- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity on 1 November 2018 (Official Report, c.57), whether it was its position that the contractual nexus between Aberdeen Roads Limited and its lenders required to be revised when it was sent a letter dated 23 October 2018 referring to weather and the collapse of Carillion as the issues delaying the opening of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR).
Answer
Neither my officials nor I have received any correspondence dated 23 October 2018.
As confirmed in my statement, I was disappointed to receive a letter from Peter Truscott, CEO of Galliford Try, on 31 October 2018, suggesting Aberdeen Roads Limited (ARL) had yet to agree with its lenders the contractual variation. This variation, which had been on the table for some considerable time, is required to open the 31.5km section of road between Craibstone to Stonehaven and Charleston. Furthermore, ARL had yet to even advise its lenders of the draft terms.
I and my officials have been involved in a series of high-level meetings with ARL since then, designed to remove any obstacle to the road being opened while remedial works at the Don progress.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity on 1 November 2018 (Official Report, c.57), whether it will confirm the date that it was advised of the issues delaying the opening of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR), and what subsequent action it has taken with Aberdeen Roads Limited to deal with these issues.
Answer
As I outlined in my statement to Parliament on 1 November, ARL first reported concreting issues at the River Don Crossing in May 2018. Repairs were undertaken through the summer and ARL remained confident of achieving a late autumn opening. On 26 October 2018, Transport Scotland was informed that a greater scope of works would be necessary to repair the defects and ARL intimated that December was a more realistic date for opening this final section. This is supported by the Galliford Try trading announcement on 7 November.
For some months, Transport Scotland has been investigating the potential to open the 31.5km section of new road from Craibstone to Stonehaven and Charleston. I explained to Parliament on November 1 that opening this section requires a variation to the contract. I and my officials have been involved in a series of high-level meetings with ARL since then, designed to remove any obstacle to the road being opened. I continue to urge it to pursue the necessary approvals with its lenders without further delay.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 November 2018
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the views of business groups regarding its position on Brexit and wider constitutional affairs.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2018
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government whether its victims task force has met and, if not, when its first meeting will be.
Answer
The arrangements for the Victims Taskforce are currently being finalised. As publicly announced, it is anticipated that the first meeting will be held before the end of 2018.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government who the members are of its victims task force.
Answer
Arrangements for the Victims Taskforce are currently being finalised, with a view to holding the first meeting before the end of 2018. Membership of the task force will be confirmed at the first meeting, but is likely to include Scottish Government, Justice Agencies, Third Sector victim representatives, legal profession and academia.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 05 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will continue to fund (a) prison visitor centres and (b) the free transport service for families travelling from Aberdeen to visit HMP Grampian beyond the current expiry of funding in March 2019.
Answer
The Scottish Government are actively considering the funding of prison visitor centres for 2019-20 and beyond, and will continue to engage with the National Prison Visitor Centre Steering Group and the third sector organisations which run these services. The overall budget in 2019-20 will reflect the outcome of the upcoming spending review.
Decisions on the individual applications for funding from each Centre (including any requests for any extra funding for additional services, such as the transport service developed by the centre at HMP Grampian) will be considered by a Funding Group comprising representatives of the SG, SPS and external stakeholders.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 October 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how many police-recorded common assaults on emergency workers there have been in each of the last five years, also broken down by type of emergency worker.
Answer
The following table contains the number of Common Assault of an Emergency Worker offences recorded by the police in each of the last five years. It should be noted these figures will not include all police recorded attacks on emergency workers (for example should an emergency worker be the victim of a serious assault, this would be recorded as a serious assault).
The Scottish Government does not hold this information by type of emergency worker. This is because the figures provided by Police Scotland are a simple count of the number of offences recorded in each local authority.
Police Recorded Common Assault of an Emergency Worker, 2013-14 to 2017-18
Financial Year | Offences |
2013-14 | 6,813 |
2014-15 | 6,480 |
2015-16 | 6,414 |
2016-17 | 6,509 |
2017-18 | 7,004 |
Source: Recorded Crime in Scotland National Statistics. The latest bulletin is available at the following weblink (figures included above are based on a further analysis of the data)
https://www.gov.scot/Publications/2018/09/2051
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 October 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-17371 by Humza Yousaf on 17 July 2018, by what date the Victim Surcharge Fund will become operational, and for what reason there has been a reported delay in announcing this.
Answer
In order to ensure effective operation of the victim surcharge in Scotland, an Order under section 104 of the Scotland Act 1998 (‘the 1998 Act’), is required to amend section 24 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 (‘the 1991 Act’), which is reserved.
