Chamber and committees

As pre-announced in the forthcoming publications document, Official statistics: forthcoming publications - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) statistics for domestic abuse incidents recorded by Police Scotland for the reporting year of 2023-24 will be published on Tuesday 19 November.

COPFS has 16 contracts and service level agreements in place for pathology mortuary and toxicology services across Scotland.

All pathology agreements require pathologists to discuss post mortem findings with bereaved relatives if requested. Their assistance is invaluable to relatives seeking to understand the circumstances of their loved one’s death and is greatly appreciated by COPFS.

All doctors receive undergraduate medical school education in patient communication. This continues into forensic pathology training and consultancy when meeting with families to discuss post mortem findings. All doctors are expected to work within the standards set out by the General Medical Council for good medical practice.

The Royal College of Pathologists and NHS Education for Scotland oversee training standards in pathology and their uniformity across Scotland.

The purpose of the Death Investigation Improvement Board is to take forward three key areas for improvement in the death investigation system – (i) raising public awareness of the death investigation service, sharing lessons learned to reduce the incidence of avoidable deaths, (ii) providing bereaved relatives with the timeous provision of information they need to ensure they can effectively participate in the process and (iii) reducing the journey time for concluding death investigations, including FAIs.

The Board is chaired by the Deputy Crown Agent, Specialist Casework and its membership has representatives from each of the specialist death investigation units, Communications and Business Management.

The Board has a number of ongoing workstreams, including the creation of a Lived Experience Advisory Panel to enable participants with experience of the death investigation process to help inform improvements to the process by providing independent advice to the Board on issues such as the provision of information to relatives.

COPFS regularly meets and engages with pathology providers on a range of issues, including communication with bereaved relatives. These also allow discussion on any feedback received. Consideration is being given to the terms of the review and any further appropriate measures to be put in place.

The Scottish Government is more than halfway towards achieving our ambition for 2GW of community and locally owned energy by 2030, with an estimated 1,028 MW of community and local renewable energy capacity operational in Scotland at the end of December 2023. We are taking action to continue to help ensure people and communities benefit from the energy transition, including support for community and locally owned energy.

In 2024-5, the Scottish Government’s Community Energy Generation Growth Fund awarded up to £1.5 million in grants to community groups across Scotland to develop their own renewable energy projects. We are also taking action to increase ownership opportunities. Through our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) we provide online guidance, resources, and support to access funding and contractors to enable communities to engage with shared ownership opportunities.

We are committed to working with the community sector and other stakeholders to ensure the delivery of renewable energy comes with benefits for people in Scotland. This includes shared ownership, which has a vital role to play in a just transition by giving communities the chance to make an investment in a commercially owned renewable energy project.

Through our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) we provide online guidance, resources, and support to access funding and contractors to enable communities to engage with shared ownership opportunities. Building on the progress we have made to date, the Scottish Government is progressing work on the commitment in the Onshore Wind Sector Deal to develop a framework of practical approaches to support and encourage community shared ownership models, to assist communities, and developers and funders to engage in shared ownership opportunities. There will be opportunities for the community sector to engage with this process as work progresses.

The Scottish Government has made no assessment. The charter of the vessel is a commercial agreement between CalMac Ferries Ltd (CFL) and Pentland Ferries. Any reduction in capacity on the route would be for the operator of that route to consider when leasing the vessel.

This Scottish Government has made no assessment. As per the terms of the Clyde & Hebrides Ferry Services contract CalMac are required to consider and address capacity issues. As part of this they record and publish carrying statistics.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of reducing violence against employees of bodies delivering public services. In addition to work undertaken by public bodies themselves, we are currently working on a range of targeted initiatives including:

• Invested over £4 million in the delivery and implementation of the Violence Prevention Framework, including supporting the Mentors in Violence Prevention school-based programme.
• Published a joint action plan with COSLA to tackle violence towards staff in educational establishments.
• Co-chairing Your Safety Matters (YSM) External Partners Group (EPG).
• Promoting the Equally Safe at Work (ESAW) employer accreditation programme.

Below is a list of the community radio stations that the Scottish Government has run public information advertisements on over the last five years, alongside the total annual spend for each year. Spend per individual community station is classed as commercially sensitive and as such we are unable to provide this level of detail.

April 2020 - March 2021 - Total spend: £214,731

• Argyll Radio
• Awaz FM
• Caithness FM
• Cuillin FM/Skye
• Heartland FM
• Isles FM
• K107FM
• Lochbroom/ Two Lochs
• Nevis Radio
• Oban FM
• Panjab Radio
• Pulse 98.4
• Radio Ramadan
• Shetland Islands Broadcasting Company
• Waves Radio 101.2FM

April 2021 - March 2022 – Total spend: £405,912

• Alive FM
• Argyll Radio
• Awaz FM
• Caithness FM
• Cuillin FM/Skye
• Heartland FM
• Isles FM
• K107FM
• Lochbroom/ Two Lochs
• Mearns FM
• Nevis Radio
• Oban FM
• Panjab Radio
• Pulse 98.4
• Radio Ramadan
• Shetland Islands Broadcasting Company
• Waves Radio 101.2FM

April 2022- March 2023 – Total spend: £74,008

• Argyll Radio
• Awaz FM
• Caithness FM
• Cuillin FM/Skye
• Heartland FM
• Isles FM
• Jambo Radio
• Lochbroom/ Two Lochs
• Nevis Radio
• Oban FM
• Panjab Radio
• Shetland Islands Broadcasting Company
• Waves Radio 101.2FM

April 2023 - March 2024 – Total spend: £69,029

• Argyll Radio
• Awaz FM
• Caithness FM
• Cuillin FM/Skye
• Heartland FM
• Isles FM
• Jambo Radio
• K107FM
• Lochbroom/ Two Lochs
• Nevis Radio
• Oban FM
• Panjab Radio
• Shetland Islands Broadcasting Company

April 2024 – October 2024 spend to date Total spend: £14,438

• Argyll Radio
• Awaz FM
• Caithness FM
• Cuillin FM/Skye
• Heartland FM
• Isles FM
• Jambo Radio
• Lochbroom/ Two Lochs
• Nevis Radio
• Oban FM
• Panjab Radio
• Shetland Islands Broadcasting Company

It is the responsibility of individual public bodies to ensure they have procedures in place for the recording of violent incidents and policies for staff welfare. The Scottish Government would strongly encourage staff to report all instances of violent and aggressive behaviour through their local reporting systems. If it is a serious incident, we expect employers to fully support staff in escalating issues to Police Scotland as quickly as possible.

It is important for public bodies to capture data on protected characteristics when staff report instances of violence. This kind of data will help inform targeted interventions on a national and local level.

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

HMP Glasgow will have a design capacity of 1,344 prisoner places which includes 120 cells designed to accommodate two people.