Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-32311

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many trials were scheduled but not proceeded with by the Aberdeen office of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in the last reporting year.

The assigning of a hearing for trial is an order of the court and is recorded within the court’s interlocutor for each case.

COPFS uses a live, operational database to manage the processing of reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies throughout Scotland. It is designed to meet business needs in the processing of criminal cases, rather than for statistical analysis. Scheduled trial data is not retained once a date is cancelled regardless of the reason.

Information in respect of cases brought to court is produced by the Scottish Government, using data provided both by COPFS and SCTS. These are national figures and are not produced for individual courts or Procurator Fiscal Offices.

Question reference: S6W-32306

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases prosecuted by the Aberdeen office of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in the last reporting year resulted in a conviction.

COPFS uses a live, operational database to manage the processing of reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies throughout Scotland. It is designed to meet business needs in the processing of criminal cases, rather than for statistical analysis. Any data sought in the last reporting year would encompass cases reported within that period where there were still significant numbers of live charges. As such, any figures would not accurately reflect numbers of convictions in respect of the cases reported in that period.

Question reference: S6W-32333

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many homicide cases are currently being prosecuted.

Question reference: S6W-32602

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what safety measures are in place to ensure the continued operation of older diesel trains, including High Speed Trains (HSTs).

Question reference: S6W-32570

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the current subsidy per passenger is for ScotRail services, and how this compares with other rail operators in the UK.

Question reference: S6W-32534

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what level of carbon emissions a power generator can produce and still be considered "low-carbon".

Low Carbon electricity generation is defined for Scottish Government energy statistics reporting as electricity generated by renewable, nuclear or pumped hydro storage (PHS) technologies.

Most generation technologies are classified as low carbon by their type and there is no carbon threshold used to determine this classification.

Although nuclear power is designated as low carbon we do not support the building of new nuclear fission plants in Scotland under current technologies. Nuclear has high costs and provides poor value for money. It brings serious waste and environmental risks, and has long lead in times.

Question reference: S6W-32132

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its latest estimate is of what the total cost of cladding remediation in Scotland will be, and what methodology it used to arrive at this figure.

The Cladding Remediation Programme is accelerating the pace of delivery now that we have put in place the essential building blocks, including the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024, which will be commenced on 6 January 2025.

As we finalise these acceleration plans, we are diligently working on cost estimates to ensure financial clarity. However, the Scottish Government’s position remains that we will invest as necessary to effectively minimise risks posed by unsafe cladding.

Our spending on remediation costs can only follow a full end to end process - checking buildings are in scope, commissioning a Single Building Assessment, completing that robust technical assessment, identifying the works that need to be carried out, designing those works and gaining the necessary approvals, and then carrying out the remediation itself.

Investment in the programme continues with £52.2 million allocated in the 2025-2026 Scottish Government budget to support delivery and acceleration.

Question reference: S6W-32240

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many Protecting Vulnerable Group (PVG) checks have been undertaken for people working with young people in sport in each year since 1999.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Year	PVG applications from sport/leisure organisations
2011	10830
2012	18909
2013	29172
2014	29147
2015	35371
2016	39675
2017	46391
2018	39515
2019	33207
2020	15165
2021	25403
2022	30020
2023	32592
2024	28852

The PVG Scheme commenced on 28 February 2011.

This data is from Disclosure Scotland’s categorisation of the organisation countersigning as “sport/leisure” and Volunteer Scotland Disclosure Services’ category of an enrolled body having the function of “sport”. In the case of Disclosure Scotland’s “sport/leisure” category this may include checks on people who are not working in sports as “leisure” includes non-sporting activities.

Disclosure Scotland may also receive applications from organisations which are not primarily sports organisations but that do provide sports activities to vulnerable groups and therefore undertake PVG checks on people working in sport activities. Such applications are not included in these figures.

Where an organisation, such as a sports organisation, uses a third party to process disclosures and countersign on behalf of the organisation, these are categorised as applications from an “umbrella body”. These are not generally included in these figures. The only umbrella body which provides a breakdown of organisation type to Disclosure Scotland is Volunteer Scotland Disclosure Services. Their "sport" figures have been included in this data.

The PVG statement of scheme membership is provided to allow a person who is self-employed, such as private tutors or private sports coaches, to present prospective clients with their scheme membership status. As there is no organisation involved, these do not have a category for inclusion in these figures.

Question reference: S6W-32330

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been reffered to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) for precognition in each of the last five years.

COPFS uses a live, operational database to manage the processing of reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies throughout Scotland. It is designed to meet business needs in the processing of criminal cases, rather than for statistical analysis. Any data in respect of the number of people currently being precognosed is updated each day and cannot be recalculated retrospectively or aggregated. This question cannot be readily answered by COPFS.

Question reference: S6W-32340

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many criminal cases in the last year have been discontinued by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) due to lack of evidence.

Chamber and committees