Chamber and committees

Social Security Scotland do not make decisions on whether an application is fraudulent. Where fraud is suspected, appropriate investigations would be undertaken and when complete, a report would be made to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal for their consideration. If after due process a conviction is achieved, fraud is then confirmed by the Scottish Judicial System.

Prevention of fraud is a priority, with measures and controls embedded in Social Security Scotland’s processes and systems to minimise the opportunities for fraud.

With regards to combined levels of both fraud and error these are included in the Social Security Scotland Annual Report and Accounts.

Social Security Scotland carefully considers the information on counter fraud activity that can be placed into the public domain to ensure that any information released does not undermine the ability of Social Security Scotland to prevent and detect crime.

Prosecutors do not always choose to mark a case for no action, they may require to do so if there is not sufficient admissible evidence available in law to justify prosecutorial action or where the statutory time limits have been exceeded.

The following table sets out the total number of criminal cases in which no action was taken by the prosecutor at a) Ayr and b) Kilmarnock in each of the last 5 years.

The following table sets out the number of accused receiving a direct measure as a first substantive marking compared to the total number of accused receiving a first substantive marking (all types including: court, direct measure, no action, no decision) in cases including an assault charge (within the Scottish Government Classification of “Common Assault”):

The following table sets out the total number of accused reported to Ayr Procurator Fiscal Office receiving a first substantive marking of a fiscal fine in each of the last 5 years.

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

Serco who currently operates HMP Kilmarnock are not contractually obliged to install Body Worn Video Cameras (BWVCs). There are currently no plans to retain BWVCs currently in use by Officers at HMP Kilmarnock, post-transfer in March 2024.

The feasibility of a pilot to test the introduction of BWVCs across the SPS estate is however being considered in partnership with Trade Union Partners.

The following data is accurate up to the end of July 2023:

Number and value of loans by local authority:

The appraisal that supported the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) assessed the change in access public transport use and accessibility at a national and regional level to a range of locations, including health care; education and employment centres. The outcomes of this work were reported in the final-technical-report-28-december-2022-stpr2.pdf (transport.gov.scot) and accompanying detailed-appraisal-summary-table-national.pdf (transport.gov.scot). This appraisal was supported by a set of updated transport forecasts to 2045, which considered the impact of a 20% reduction in car kilometres by 2030 and an alternative scenario. Details of how these were developed can be found here: https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/52476/appendix-f-approach-to-scenario-planning-december-2022-stpr2.pdf .

It should be noted that the STPR2 appraisal and assessment covered infrastructure interventions and so did not specifically consider the future impacts of, for example, potential bus franchising in Scotland, the establishment of local council operated bus companies, or the outcomes of the Fair Fares Review. The impact of individual policies on bus use may be evaluated on a policy by policy basis through the transport appraisal process as they are developed

The General Practice Armed Forces and Veterans’ Recognition Scheme has been developed in conjunction with practices who agreed to be part of an initial pilot. The pilot finished in December 2022 and since then work has been on-going to update the training according to feedback from the pilot, ensuring that relevant training content, processes and data gathering are ready prior to a wider rollout to other practices. It is anticipated that the full roll out will take place later this year.

We do recognise the potential value of such as scheme and want to ensure that the benefits of the scheme are optimised for both the patient and the practice.

If General Practises are keen to be involved ahead of the full launch they can contact [email protected] for more information.

The Scottish Government does not currently have a position on classifying different end uses for steel. As part of the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan we are considering consultation responses and relevant research, including those relating to steel and the circular economy in line with our Just Transition Principles/Outcomes.

The 2023-24 Programme for Government and Pay Strategy maintains our commitment to a four-day working week public sector pilot to assess environmental, health and wellbeing benefits and productivity gains this could bring.

The pilot and the concluding report will ensure meaningful insights are gained on the benefits and risks of a four-day working week approach.

We are currently seeking an expert partner organisation to support pilot participants, assist with the pilot design and produce an evaluation report. The work of the expert partner organisation will define the framework to judge the effectiveness of the public sector four-day working week pilot proposal.