Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many 3D-printed-guns or 3D printers being used for illicit purposes and seized by Police Scotland.

A range of charges could be relevant, depending on the facts and circumstances of individual cases. For example, 3D-printing of guns and other offensive weapons would potentially be charged and prosecuted under s3(1)(a) and s5(2A)(a) of the Firearms Act 1968 or s141(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988. However, neither the COPFS dataset nor the Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings dataset holds information at the requested level (i.e. 3-D printing).

Social Security Scotland routinely releases information on workforce as part of the Workforce Information quarterly publications.

As published in the latest release, Social Security Scotland - Social Security Scotland – workforce information: September 2022 , Social Security Scotland had a headcount of 81 temporary workers who were directly employed in September 2022.

In September 2022, Social Security Scotland had a total of 313 contingent workers, of which 208 were Temporary Agency Workers and 105 were other contingent workers.

In the previous Parliament, the then Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Michael Matheson, announced on 18 June 2019 that the Cycling Action Plan for Scotland vision that, by 2020, 10% of all journeys in Scotland would be made by bike would not be met. In this Parliamentary term, the Cycling Action Plan for Scotland will be succeeded by the Cycling Framework for Active Travel. A draft version of the cycling framework was put to public consultation in late 2022 and the final version will be published this year. The Framework takes account of the independent review of the previous Cycling Action Plan, which was carried out by Professor Tom Rye in 2020 and which made recommendations for the future priorities for cycling for active travel in Scotland.

Based on the latest Annual Cycling Monitoring Data, the cycling mode share broken down by local authority is as follows:

The number and proportion of telephone calls that are not connected to a Social Security Scotland client advisor are provided in the following table, as well as the average call waiting times for connected calls.

The Scottish Government does not hold information relating to the financial value of the dark web in Scotland. Regulation of the Internet is reserved to the UK Government.

The Scottish Government maintains a close working relationship with Police Scotland, The National Crime Agency and other UK Government Departments and Agencies with respect to cyber security, cyber enabled and cyber dependent crime to ensure an effective response to the threat from cyber criminals to Scottish people and businesses.

The Scottish Government produces a range of Official Statistics that include information on crimes involving firearms, crimes of possessing an offensive weapon and drug seizures, However, we do not hold any information on the number of firearms, weapons or prohibited drugs that were specifically seized within mail and courier delivery services.

The safety and wellbeing of all fire and rescue officers is of upmost importance to the Scottish Government.

We will continue to support SFRS in its partnership work with the Fire Brigades Union and Professor Anna Stec to build on the existing work of their dedicated Contaminants Group.

The Scottish Government will carefully consider any related proposals from the FBU or SFRS as a result of this important research.

The Scottish Government’s priority is to move to a circular economy, which means reducing our demand for raw material, increasing reuse and repair, and recycling more. Where we do produce unavoidable and unrecyclable residual waste, we must ensure we treat it responsibly.

In terms of waste incineration, the independent review of the role of incineration in the waste hierarchy made it clear that Scotland does not need additional waste incineration facilities to treat our unavoidable and unrecyclable municipal residual waste beyond those for which planning permission has already been granted. That is why National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), as approved by parliament on 11 January, makes clear that development proposals for energy-from-waste facilities will not be supported except under very limited circumstances. The independent review did not consider waste to fuel facilities, such as the proposed plastics to hydrogen development.

Scottish Government has not assessed the number of jobs or value of investment that could result from such a facility. However, available evidence suggests that delivering a circular economy provides local employment opportunities and lower cost options to access goods. 10,000 tonnes of waste can create up to 296 jobs in repair and reuse, compared to 1 job in incineration, 6 jobs in landfill or 36 jobs in recycling.

As I said in my answer to Donald Lumsden (S6O-01659), policing is and will continue to be a priority for the Scottish Government. Scotland has a higher number of officers than at any time during the last administration – and more per head of population than England and Wales (30 officers per 10,000 population in Scotland, compared to 24 officers per 10,000 population in England and Wales (at 31 March).

Officer numbers fluctuate due to the cycle of recruitment and retirement, and this was further impacted by last year’s police pension changes. However, I was pleased to see that Police Scotland welcomed around 900 new recruits in 2022.

Our officers are the best paid in the UK, which recognises the hard work and dedication of the police workforce across Scotland. Basic starting salary for a constable in Scotland is around £5,000 more than in England and Wales and the maximum salary is also higher.