Chamber and committees

As of April 2024:9,011 hectares were closed to creeling within the 6 nautical miles limit adjacent to Scotland.

522,485 hectares were closed to creeling within the UK Exclusive Economic Zone adjacent to Scotland.

3,700,024 hectares were closed to creeling within the UK Continental Shelf adjacent to Scotland.

By its nature, it is difficult to estimate the volume of crime in Scotland which doesn’t come to the attention of the police. The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) asks victims of crime whether they reported the incident to the police (or any other authority). As a survey of adults living in private residences within Scotland, the SCJS findings do not include any crimes against children (those aged under 16), those living in communal establishments or businesses.

The SCJS results are typically reported for financial years ending in March with figures for 2023-24 due to be published in 2025. The latest figures available, for 2021-22, estimated that 29% of property and violent crimes combined were reported to the police (based on interviews over October 2021 to December 2022), this splits into 27% and 34% for property and violent crimes respectively.

From the 2023-24 survey sweep, the SCJS questionnaire was expanded to include measures of fraud and computer misuse victimisation, including estimates of those cases reported to the police. The first results from this new module will be published alongside the main report next year.

Finally, the survey also asks about experiences of sexual victimisation and partner abuse. The latest figures for 2018-20 estimated that the police came to know about the most recent (or only) incident for 22% and 16% of respondents who experienced serious sexual assault or partner abuse respectively since the age of 16.

We encourage victims to report all crimes to Police Scotland, who are committed to protecting our communities.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29797 on 19 September 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

As a result of significant increases in construction costs due to inflation, and a lower than expected capital grant from the UK Government, a capital review is currently underway.

Alongside this, we are working with all health boards to develop a whole-system infrastructure plan which reflects on the needs for the whole of Scotland and will support continued safe operation of existing facilities and well as determination of longer-term investment priorities.

The information requested on how many full-time equivalent doctors have been employed in each of the past five years can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence.

This information is not collected or held by the Scottish Government.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

A Cell Sharing Risk Assessment (CSRA) is conducted on every occasion where two (or more) individuals are required to share one cell.

A CSRA provides a generic assessment of the suitability for individuals to share cells with an option for additional detail and context regarding identified risks to be recorded. Once complete, the CSRA assessment will be used to make an informed decision on the individual’s suitability to share cells, based on known risk and operational necessity.

Individuals will never knowingly be asked to share a cell when it is in direct conflict with what has been recorded in the CSRA.

The Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre budget forms a component of existing Cyber Resilience funding, and the future budget for the Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre is still to be determined.

The effectiveness of the campaign will be monitored by YouthLink Scotland, Medics Against Violence and the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, our funded partners who created the campaign, produced the accompanying resources and will be delivering training sessions to support those working with young people to help them navigate social media safely and prevent violence. Website traffic and data on the engagement with the online materials via the campaign landing page will be collected. Follow up sessions with training participants will monitor the impact and use of the materials. A report will be shared with the Scottish Government.

Transport Scotland is in regular contact with Hargreaves, the developer for the Blindwells Development. The last meeting took place on 3 September 2024.