Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold the data requested.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is responsible for issuing Victim Notification Scheme packs. They have advised that the number of packs issued over the last 3 years is:

2018-19 1,880

2019-20 1,788

2020-21 1,158

Eligible victims can register for the scheme at any time. The Scottish Prison Service have advised that the numbers of victims who have opted to register for the scheme in the last 3 years, are as follows:

2018-19 443

2019-20 472

2020-21 306

Data is not available at this time on the number of times body worn cameras have been used by Police Scotland as evidence to secure a conviction.

Should the decision be made to rollout the use of body worn cameras to other roles across Police Scotland, a range of data will be gathered to assess the impacts of the rollout including quantative data relating to criminal justice processes.

The ‘Bairns’ Hoose’ refers to the Scottish Government’s application of the international concept of Barnahus to the Scottish context.

The Scottish Government has an unashamedly bold aspiration to create our own Bairns’ Hooses in Scotland. We believe that every child victim or witness has the right to consistent and holistic support that enables them to tell their stories, access specialist services and recover from their experiences, and that these services should be delivered under one roof.

Work is currently underway to understand the required infrastructure to support Bairns’ Hooses across Scotland. We would envision a number of bespoke child friendly spaces with both urban and rural accessibility to ensure that every child victim/witness will have support from a Bairns’ Hoose by 2025.

The forensic analysis of digital items and the management of any backlog are matters for the Chief Constable and Police Scotland.

Police Scotland are committed to providing the best possible service to the victims of crime and witnesses and will only examine a digital device where there is a legal basis and where it is necessary, justified and proportionate to the incident or crime under investigation. The number of digital items in Police Scotland’s possession currently awaiting forensic analysis demonstrates the importance of examination of digital devices for modern criminal investigations. Police Scotland recognises the demand in this complex area and consideration is being given to investment in additional staffing, technology and partnerships in order to enhance their existing capabilities in this area.

Police Scotland’s recently published Cyber Strategy and ongoing strategic Cyber Capabilities Project is evidence of their prioritisation of cyber related demand.

Police Scotland are using their internal management information, detailing how many Cyber Kiosk examinations have been progressed in the previous month, to assist in identifying areas for improvement and to enable them to move forward in this complex area.

We welcome the publication of Audit Scotland’s report on community justice, and its intention to carry out further work in this vital area in 2022.

While sentencing decisions in individual cases are a matter for the independent courts, we are committed to encouraging more widespread use of community-based interventions where appropriate. These are often more effective at reducing re-offending, as Audit Scotland sets out, and for keeping our communities safe.

In addition to continued investment in community justice services, which will total more than £117m this year, Parliament agreed in 2019 to extend the presumption against short custodial sentences from 3 to 12 months. Although it is too early to determine the impact of the extension, the use of such sentences has fallen significantly in recent years, with those receiving a sentence of 12 months or less reducing by 13% in the most recent data between 2018-19 and 2019-20, whereas the number of convictions reduced by 4%.

Our firm focus on prevention and effective community interventions has helped see Scotland’s reconviction rate fall to its lowest level since comparable records began more than 20 years ago. We intend to continue building on progress to date, including through a review of the National Strategy for Community Justice, expanding availability of alternatives to custody, and exploring legislative opportunities for a sustainable reduction in the prison population.

We will consider the issues identified by Audit Scotland in its report, including as part of the review and expected refresh of the Community Justice strategy, which we anticipate will be published in 2022 alongside an update Outcomes, Performance and Improvement Framework.

The information requested is not held centrally and is a matter for the Parole Board for Scotland.