Section 24 gives the Secretary of State the power to introduce a process, via subordinate legislation, whereby courts can apply for a deduction from an offender’s benefits to pay for a fine or compensation order. This currently applies to the victim surcharge in England and Wales but does not extend to the new victim surcharge in Scotland.
We are therefore seeking an Order under section 104 of the 1998 Act, to amend section 24 of the 1991 Act, to facilitate recovery of the surcharge via deduction from benefits and bringing Scotland into line with powers that already exist in England & Wales.
The UK Government have agreed in principle to this Order and have estimated that, once all the necessary steps are completed, it will come into force in summer 2019, subject to UK Parliamentary timescales. The Victim Surcharge (Scotland) Regulations, which will implement the surcharge, will be laid before the Scottish Parliament, as soon as practicable after the section 104 Order comes into force.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 October 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by James Wolffe QC on 6 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how many charges have been brought under (a) sections 1(1) and 2(1) of the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005, (b) section 41(1) of the Police (Scotland) Act 1967 and (c) other legislation for assaulting emergency workers in each of the last five years and how many (i) were dropped, (ii) were proceeded with and (iii) resulted in a conviction, also broken down by type of emergency worker.
Answer
The information available is provided in the following tables. A breakdown by the type of emergency worker is only available where the actual charge contains reference to the specific type of emergency worker involved.
Charges reported to COPFS 1 April 2013-31 March 2018 | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| | | Financial Year Reported | | |
Charge Description | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S1(1) Ass, Obs Emergency Worker | 339 | 406 | 359 | 276 | 196 |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S2(1) Ass, Obs Emergency Services | 71 | 86 | 48 | 44 | 32 |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S3(1) Ass, Obs Person Assisting | * | 5 | 9 | * | 0 |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S5(1) Ass, Obs Nurse | 327 | 390 | 307 | 296 | 298 |
Police & Fire Ref 2012 S90(1)(A)Assault Officer Exec Of Duty | 5,682 | 5,074 | 5,089 | 5,024 | 5,227 |
Police & Fire Ref 2012 S90(1)(B)Assault Ass Officer Exe Duty | 84 | 54 | 27 | 33 | 37 |
Police & Fire Ref 2012 S90(1)(A)&(2)(A) Assault Resist Arrest | * | * | 202 | 194 | 175 |
Police (S) 1967 S41(1)(A) Assault | 121 | * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Police Act 1996 S89(1) Assault BTP | 30 | 31 | 38 | 26 | 25 |
Police Act 1996 S89(1) Assault Person Assisting BTP | 0 | * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Total | 6,657 | 6,053 | 6,079 | 5,894 | 5,990 |
Charges reported to COPFS 1 April 2013-31 March 2018 | | | | | |
Charges Marked:-No Action | | | | | |
| | | Financial Year Reported | | |
Charge Description | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S1(1) Ass, Obs Emergency Worker | 40 | 46 | 45 | 22 | 26 |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S2(1) Ass, Obs Emergency Services | 11 | 6 | 5 | 13 | 6 |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S3(1) Ass, Obs Person Assisting | 0 | * | * | 0 | 0 |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S5(1) Ass, Obs Nurse | 22 | 44 | 68 | 21 | 16 |
Police & Fire Ref 2012 S90(1)(A)Assault Officer Exec Of Duty | 89 | 74 | 58 | 81 | 70 |
Police & Fire Ref 2012 S90(1)(B)Assault Ass Officer Exe Duty | * | * | * | * | * |
Police & Fire Ref 2012 S90(1)(A)&(2)(A) Assault Resist Arrest | 0 | 0 | * | * | * |
Police (S) 1967 S41(1)(A) Assault | * | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Police Act 1996 S89(1) Assault BTP | 0 | * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Total | 168 | 174 | 182 | 145 | 123 |
Charges reported to COPFS 1 April 2013-31 March 2018 | | | | | |
Charges proceeded with:-Direct Measure | | | | | |
| | | Financial Year Reported | | |
Charge Description | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S1(1) Ass, Obs Emergency Worker | 11 | 16 | 24 | 11 | * |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S2(1) Ass, Obs Emergency Services | * | 5 | * | * | * |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S5(1) Ass, Obs Nurse | 10 | 9 | 20 | 10 | 17 |
Police & Fire Ref 2012 S90(1)(A)Assault Officer Exec Of Duty | 232 | 232 | 216 | 199 | 253 |
Police & Fire Ref 2012 S90(1)(B)Assault Ass Officer Exe Duty | 5 | * | * | 0 | 8 |
