- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 3 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-38218 by Maree Todd on 17 June 2025, what analysis it has undertaken to explore to what extent the reported reduction in the number of people detained in police stations under a place of safety order may simply reflect missing data, rather than an actual reduction.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of individuals detained in police custody under place of safety orders. This data is collected and held by Police Scotland.
The Scottish Government is taking steps to strengthen data collection and evaluation within the mental health and policing space. The development of a proportionate performance framework will support ongoing monitoring and help distinguish between actual improvements and issues related to data completeness. This reflects the broader commitments set out in the Framework for Collaboration and Collaborative Commitments to ensure that data is robust and suitable to support informed decision-making, and to improve pathways for people in mental health crisis.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 3 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-38218 by Maree Todd on 17 June 2025, whether it has attempted to estimate the "true" proportion of people detained in police stations under a place of safety order, adjusting for any missing data and data collection practices, and, if so, what estimates it has made.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of individuals detained in police custody under place of safety orders. This data is collected and held by Police Scotland.
The Scottish Government is taking steps to strengthen data collection and evaluation within the mental health and policing space. The development of a proportionate performance framework will support ongoing monitoring and help distinguish between actual improvements and issues related to data completeness. This reflects the broader commitments set out in the Framework for Collaboration and Collaborative Commitments to ensure that data is robust and suitable to support informed decision-making, and to improve pathways for people in mental health crisis.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 1 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding virtual attendance at criminal court, whether it remains its position that "all stakeholders are of the view that the provisions…work well as currently framed", in light of the comments by the (a) Faculty of Advocates that "valuable court time is regularly lost due to delays in establishing remote links and re-establishing failed remote links", (b) Law Society of Scotland that "the virtual systems that we have had so far have tended to be pretty inflexible" and (c) Scottish Solicitors Bar Association that the pilot scheme for a virtual custody court at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court was "a singular failure".
Answer
The provisions of the Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews (Scotland) Bill will make permanent the legislative framework for virtual attendance at criminal courts first introduced over five years ago. This approach has been extensively consulted on including through the Scottish Government’s pre-legislative consultation. The responses of the Faculty of Advocates and the Law Society of Scotland to that consultation supported making these provisions permanent. The Scottish Solicitors Bar Association’s written evidence to the Criminal Justice Committee also supported the use of virtual hearings in specific circumstances such as intermediate diets and preliminary hearings.
As with any aspect of service delivery, the greater use of technology may cause difficulties to arise from time to time and justice agencies and partners engage with each other on those as they would about any matter of operational practice.
By its very nature, that is an ongoing and continuous process. Through repeated use and refinement of the technology over the last five years since the emergency legislation was introduced, practice has improved and there are adequate checks in place to minimise disruption caused by technical difficulties.
The comments by Law Society of Scotland and the Scottish Solicitors Bar Association were both made in the context of feedback around virtual custodies rather than the functioning of virtual provisions generally. Delivery partners have recognised concerns and virtual custodies have been paused pending a review including on the technological challenges experienced to date in implementation. A revised model will be explored through a working group established by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service which includes justice partners such as the Law Society of Scotland.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 26 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the reported criminal trials backlog had been cleared as of March 2025, and, if it does not consider it has been cleared, when it anticipates it will be.
Answer
The total number of scheduled trials outstanding peaked at 43,606 in January 2022 (from c18,000 pre-pandemic) and had reduced to 18,355 in the most current SCTS publication (May 2025). This significantly reduces the waiting time in which victims, witnesses and the accused await their trial.
While this positive picture demonstrates the success of the criminal court recovery programme in terms of backlogs, the court modelling undertaken by SCTS shows that the level of business entering Scotland’s criminal courts has changed since before the pandemic. There has been an increase in in relation to the most serious criminal cases. Justice agencies have been clear that the recovery programme will take time to address this, and we will continue to support that work.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 24 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to include any provisions in the proposed Heat in Buildings Bill specifically relating to buildings in rural and island areas.
Answer
In April, Dr Alasdair Allan MSP, former Minister for Climate Action, made a statement to Parliament that set out the Scottish Government’s plans to introduce a Heat in Buildings Bill later this session. He outlined that the Bill would include provisions for all buildings to end their use of polluting heat by 2045 (where reasonable / practicable), provisions designed to boost the growth of heat networks and powers to make regulations introducing minimum energy efficiency standards across owner-occupied and non-domestic buildings.
We recognise it may be more challenging for some homes and buildings to decarbonise, especially those in a rural or island setting. We will work with stakeholders to develop approaches and solutions that allow homes in Scotland to transition to greater energy efficiency and cleaner heating systems. Any legislation will be accompanied by the required impact assessments and designed in a way that is fair, proportionate and considers the requirements of buildings in rural and island areas.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 24 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the definition of "backlog" as referring to "the outstanding scheduled trials that are above the normal operating capacity of 20,000", as set out in the 2023 Auditor General report, Criminal courts backlog.
Answer
The definition of “backlog” in this context is referred to by the Auditor General report as the increase in criminal court cases waiting to be heard during the Covid 19 pandemic. At its peak, this reached 43,606 cases in January 2022.
The number of scheduled trials across all criminal business types has now returned to below 20,000. This is considered a manageable level of workload by Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service for the justice system.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 24 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what metric it would use to determine (a) whether and (b) when any criminal trials backlog has been cleared.
Answer
Court scheduling is a matter for SCTS and as a result there is no metric set by the Scottish Government. The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service publish monthly criminal case data, including volumes, trends, and outstanding trials. They also publish information on criminal court modelling. The latest report can be found here.
Scottish Government continue to support the criminal court recovery programme so that our justice agencies continue to make progress in increasing efficiencies and effectiveness of our courts. It is pleasing to see that significant progress has been made in criminal courts.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 24 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what research it has carried out regarding retrofitting traditional or listed buildings in rural and island areas.
Answer
Scottish Government officials have engaged with analytical specialists and key stakeholders, such as Historic Environment Scotland, to ensure that any proposals for retrofitting traditional buildings or listed buildings in rural and island areas are flexible and protect the characteristics of our buildings, as well as considering the health and wellbeing of Scotland’s people.
We have recently published a final report of the Short Life Tenement Short Life Working Group on energy efficiency and zero emissions heating as well as The suitability of clean heating options for challenging dwelling types, which are available on the Scottish Government website. Officials have also attended Hopetoun House and Holyrood Lodge to hear about the challenges of retrofit and what Historic Environment Scotland had done to improve these buildings.
We will continue to engage with stakeholders alongside the Private Renter Sector (PRS) Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) consultation workshops on the proposals. This engagement will be vital in helping us develop and shape cost-effective and feasible solutions to improve the energy efficiency of privately rented traditional and listed buildings in rural and island areas.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 24 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what work it has done to ensure that owners of traditional and listed buildings will receive sufficient support to retrofit these buildings in advance of any move to higher energy performance certificate (EPC) standards.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to improving energy efficiency and decarbonising heating systems in Scotland’s buildings to support improvements in fuel poverty and to help meet our climate target to reach net zero by 2045.
We have committed to investing over £300m in our Heat in Buildings programme in 2025-26. The support is aimed at reducing emissions from heating and improving energy efficiency in homes and other buildings across Scotland, as well as developing heat networks.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 24 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the reported statement by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service that the "normal volume" of scheduled criminal trials for an "efficient system" is 20,000 is (a) accurate and (b) reasonable.
Answer
SCTS is independent of Scottish Government and therefore entrusted to make determinations of what an efficient system for them looks like and what a normal volume of scheduled criminal trials would be.