devices and over 10,000 connectivity packages had been distributed to learners and more will have been distributed since then.
A further £45m is being provided to councils to support families with remote learning. This additional funding may be used flexibly by councils to purchase additional digital devices, to recruit additional staff and to provide additional family support.
Glow, which provides access to Microsoft Office 365, Google G-Suite for Education and Wordpress Blogs, is freely available to all learners and teachers in Scotland.
In addition, Education Scotland has provided a significant expansion of online learning through the National e-Learning Offer. 600 recorded lessons and 14,000 items of online learning and teaching resources are available to schools. Education Scotland have also published clear principles and entitlements for remote learning and will be monitoring provision on a weekly basis.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 December 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what the correct figure is for the percentage change in admonishments/discharges from November 2020 to the monthly average in 2019-20, in light of page 23 of the November Justice Analytics Report listing it as an 8% change but the number of admonishments displayed suggesting it should be a negative 8% change.
Answer
Some of the information published in the Criminal Disposals section of the November 2020 report (available at Justice Analytical Services Coronavirus (COVID-19) Data Report: November 2020 (www.gov.scot) , page 23) contained errors. The number of admonishments/discharges should have shown an 8% decrease rather than an 8% increase.
The document has been amended to show the correct values.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 January 2021
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 14 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how much of the Barnett consequentials announced for 2020-21 it has formally allocated.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 14 January 2021
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 December 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 December 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance on 9 December 2020 (Official Report, c.13), whether it will confirm the amount that is being allocated to (a) the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service and (b) Police Scotland to cover the "pandemic-related income shortfalls" that were referred to by the cabinet secretary, and from which budget stream this money is being sourced.
Answer
In her statement to Parliament on 9 December 2020, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance announced additional funding to cover pandemic-related income shortfalls. This included:
(a) £8.4 million for the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Services; and
(b) £8.2 million for the Scottish Police Authority to cover a reduction in Police Scotland’s external income.
This funding has been provided through consequential funding generated by UK Government spending.
The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland and the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Services to monitor and manage the financial impacts of COVID-19 on their budgets.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 November 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 21 December 2020
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on what appears to be a contradiction between the level 3 COVID-19 guidance under the heading "meeting others indoors (socialising)", which states that “children under the age of 12…do not count towards the total number of people counted in a gathering” and under the heading "hospitality", which states that “children under the age of 12 from these households do not count towards the total number of people meeting outdoors only.”
Answer
We can confirm that children under 12 count towards the maximum of two households permitted to meet indoors in a public place. However they do not count towards the total number people permitted to gather indoors. For example a children’s party with ten children from ten separate households would not be allowable under these restrictions, but six adults and four children from two households could meet.
The guidance is kept under constant review to ensure it is clear and consistent and up to date, and we are grateful for the Member for raising this matter. We acknowledge that further clarity was required on this issue and we have updated the guidance accordingly.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 30 November 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 December 2020
To ask the Scottish Government by what date it expects Restitution Orders for attacks on police officers to be in force.
Answer
Restitution Orders are a new financial penalty to be made available to courts, for those convicted of assault on police, under section 90(1) of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012. The legislation to introduce the Restitution Fund was laid in parliament on 2 December 2020 and is due to come into force on 10 February 2021, if approved by Parliament.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 November 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2020
To ask the Scottish Government when COVID-19 testing of visitors to care homes will be available in Scotland, in light of the UK Government currently trialling this in England with the aim to have it functioning by Christmas.
Answer
As outlined to Parliament on 25 November, lateral flow devices will be used to offer testing to designated care home visitors on the day of their visit. This will be rolled out to up to 12 early adopter care homes across four Local Authorities by 7 December with full roll-out across all care homes completed as soon as possible thereafter, and from 14th December to all care homes with PCR as the interim backup where needed.
Twice weekly testing using lateral flow devices will be rolled out to healthcare professionals who visit care homes from the beginning of December, as part of a wider extension of routine testing including all patient-facing NHS Staff in hospitals, in the Scottish Ambulance Service and in COVID assessment centres. From 11 January this will be extended to non-NHS staff including independent contractors or statutory body staff who attend care homes or provide care at home at least twice per week and have to be within 1 metre of residents, clients or patients.
Testing is only one measure of protection against COVID-19, alongside a strong emphasis on robust infection prevention and control measures, including the use of PPE, the extended use of face masks, physical distancing and good hygiene.
