Chamber and committees

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Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-23375

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many people from ethnic minorities have been victims of crime in each of the last five years, also broken down by ethnicity.

The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) is the main source of evidence on the extent of victimisation in Scotland. It provides information on the proportion of adults experiencing crime, including incidents not reported to the police, rather than the number of victims.

Results from the SCJS on the proportion of adults experiencing crime over the last five years, broken down by ethnicity, and any changes in the victimisation rate over time are shown in Table 1. The sample sizes for each group are shown in Table 2.

SCJS results are not released for groups where the underlying sample size is less than 50. As such, some groups must be aggregated in order to provide results by ethnicity – although where possible more detailed breakdowns are provided. Survey results are estimates with associated margins of error, rather than precise values. Generally where sample sizes are smaller the margin of error around results is larger. Statistical tests are used to assess whether apparent differences between results are statistically significant. There was no SCJS conducted in 2013-14 or 2015-16

The SCJS finds:

In 2017-18, an estimated 15.2% of adults from minority ethnic groups experienced crime, unchanged from 2012-13 – the apparent decrease from 18.0% is not statistically significant.

In 2017-18, the estimated proportion of adults from each ethnic minority group experiencing crime was no different to the proportion of White Scottish adults who were victims of crime – any apparent differences shown in Table 1 are not statistically significant.

Table 1: Proportion of adults experiencing crime by ethnicity.

	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	Percentage point change 2012-13 to 2017-18		Percentage point change 2016-17 to 2017-18
White – Scottish	17.0%	N/A	14.4%	N/A	13.4%	12.8%	-4.3	*	-0.6

White - Other British	15.2%	N/A	13.7%	N/A	12.0%	10.4%	-4.8	*	-1.6

White – Other (i and ii combined)	18.7%	N/A	16.7%	N/A	12.1%	10.4%	-8.3	*	-1.6
(i) White Polish	21.7%	N/A	20.6%	N/A	16.4%	12.4%	-9.3		-3.9
(ii) All other white groups	17.7%	N/A	14.9%	N/A	10.2%	9.7%	-8.0	*	-0.5

Minority Ethnic (iii and iv combined)	18.0%	N/A	16.3%	N/A	18.5%	15.2%	-2.9		-3.3
(iii) Asian	15.8%	N/A	16.0%	N/A	14.1%	18.6%	2.8		4.5
(iv) All other ethnic groups	23.3%	N/A	16.7%	N/A	25.5%	10.2%	-13.1	*	-15.3	*

Total	16.9%	N/A	14.5%	N/A	13.4%	12.5%	-4.5	*	-1.0

Source: Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, 2012-13 to 2017-18

1. Statistically significant changes over time are indicated by ‘*’.

2. The ‘All other white groups’ sub-group contains: people who identify as Irish, Gypsy/Traveller or ‘any other white ethnic group’.

3. The ‘All other ethnic groups’ sub-group contains adults who identify as having a mixed or multiple ethnic background and adults who describe their ethnicity as: African, Caribbean or Black, Arab or ‘other’ (i.e. their ethnicity is not listed in the pre-defined answer options).

Table 2: Sample sizes for results shown in Table 1

	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18
White - Scottish	9657	N/A	8932	N/A	4343	4199

White - Other British	1533	N/A	1531	N/A	725	725

White – Other (i & ii combined)	521	N/A	625	N/A	281	343
(i) White Polish	132	N/A	183	N/A	78	92
(ii) All other white groups	389	N/A	442	N/A	203	251

Minority Ethnic (iii and iv combined)	318	N/A	364	N/A	210	197
(iii) Asian	208	N/A	210	N/A	115	105
(iv) All other ethnic groups	110	N/A	154	N/A	95	92

Total	12045	N/A	11472	N/A	5567	5475

Source: Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, 2012-13 to 2017-18

1. The ‘All other white groups’ sub-group contains: people who identify as Irish, Gypsy/Traveller or ‘any other white ethnic group’.

2. The ‘All other ethnic groups’ sub-group contains adults who identify as having a mixed or multiple ethnic background and adults who describe their ethnicity as: African, Caribbean or Black, Arab or ‘other’ (i.e. their ethnicity is not listed in the pre-defined answer options).

Question reference: S5W-23377

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the number of people from ethnic minorities who have been convicted and recorded as having reoffended in each of the last five years, also broken down by ethnicity.

Question reference: S5W-22904

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many people from ethnic minorities have been recorded as having been (a) arrested, (b) stopped and searched, (c) prosecuted and (i) convicted and (ii) not convicted and (d) on remand in each of the last five years, also broken down by ethnicity.

Question reference: S5W-23071

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 29 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will bring payments under the Scottish Infected Blood Support Scheme in line with those in England, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Overall funding for infected blood support in Scotland remains proportionately higher than in England on a population basis and our support is based on recommendations agreed with Scottish stakeholders through both the Financial Review Group in 2015 and the Clinical Review on the impacts of chronic hepatitis c in 2018. Funding for the Scottish Infected Blood Support Scheme (SIBSS) was also significantly increased in December 2018 in response to the recommendations made by the Clinical Review.