The most recent reconviction rates show that 29% of people with a Community Payback Order (CPO) imposed in 2017-18 were reconvicted within a year, which is the lowest rate since they were introduced. These statistics are not typically broken down in regard to different requirements within CPOs such as unpaid work or supervision. However, Justice Analytical Services published ‘Community Payback Orders: What the Unit Level Data Tells Us So Far’ in February 2020 which found that the reconviction rate for those given unpaid work between 2012-13 and 2014-15 was 33% where this was accompanied by justice social work supervision, and 27% where it was not. These figures compare with 41% for those given orders with no unpaid work. While no conclusions can be drawn about the impact of unpaid work on offending behaviour, this may suggest that individuals who do not have unpaid work imposed are likely to have more complex and entrenched issues to address and may have greater likelihood of reoffending.

Overall, CPOs are an important aspect of a sustained focus on prevention and effective community interventions which has helped see Scotland’s reconviction rate fall to its lowest level since comparable records began more than 20 years ago.

CPOs offer opportunities for rehabilitation by requiring individuals to tackle the underlying causes of their offending behaviour. They also deliver real benefits to communities, and while capacity to deliver unpaid work has been significantly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, around 9 million hours of unpaid work have been carried out since CPOs were introduced.

The Scottish Government has consistently called for the furlough scheme to remain in place for as long as it is needed to support businesses as we move through recovery. Whilst the figures show those on furlough are reducing, there is still a significant number of jobs which continue to be supported by this scheme. The Scottish Government is doing all it can to protect Scotland’s economy and ensure that as many people as possible on furlough keep their jobs.

We recognise that this is an extremely difficult time for businesses of all kinds across Scotland and we are doing everything we can with the limited powers available to us to support the hospitality sector.

More detailed information on the support that is available for Hospitality can be found here:

Financial Support for Tourism - COVID-19 | VisitScotland.org .

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. The allocation of resources, and the Health and Wellbeing of Police Officers and Police Staff, are matters for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority. Despite constraints on Scotland’s public services through a decade of UK austerity, policing services have been maintained and improved and we will protect the police resource budget in real terms for the entirety of this Parliamentary term, as we did for the last. We have invested over £10 billion in policing since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013 and have increased the policing budget by £75.5 million in 2021-22.

Police officers and staff can access a range of services to care for their physical and mental health through Police Scotland's “Your Wellbeing Matters” programme. This includes the introduction of Wellbeing Champions, and has resulted in raised awareness of the services available such as occupational health and employee assistance, which offer counselling, and specific interactions through the Trauma Risk Management programme (TRiM).

We have made a commitment to increase the direct investment into mental health services by at least 25% and ensure that, by the end of the parliament, 10% of our frontline NHS budget will be invested in mental health services.

We have also set our plan to prevent, mitigate and respond to the mental health impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic through our ‘Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan’, published in October 2020, which sets out our response to the mental health effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, containing over 100 actions. The Plan is supported by a £120 million Recovery and Renewal fund, announced in February 2021. The Fund will transform services, with a renewed focus on prevention and early intervention. We expect total spend, including by NHS Scotland, on mental health in 2021-22, to be in excess of £1.2 billion.

We regularly assess workforce requirements across the whole of the Scottish economy, including in construction.

The construction industry is a core sector of the Scottish economy, providing infrastructure to businesses across all sectors of the economy. We are aware that the pandemic and Brexit may impact on the supply of labour in this sector.

For a successful recovery and to ensure no one is left behind we have a heavy focus on employability and skills. We continue to support our apprentices during these challenging times, including those in the construction sector, and have introduced additional interventions, such as an enhanced Adopt an Apprentice programme, to encourage employers to recruit and retain apprentices supporting the long-term future of work-based learning and the economy. In addition, we supported a range of skills-related activity, including supporting 5,033 people into modern apprenticeships in the construction sector during 2020-21. In 2021-22 we will invest more than £1bn to drive forward our national ambition for jobs and to equip our workforce with the future skills it needs.

The Construction Recovery Plan launched in 2020 sets out a range of short, medium and longer term actions to support employment, fairness of work, encourage new entrants into the sector, and address upskilling and reskilling needs to enable the sector adapt to technological change and net zero carbon in the built environment.