Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

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: S6O-01260

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its latest assessment is of the impact of Brexit on Scotland's economy.

Question reference: S6W-08740

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 1 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans are in place to legislate for the protection of the estimated up to 15 million cleaner fish (lumpsuckers and wrasse) that are used in the aquaculture industry in Scotland each year.

All farmed fish, including cleaner fish, are protected by the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, which places a duty on fish farms to ensure their needs are met. The Scottish Government’s Fish Health Inspectorate inspects the legally required veterinary and mortality records held by fish farms. Significant cases of poor welfare observed during inspection are reported to the Animal and Plant Health Agency.

The Farmed Fish Health Framework Steering Group, which includes fish vets, regulators, sector representatives and Scottish Government officials, and which is chaired by the Scottish Government Chief Veterinary Officer, provides the appropriate forum within which future policy relating to the health and welfare of farmed fish will be developed.

Currently, there are no plans to introduce further legislation relating to the use of cleaner fish in Scottish aquaculture.

Question reference: S6O-01141

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has carried out of the specific risk to female refugees who are fleeing Ukraine to resettle in Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-01026

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that women who need it have access to specialist services for advice and support on the diagnosis and management of menopause.

Question reference: S6O-00913

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Snarewatch Annual Report 2021 from OneKind.

Question reference: S6W-06332

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ash Regan on 4 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the key sources of data on prostitution offences are within the criminal justice system.

The Scottish Government’s primary sources of data on prostitution offences within the criminal justice system are the annual National Statistics publications on Recorded Crime in Scotland and Criminal Proceedings in Scotland .

Recorded Crime in Scotland is based on a count of these crimes, reported to Police Scotland, and broken down by local authority. The most recent publication covers the 2020-21 financial year.

The Criminal Proceedings in Scotland publication provides statistics on individuals proceeded against in court (specifically their age and gender). Statistics are also available on the result of these proceedings and the subsequent disposal given if the individual was found to be guilty. The most recent publication covers the 2019-20 financial year.

For these statistical collections, prostitution offences fall under the category “Crimes associated with prostitution”, which is included in Sexual crimes. This category includes six specific crime types:

? Brothel keeping;

? Immoral traffic;

? Offences related to prostitution;

? Procuration (excluding homosexual acts);

? Procuration of homosexual acts; and

? Soliciting services of a person engaged in prostitution

Offences related to prostitution is defined in the Scottish Crime Recording Standard as, “A prostitute (whether male or female) who for the purposes of prostitution loiters in a public place; solicits in a public place or in any other place so as to be seen from a public place; or importunes any person who is in a public place.”

The publications described above provide statistics on the Crimes associated with prostitution group but do not routinely include separate figures on the six crime types listed above. However, this information is available on request.

As an example, below we show data from the last available five years for recorded crime (Table 1) and criminal proceedings (Tables 2-4, covering proceedings, convictions and conviction rates, respectively). Note: criminal proceedings data is only available up to 2019-20, whereas recorded crime is up to 2020-21.

Care should be taken when comparing these different data sources. For example, recorded crime statistics count crimes and offences at the time that they came to the attention of Police Scotland while criminal proceedings statistics report on cases which have concluded in court. This means that a crime may be recorded by the police in one year and court proceedings concluded in a subsequent year. In addition, a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime, or a set of crimes with more than one victim, in a proceeding, but only the main charge is counted in these court proceedings statistics. There is also the possibility that the crime recorded by the police may be altered in the course of judicial proceedings.

Table 1. Police recorded crimes associated with prostitution, Scotland, 2016-17 to 2020-21

Crime	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Brothel keeping	14	18	10	13	13
Immoral traffic	26	21	31	23	23
Offences related to prostitution	194	65	50	13	2
Procuration (excluding homosexual acts)	11	8	5	10	7
Procuration of homosexual acts	0	2	0	0	0
Soliciting services of a person engaged in prostitution	58	22	139	42	11
Total	303	136	235	101	56

Table 2. Number of people proceeded for crimes associated with prostitution where it is the main charge, Scotland, 2015-16 to 2019-20

Crime	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
Brothel keeping	7	3	3	2	6
Immoral traffic	2	0	2	2	2
Offences related to prostitution	55	59	32	9	9
Procuration (excluding homosexual acts)	0	0	1	0	0
Procuration of homosexual acts	0	0	0	0	0
Soliciting services of a person engaged in prostitution	53	36	15	30	57
Total	117	98	53	43	74

Table 3. Number of people convicted for crimes associated with prostitution where it is the main charge, Scotland, 2015-16 to 2019-20

Crime	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
Brothel keeping	5	1	1	2	1
Immoral traffic	1	0	2	1	1
Offences related to prostitution	49	58	30	8	5
Procuration (excluding homosexual acts)	0	0	1	0	0
Procuration of homosexual acts	0	0	0	0	0
Soliciting services of a person engaged in prostitution	31	25	13	26	38
Total	86	84	47	37	45

Table 4. Conviction rate for crimes associated with prostitution where it is the main charge, Scotland, 2015-16 to 2019-20

Crime	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
Brothel keeping	71%	33%	33%	100%	17%
Immoral traffic	50%	0%	100%	50%	50%
Offences related to prostitution	89%	98%	94%	89%	56%
Procuration (excluding homosexual acts)	0%	0%	100%	0%	0%
Procuration of homosexual acts	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Soliciting services of a person engaged in prostitution	58%	69%	87%	87%	67%
Total	74%	86%	89%	86%	61%

Question reference: S6O-00752

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to identify perpetrators of human trafficking and disrupt their activity.

Question reference: S5O-05159

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 March 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to increase the number of affordable homes.

Question reference: S5W-35326

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 February 2021
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Angela Constance on 19 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made by the Residential Rehabilitation Working Group on drug and alcohol residential treatment services.

In June 2020, the then Minister for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing asked Dr David McCartney to chair a Working Group tasked with reporting on and making recommendations to the Scottish Government towards the strengthening of referral pathways, capacity planning and developing models of good practice for funding and delivery for drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation treatment.

The group reported to Ministers in December 2020 making a number recommendations. The Scottish Government published its response today, accepting all recommendations where it is within Minister’s remit to do so. This can be found on the Scottish Government website at http://www.gov.scot/Publications/Recent .

Progress has already been made in some areas. A good practice guide on pathways into and out of residential rehabilitation is already being developed; we continue to see referrals through our prison to residential rehabilitation pathway, and the Scottish Recovery Consortium, through Scottish Government funding, is running a pilot to help people most at risk following near fatal overdose to access residential rehabilitation treatment services.

The report raises a number of questions on which we need to do more. The Scottish Government will be guided every step of the way by the experience of people whose lives have been touched by drug use and the front line services who support people. Dr McCartney will lead a newly convened Residential Rehabilitation Working Group which will be focused on advising Scottish Government on taking forward all the actions set out in the recommendations and their implementation.

The First Minister, in her statement to Scottish Parliament in January, announced significant additional investment of £250 million over the five years of the next parliament as part of our national mission to tackle drugs deaths; and a £5 million support package to ensure immediate action before the end of this financial year. £100 million of this will support further investment in - and expansion of - residential rehabilitation and associated aftercare, with a further two £1 million grant funds to support grassroots and third sector organisations. £3 million of this package has already been allocated to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships.

Question reference: S5O-05000

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what measures in its Budget aim to tackle workplace inequalities.