Chamber and committees

The day to day delivery of policing, and operational decisions about the allocation of policing resources across Scotland, are a matter for the Chief Constable, under the oversight of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA). However, the Scottish Government is assured that Police Scotland and the SPA are committed to delivering a high level of service to Scotland's rural communities. Police Scotland and the SPA's ten year strategy, 'Serving a Changing Scotland' recognises the distinct needs of rural and remote communities. This is reflected in the current Annual Police Plan (2019-20) which commits Police Scotland to 'implement local policing approaches, aligned to demand, reflecting the differing needs of rural, remote, island and urban communities'.

Police Scotland has a dedicated Rural Crime team, and chairs the Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime - a multi-agency group committed to tackling crime in Scotland's rural communities.

As required by the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, the SPA carries out an Annual Review to assess all aspects of Police Scotland's performance. The SPA Review of Policing for 2018-19 will be laid before Parliament in the coming months. As part of the Review process the SPA will seek feedback from all local authorities in Scotland.

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

Our vision, as set out in the Restorative Justice Action Plan https://www.gov.scot/publications/restorative-justice-action-plan/ , published in June, is to have restorative justice (RJ) available across Scotland to all those who wish to access it, and at a time that is appropriate to the people and cases involved.

The Plan also explains that RJ is offered as a further option in how justice can be experienced across the communities of Scotland.

In line with the Scottish Government Guidance for the Delivery of Restorative Justice https://www.gov.scot/publications/guidance-delivery-restorative-justice-scotland/ , risk assessments must be carried out throughout the RJ process and will take full cognisance of the role of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) as the independent public prosecution service for Scotland. In that respect, RJ will not impinge on any ongoing criminal proceedings. Decisions relating to the prosecution or diversion of a case from prosecution are matters solely for COPFS.

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

Operational guidance has been developed to support our staff to better understand how to minimise exposure to unknown substances. As new and emerging substances come to our attention, this guidance will be reviewed in order to ensure that the health and safety of staff is maintained at all times. SPS also has robust mail handling procedures in place across all Scottish prisons to deter and disrupt attempts to introduce illicit articles to the prison estate and support the identification of any substances recovered.

SPS is currently trialling technology across a number of sites to support the identification of illicit substances on paper. Early indications suggest that this technology is preventing illicit substances from entering our prisons.

A Strategic Risk and Threat Group (SRTG) has also been established which is responsible for providing an overview of any emerging threats and the deployment of resources and tactical options. The SRTG is responsible for the management of a national tasking log which supports planned programmes of large scale tactical searching across the estate. These searches are frequently supported by trained drug detection dogs able to identify illicit substances which have been impregnated on to paper.

As set out in my answer to questions S5W-22749 on 2 May 2019 and S5W-19571 on 7 November 2018, we were seeking an Order under section 104 of the Scotland Act 1998 to facilitate recovery of the surcharge via deduction from benefits and bring Scotland into line with the powers that already exist in England and Wales.

The Victims and Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2014 (Consequential Modification) Order 2019 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2019/1092/signature/made subsequently came into force on 8 July 2019.

We intend to lay the Victim Surcharge (Scotland) Regulations, which will implement the surcharge, before the Scottish Parliament shortly.

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 .

Procurement of the roadside screening devices for implementation of the Drug Driving (Specified Limits) (Scotland) Regulations 2019 is an operational matter for Police Scotland.

However, Scottish Government officials have been in touch with Police Scotland who have advised a quantity of devices capable of testing for cannabis and cocaine have been received by Police Scotland to facilitate training of relevant officers, and more will be delivered in due course to facilitate further training. A larger batch will be delivered and distributed ahead of the 21 October 2019 implementation date. Post implementation, Police Scotland will take delivery of more devices as and when required, to ensure operational effectiveness, while minimising potential for waste, noting there is a service life for such screening devices.

Information on the number of officer deployed in ‘on the beat’ roles is not held centrally.

Police Officer Quarterly Strength Scotland (POQS) gives the total number of full-time equivalent police officers employed by Police Scotland. First published as Official Statistics in December 2008, POQS was designed to measure the implementation of the 2007 manifesto commitment to increase officer numbers by 1,000. As such, figures include all police officers appointed by the Chief Constable of Police Scotland and senior police officers appointed by the Scottish Police Authority, excluding those on career breaks.

The latest edition of POQS was published on 6 August 2019, and reports that there were 17,259 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in Scotland on 30 June 2019, up 87 police officers (+0.5%) in the last year, from 30 June 2018 and up 1,025 police officers (+6.3%) from the position at 31 March 2007. In contrast, police officer numbers in England and Wales fell by around 19,000 (13.3 per cent) from March 2007 to March 2019.

Further information on POQS can be found in the Statistical Release Notes that accompany each publication, available online at the following link:

https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PublicationPoliceStrength/POQS2019Q2 .

Deployment of police officers is a matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland. Police Scotland publish sub-national police officer numbers on a quarterly basis in parallel with the Scottish Government’s Police Officer Quarterly Strength Statistics. A link to Police Scotland’s latest sub-national officer numbers publication, providing information on the number of police officers deployed nationally, regionally and within the 13 local policing divisions, is given below:

https://www.scotland.police.uk/assets/pdf/138327/212520/
police-scotland-officer-numbers-quarter-1-30th-june2019?view=Standard .

The use of exclusion zones as a licence condition for parole is being considered in light of the public consultation on parole. We will reflect on whether the conclusions of this are applicable to temporary release. In addition, in implementing the Management of Offenders (Scotland ) Act 2019 we will be looking at the introduction of new technology, such as global positioning system technology, which presents opportunities to improve the effectiveness of electronic monitoring.

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

Over the period covered, in the absence of a formal process, no records were kept. However, SPS officials have in the past met informally with victims and/or their families.

More recently, SPS has been working closely with Victim Support Scotland (VSS) to put in place an agreed approach which facilitates dialogue and engagement with victims and families and which dovetails with the support services offered more generally by VSS.

In April 2019, that collaboration led to the launch of a new approach. Since that time 20 life sentence prisoners have become eligible for consideration for temporary release 9 of whom had victims registered with the Victim Notification Scheme, of these, 7 expressed an interest in making representations, with one electing to respond in writing and the other 2 by way of meetings.

There is no direct relevance of the independent Miners’ Strike Review to the work of the Victims Taskforce, to improve support, advice and information for the victims of crime.

The Catalogue of Initiatives, which makes reference to the Miners’ Strike Review, was developed to provide information about the wider justice policy environment. Entries are intended to provide context and are reviewed and updated on a regular basis.