While payments for some groups may appear to be higher for those on the English Infected Blood Support Scheme (EIBSS), in some areas SIBSS payments remain higher and so we would not wish to consider parity with the English scheme if that means that some SIBSS beneficiaries lose out financially. For example, those SIBSS beneficiaries with chronic hepatitis c have all received an additional £30,000 lump sum payment, with those with chronic hepatitis c and also HIV having received an additional £50,000 lump sum. Neither EIBSS beneficiaries nor those on the Welsh or Northern Irish schemes have received these payments. In addition, widows, widowers or partners of those who have died who are registered with EIBSS are only entitled to means tested payments if they are on a low income, whereas widows, widowers and partners registered with SIBSS receive higher levels of payments which are not means tested. They receive the full amount of annual payment their spouse or partner would have been receiving if they were alive for the first twelve months after their death and, from then on, 75% of what they would have been receiving.

The Scottish Government will keep payments in Scotland under review at this stage and plans to meet Ministers from the Department of Health and Social Care and the Welsh Government and officials from the Northern Irish administration to discuss what may be possible to achieve greater parity across the UK in the longer term.

Question reference: S5W-23186

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 29 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many dog control notices have been issued in each of the last five years in (a) Scotland and (b) the Glasgow local authority area under section 1 of the Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010.

The requested information is set out in the following table. Each year covers the period from 27 February to 26 February of the following year.

Number of Dog Control Notices Issued Per Year
Local Authority	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	Total
Aberdeen City	5	8	6	1	6	26
Aberdeenshire	10	4	11	10	26	61
Angus	2	2	2	11	19	36
Argyll & Bute	9	16	17	24	20	86
Clackmannanshire	0	0	3	1	5	9
Comhairle nan Eilean Sair	3	5	4	2	2	16
Dumfries & Galloway	14	7	28	17	18	84
Dundee City	4	15	15	17	31	82
East Ayrshire	4	0	5	2	1	12
East Dunbartonshire	5	5	0	1	3	14
East Lothian	17	11	7	4	2	41
East Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	2	2
City of Edinburgh	5	17	14	5	0	41
Falkirk	14	4	19	4	7	48
Fife	48	57	44	56	59	264
City of Glasgow *	0	1	0	-	-	1
Highland	14	23	30	29	14	110
Inverclyde	0	1	0	1	0	2
Midlothian	4	13	7	10	17	51
Moray	2	2	4	3	3	14
North Ayrshire	2	7	4	9	20	42
North Lanarkshire	0	0	1	3	7	11
Orkney	1	4	8	2	2	17
Perth & Kinross	10	9	11	10	14	54
Renfrewshire	26	21	15	20	19	101
Scottish Borders	10	11	1	15	3	40
Shetland Islands	0	0	0	0	2	2
South Ayrshire	0	0	3	6	5	14
South Lanarkshire	3	11	3	2	5	24
Stirling	6	2	8	4	13	33
West Dunbartonshire	0	1	4	4	8	17
West Lothian	26	20	16	17	6	85
TOTAL	244	277	290	290	339	1440

* City of Glasgow Council - Figures for 2016-17 and 2017-18 were request but no reply was received.

Question reference: S5O-03312

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5O-03276

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether the number of pupils with additional support needs who have a coordinated support plan in place is increasing.

Question reference: S5W-22700

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 2 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-22097 by Clare Haughey on 26 March 2019, how many of the new mental health workers are employed by each NHS board, broken down by job title.

The Scottish Government does not have the level of detail requested.

It should be noted that the recruitment of the additional mental health workers is being carried out by Integration Authorities (IAs) who have devolved responsibility for health and social care. Although NHS Boards are members of IAs, not all of the additional workers will therefore be employed by them.

IAs do however have a responsibility to report on this additional workforce and as advised previously through S5W-22097, a further update on the progress being made with this commitment will be available in May 2019 via the following link https://www.gov.scot/publications/mental-health-workers-quarterly-performance-reports/ .

Question reference: S5O-03201

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 May 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to further strengthen the economy of Glasgow.

Question reference: S5W-22097

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 26 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20987 by Clare Haughey on 17 January 2019, whether policy officials have completed processing and collating information relating to the recruitment of mental health workers.

Based on the information received from the Integration Authorities in respect of the first quarterly update on Action 15, 106 additional mental health workers have been recruited as of 1 January 2019.

The settings these workers are based in are as follows: A&E (27), Custody Suites (1), GP Settings (46), prisons (1), Other Settings - e.g Peer/Support workers via the third sector, (29) and through the enhanced national mental health pathway pilot, (2).

The second quarterly update will be available in May 2019. This information will also be published on the Scottish Government website via the following link: https://www.gov.scot/publications/mental-health-workers-quarterly-performance-reports/