Police & Fire Ref 2012 S90(1)(A)&(2)(A) Assault Resist Arrest | 0 | 0 | 21 | 21 | 26 |
Police (S) 1967 S41(1)(A) Assault | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Police Act 1996 S89(1) Assault Btp | * | 0 | * | * | 0 |
Total | 272 | 264 | 288 | 246 | 310 |
Charges reported to COPFS 1 April 2013-31 March 2018 | | | | | |
Charges proceeded with:-Court | | | | | |
| | | Financial Year Reported | | |
Charge Description | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S1(1) Ass, Obs Emergency Worker | 288 | 344 | 290 | 243 | 162 |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S2(1) Ass, Obs Emergency Services | 56 | 75 | 39 | 30 | 22 |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S3(1) Ass, Obs Person Assisting | * | * | 6 | * | 0 |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S5(1) Ass, Obs Nurse | 295 | 337 | 219 | 265 | 259 |
Police & Fire Ref 2012 S90(1)(A)Assault Officer Exec Of Duty | 5,361 | 4,768 | 4,815 | 4,743 | 4,887 |
Police & Fire Ref 2012 S90(1)(B)Assault Ass Officer Exe Duty | 78 | 51 | 23 | 32 | 27 |
Police & Fire Ref 2012 S90(1)(A)&(2)(A) Assault Resist Arrest | * | * | 180 | 166 | 146 |
Police (S) 1967 S41(1)(A) Assault | 107 | * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Police Act 1996 S89(1) Assault BTP | 29 | 30 | 37 | * | 25 |
Police Act 1996 S89(1) Assault Person Assisting BTP | 0 | * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Total | 6,217 | 5,614 | 5,609 | 5,502 | 5,528 |
Charges reported to COPFS 1 April 2013-31 March 2018 | | | | | |
Charges Convicted | | | | | |
| | | Financial Year Reported | | |
Charge Description | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S1(1) Ass, Obs Emergency Worker | 209 | 216 | 184 | 146 | 85 |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S2(1) Ass, Obs Emergency Services | 36 | 46 | 24 | 15 | 13 |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S3(1) Ass, Obs Person Assisting | * | * | * | * | 0 |
Emergency Workers (S) 2005 S5(1) Ass, Obs Nurse | 191 | 186 | 133 | 161 | 93 |
Police & Fire Ref 2012 S90(1)(A)Assault Officer Exec Of Duty | 3,349 | 2,975 | 3,013 | 2,896 | 2,515 |
Police & Fire Ref 2012 S90(1)(B)Assault Ass Officer Exe Duty | 47 | 33 | * | 16 | 13 |
Police & Fire Ref 2012 S90(1)(A)&(2)(A) Assault Resist Arrest | * | * | 97 | 74 | 60 |
Police (S) 1967 S41(1)(A) Assault | 50 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Police Act 1996 S89(1) Assault Btp | 17 | 17 | 22 | * | 11 |
Total | 3,902 | 3,476 | 3,493 | 3,320 | 2,790 |
*Suppression applied
Notes & definitions
Direct Measure includes warnings, referral to children's reporter and diversion from prosecution schemes.
The figures for the charges proceeded with by Court and Direct Measure include charges that were not actioned but where other charges for the same accused within the same case were actioned. In some cases the charges which were actioned may have included details from the charges that were not actioned.
No Action includes charges where a decision has been taken not to proceed. This will include charges where there is insufficient admissible evidence or where further action would be disproportionate.
At date of extract, there were a number of charges awaiting a marking decision and also charges still ongoing, still to reach a conclusion.
COPFS does not normally disclose statistical information for data entries of less than 5 to ensure it meets its obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018. As such, where the number of charges is less than 5, these figures have been replaced with an asterisk. In some cases it may be necessary to apply a further suppression to a figure equal to or higher than 5 to prevent other suppressed data being deduced through subtraction. This applies to all data being published by COPFS where Data Protection considerations apply.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 25 October 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government whether there is a disparity in pay for equivalent custody staff between the different legacy forces in Police Scotland and, if so, (a) what this is, (b) what action Police Scotland is taking to address it, (c) by what date the gap will be closed and (d) how it will ensure that all staff receive all backpay that they are due arising from the historic differential, and that this is provided in a timeous manner.
Answer
The pay and conditions of police staff, including custody staff, are a matter for the Scottish Police Authority. SPA and Police Scotland have been taking forward an extensive programme of work to harmonise staff pay and conditions and I understand negotiations with the relevant unions have been positive and are at an advanced stage.
