Chamber and committees

At the Celtic versus Rangers match on 23 October 2016, there were 16 arrests in total.  6 of these came under Section 1 of the Offensive Behaviour at Football Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012.

While no additional resources have been allocated to SPICe specifically as a consequence of the UK decision to leave the EU, the additional resources allocated under the Parliament-wide resourcing exercise, referred to in the answer to S5W-03903, are expected to provide SPICe with sufficient flexibility to meet the immediate increase in demand for research and enquiry services in relation to Brexit.

For example, the Academic Engagement Strategy has already delivered a number of benefits including funding a series of Breakfast Brexit Briefings for Members and their staff from senior academics from a range of Scotland’s universities.  Additionally, SPICe commissioned the Fraser of Allander Institute to conduct an analysis of the impact of the decision to leave the EU on the Scottish economy.

We will continue to keep under review the resource implications of the newly devolved powers and those still to be devolved, and of the UK decision to leave the EU.

The SPCB budget is determined on an annual basis and is subject to parliamentary scrutiny and approval, so it’s not possible to state the annual resourcing for each year during the current parliamentary session.

The SPCB’s budget bid for 2016/17 reflects additional resources for a number of offices, including SPICe, in recognition of the resource implications of the devolution of further powers, including new welfare powers, to the Scottish Parliament under the Scotland Acts 2012 and 2016.

Specific staffing issues are the responsibility of the Scottish Parliamentary Service, under the direction of the Clerk/Chief Executive.

Additional resources in SPICe are:

A new permanent full time post for a researcher with expertise in social welfare – the new post-holder was appointed on 26 September 2016.

Approval to make permanent an existing temporary senior researcher full time post in the Financial Scrutiny Unit

An additional (0.5 FTE) Enquires Officer post in SPICe to help meet the expected increase in enquiries flowing from the new powers.

Allocation of a budget to develop a comprehensive Academic Engagement Strategy aimed at developing innovative ways of accessing the expertise in our higher education institutions to support the Parliament’s ability to hold the Scottish Government to account. 

The Scottish Government submits a report to the Scottish Parliament twice a year, detailing the Scottish legislation transposing EU law in devolved areas. The reports are published on the Scottish Parliament website. This does not include EU law that has direct effect – i.e. EU obligations which do not require transposition.

This information is not held centrally.

The MS Register, operated by NHS National Services Scotland’s Information Services Division (ISD) and supported by the Scottish Government, gives a figure of 2,731 people who reported to the Register within the period January 2010 to December 2015. It should be noted, however, that the MS Register refers to new diagnoses only and is therefore not reflective of the total number of people who live with MS in Scotland.

The following figures, published on 13 September 2016, give a breakdown of the 2,731 figure by NHS boards (it is also important to note the data caveats below the table).

* Following ISD Statistical Disclosure Control Protocol, any cells with count values of four or less have been suppressed in order to protect the confidentiality of potentially personally identifiable information. Note also that nine patients were excluded from this table due to an incomplete/missing date of confirmed diagnosis.

Since 2007, the Scottish Government has been committed to a policy of no compulsory redundancy across those bodies covered by Ministers’ Public Sector Pay Policy and since 2011, NHS Scotland. The no compulsory redundancy policy has been extended until 2016-17. Information for local government and the limited number of devolved public bodies not covered by the Pay Policy is not held centrally.

Since 2007, the Scottish Government has been committed to a policy of no compulsory redundancy across those bodies covered by Ministers’ Public Sector Pay Policy and since 2011, NHS Scotland. The no compulsory redundancy policy has been extended until 2016-17. Information for local government and the limited number of devolved public bodies not covered by the Pay Policy is not held centrally.

Investigations into disorder related to the Aberdeen FC v Rangers FC match on 25 September 2016 are still on-going. Police Scotland has advised that to date two individuals have been charged with alleged breaches of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012 and a further two individuals have been arrested for other offences directly related to the match. Police Scotland has confirmed that officers are examining footage from the match in order to identify those responsible for disorder, vandalism, offensive and antisocial behaviour.

The Scottish Government recently held conversations with the UK Government regarding the funding that was allocated in its March 2015 Budget to tackling nuisance calls. This funding is to provide call blocking devices to people identified as being at high risk of financial damage and personal distress as a result of nuisance calls. The National Trading Standards Scams Team will administer the funding and will provide equipment to the whole of the UK over the next two years.

The second session of the Nuisance Calls Commission, in January 2017, will look to empower and support companies that want to do the right thing, for example by providing guidance or finding ways to share best practice and find effective ways to tackle persistently offending companies or individuals. Part of this session will be considering potential technological solutions including call blocking technologies.