Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-23635

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-22987 by Jenny Gilruth on 5 December 2023, in light of the information that "has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre under Bib. Number 64646" containing redacted figures, whether it will reconsider its decision to redact these figures to allow for meaningful scrutiny of the data.

This data has been redacted according to data protection legislation. As the redacted figures are below five, there is increased risk of identification of data subjects, and as such these figures must be treated as personal data.

The data protection legislation; UKGDPR and DPA 2018 are derivatives of the Human Rights Act. Their purpose is to uphold the rights of individuals in relation to their data and privacy.

Question reference: S6W-23586

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5O-03945 by Humza Yousaf on 19 December 2019, what the staff (a) recruitment, (b) retention and (c) absence rate has been at each prison and young offenders institution in the last 12 months.

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

The following tables set out the position in relation to recruitment (Table1), retention (table 2), and absence (table 3) across the SPS estate.

The data provided only covers operational prison officer grades, who have responsibility for delivering essential frontline services within Scotland’s prisons.

Data has been provided for the year 1 November 2022 to 31 October 2023 as data covering the period to 30 November 2023 has not yet been finalised and is therefore not available.

Table 1

Establishment	Number of new prison officers recruited between 1 November 2022 and 31 October 2023
Barlinnie	59
Bella Centre	6
Dumfries	15
Edinburgh	50
Glenochil	30
Grampian	24
Greenock	21
Inverness	13
Lilias Centre	3
Low Moss	18
Open Estate	8
Perth	28
Polmont	39
Shotts	27
Stirling	31
Total	372

Table 2

Establishment	Number of leavers between 1 November 2022 and 31 October 2023 across prison officer grades	Turnover % in the period vs establishment complement across prison officer grades
Barlinnie	54	10.19%
Bella Centre	2	5.75%
Dumfries	14	10.40%
Edinburgh	47	11.01%
Glenochil	19	7.90%
Grampian	22	5.27%
Greenock	21	9.89%
Inverness	5	5.41%
Lilias Centre	2	5.75%
Low Moss	31	10.54%
Open Estate	8	9.80%
Perth	17	5.65%
Polmont	30	7.25%
Shotts	19	5.80%
Stirling	6	3.07%
Totals	297	7.89%

Table 3

Establishment	Average Working Days Lost (AWDL) figure across prison officer grades (1 Nov 2022 - 31 Oct 2023)
Barlinnie	22.1
Bella Centre	14.2
Dumfries	14.6
Edinburgh	19.8
Glenochil	17.6
Grampian	9.5
Greenock	20.5
Inverness	10.3
Lilias Centre	8.4
Low Moss	18.7
Open Estate	10.2
Perth	18.8
Polmont	17.1
Shotts	19.1
Stirling	25.5
Establishment Average	18.1

Question reference: S6T-01702

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 December 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that Police Scotland is considering closing more than 40 police buildings.

Question reference: S6W-23239

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 8 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the Scottish National Party manifesto commitment to invest £50 million to create a Women's Business Centre, how much has been invested to date; what that investment has been spent on; what the defined (a) objectives were and (b) measurables are; how many women have been assisted "to develop their pioneering business idea"; where any such women and their businesses are located; whether it has achieved the aim of having more women in business, and, if so, how that has been measured.

The idea for a Women’s Business Centre was among a suite of options considered in the review led by Ana Stewart culminating in the publication of Pathways for a New Approach to Women in Entrepreneurship. The Pathways report was published in February 2023 following extensive consultation and contained a wide range of recommendations on provision of advice and support, access to finance and investment as well as entrepreneurial education and use of disaggregated data. As that report did not recommend the establishment of a Women’s Business Centre we will now work to progress the recommendations from Pathways instead. In June 2023 the Scottish Government accepted the Pathways report in full and began work to implement its key recommendations. The first phase of that work established the Pathways Pre-Start Fund to support more women, and other under-represented groups, into business ownership and to realise their entrepreneurial potential. The 20 projects receiving funding have been published at Pathways Pre-Start Fund: funded programmes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Question reference: S6W-23585

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 December 2023
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the monthly average sales income for fishermen has been in each of the last three years.

Question reference: S6W-22987

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-22541 by Jenny Gilruth on 14 November 2023, when it anticipates that the information will be available.

Question reference: S6W-23040

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-22201 by Jenny Gilruth on 14 November 2023, when it expects to report on whether it or local authorities will meet the cost to "update when necessary" the laptops, Chromebooks and tablets that are given to school children in Scotland, and at what cost, in light of reports that this work has been underway since at least February 2022.

Question reference: S6W-23074

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills has received a request under rule 9 of the Inquiry Rules 2006 for evidence regarding any WhatsApp messages and informal communications with cabinet secretaries, ministers, senior civil servants or advisers, on Scottish Government-issued or personal devices, in relation to matters for which she had responsibility in her former role as Minister for Transport between January and February 2022.

Question reference: S6W-23073

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills has received a request under rule 9 of the Inquiry Rules 2006 for evidence regarding any WhatsApp messages and informal communications with cabinet secretaries, ministers, senior civil servants or advisers, on Scottish Government-issued or personal devices, in relation to matters for which she had responsibility in her former role as Minister for Europe and International Development between February 2020 and May 2021.

Question reference: S6W-23070

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Minister for Higher and Further Education and Minister for Veterans has received a request under rule 9 of the Inquiry Rules 2006 for evidence regarding any WhatsApp messages and informal communications with cabinet secretaries, ministers, senior civil servants or advisers, on Scottish Government-issued or personal devices, in relation to matters for which he had responsibility in his former role as Minister for Parliamentary Business and Veterans between January 2020 and May 2021.

The Scottish Government has received a number of requests from the UK Covid-19 Inquiry under Rule 9 of the Inquiry Rules Act 2006, and has been asked not to disclose the evidence that has been requested or provided, as have all core participants.

As a result, the Scottish Government is unable to confirm or comment on the details of any Rule 9 requests to individuals.

The Scottish Government remains fully committed in its cooperation with both the UK and Scottish Covid-19 Inquiries in their independent work to explore the handling of the pandemic and to identify the vital lessons we all need to learn.

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