Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-03687

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many prisoner suicides there have been in each year since 2006.

Question reference: S5W-03706

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many sheriff court staff have (a) had training to support and (b) supported the function of domestic abuse courts in each year since 2011, and what percentage of the sheriff court workforce this represents.

Question reference: S5W-03684

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many assaults there have been on prison staff in each year since 2006, also broken down by how many were recorded as "serious".

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

Prisoner on Staff Assaults from 2006 to 2017 (Present) broken down by Establishment and injury criteria:

Serious Assaults

	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
Aberdeen	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Addiewell	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	1
Barlinnie	0	1	0	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	0
Cornton Vale	0	0	0	1	2	1	0	0	1	1	0
Dumfries	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Edinburgh	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	2	0	1
Glenochil	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0
Grampian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Greenock	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	0
Inverness	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kilmarnock	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Low Moss	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0
Open Estate	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Perth	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	0
Peterhead	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Polmont	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0
Shotts	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	1
Totals	0	4	2	3	8	5	1	2	9	4	3

Minor/No Injury Assaults

	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-2016	2016-2017
Aberdeen	6	2	6	8	7	2	10	7	0	0	0
Addiewell	0	0	14	48	22	13	17	12	5	10	15
Barlinnie	32	19	28	21	29	22	12	20	27	22	21
Cornton Vale	23	23	49	41	66	50	43	13	30	42	6
Dumfries	0	3	3	1	1	3	2	4	1	2	1
Edinburgh	15	13	9	14	67	13	28	9	15	9	9
Glenochil	4	8	3	3	2	3	4	13	3	11	0
Grampian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	16	29	12
Greenock	5	1	0	4	3	3	1	2	2	1	2
Inverness	3	3	1	0	5	0	1	0	5	2	1
Kilmarnock	12	19	11	9	11	21	20	13	8	14	7
Low Moss	0	0	0	0	0	0	15	20	7	9	4
Open Estate	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0
Perth	9	14	11	15	11	5	20	13	13	26	5
Peterhead	4	1	2	0	7	2	2	5	0	0	0
Polmont	17	7	7	14	8	19	19	23	22	17	10
Shotts	8	3	10	6	15	5	9	7	6	8	5
Totals	138	116	154	184	254	161	203	161	161	204	98

The figures for 2016-17 denotes figures to date.

Question reference: S5W-02100

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by James Wolffe on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of alleged hate crime have been taken to court in each of the last three years.

The following table contains the total number of hate crime charges reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) from April 2013 to March 2016 where court proceedings were commenced. All figures provided are based on data extracted from the COPFS case management system on 6 May 2016, which was the basis of the 2016 report on hate crime in Scotland.

Financial Year

2013-14

2014-15

2015-16

Total

5104

4677

4740

14521

Table one. All hate crime charges taken to court during the last three financial years.

Question reference: S5W-02099

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by James Wolffe on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of alleged hate crime have been reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in each of the last three years.

The following table contains the total number of hate crime charges reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) from April 2013 to March 2016. All figures provided are based on data extracted from the COPFS case management system on 6 May 2016, which was the basis of the 2016 report on hate crime in Scotland.

Financial Year

2013-14

2014-15

2015-16

Total

5855

5398

5588

16841

Table one. All hate crime charges reported to COPFS during the last three financial years.

Question reference: S5W-02102

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by James Wolffe on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of alleged hate crime (a) have been marked as (i) having been aggravated by prejudice and (ii) charged under another offence with no marking for being aggravated by prejudice and (b) resulted in no charge being brought forward in each of the past three years.

All figures provided are based on data extracted from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service case management system on 6 May 2016, which was the basis of the 2016 report on hate crime in Scotland.

The following table contains information in respect of the total number of charges reported to the Procurator Fiscal for hate crime offences between April 2013 and March 2016 that were not prosecuted and figures for charges still awaiting a marking decision. It also provides a breakdown of how these offences were dealt with by the Procurator Fiscal.

Direct measures include fiscal fines, compensation orders, personal or written warnings and referrals to diversion from prosecution schemes and referrals to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration.

The direct measures figures include a small number of charges which were not actioned, but where the accused was given a direct measure in respect of other charges within the same case. In some cases the charges which were given a direct measure may have included details from the charges which were not actioned.

The not separately actioned figures include charges which were not prosecuted, but where other charges for the same accused within the same case were prosecuted. In some cases, the charges which were prosecuted may have included details from charges which were not prosecuted i.e. some charges could have been merged together.

Marking Decision	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
No Action	222	229	174
Direct measures	151	120	156
Awaiting decision		15	165
Not separately actioned	378	357	353
Non-Court Total	751	721	848

Table 1. Number of charges not prosecuted during the last three financial years

Question reference: S5W-02098

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by James Wolffe on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many attempted prosecutions of alleged hate crime in the last three years have resulted in (a) a conviction and (b) an aquittal, broken down by (i) charges marked as having been aggravated by prejudice and (ii) having no marking for being aggravated by prejudice.

All figures provided are based on data extracted from the The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) case management system on 6 May 2016, which was the basis of the 2016 report on hate crime in Scotland.

The following tables contain information in respect of the number of charges reported to the Procurator Fiscal for hate crime offences between April 2013 and March 2016. In addition, the tables provide a breakdown of how these offences were dealt with by the Procurator Fiscal.

Line three provide the number of cases that are still ongoing so it is not yet known whether they will lead to a conviction or an acquittal.

Some statutory charges may also include hate crime aggravations, which will be included in their respective aggravation category. For example a race charge might also have an aggravation for disability. The disability aggravation will be included in the total number for that category and the race charge will be included in the total number for race charges.

Action taken re Charge	Outcome	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	Grand Total
1. Court	1. Conviction	1876	1670	1159	4705
	2. No Conviction	701	554	318	1573
	3. Ongoing	115	376	1466	1957
	4. No Further Court Action	288	229	110	612
1. Court Total		2980	2829	3052	8861

Table 1. Conviction and acquittal information for charges containing at least one aggravation by prejudice

Action taken re Charge	Outcome	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	Grand Total
1. Court	1. Conviction	1371	1163	671	3205
	2. No Conviction	534	365	156	1055
	3. Ongoing	65	199	852	1116
	4. No Further Court Action	189	159	58	405
1. Court Total		2159	1886	1737	5782

Table 2. Conviction and acquittal information for statutory Racial charges under Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 Section 50, Public Order Act 1986 Sections 18, 19 and 23and Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act 2012, sections one and six.

Question reference: S5W-02101

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by James Wolffe on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of alleged hate crime have resulted in a prosecution in each of the last three years.

The following table contains the total number of hate crime charges reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) from April 2013 to March 2016 where the decision made was prosecution. All figures provided are based on data extracted from the COPFS case management system on 6 May 2016, which was the basis of the 2016 report on hate crime in Scotland.

Financial Year

2013-14

2014-15

2015-16

Total

5104

4677

4740

14521

Table 1. All hate crime charges prosecuted during the last three financial years.

Question reference: S5W-03483

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to quesiton S5W-02503 by Michael Matheson on 22 September 2016, what (a) technical and (b) medical evaluation has been carried out regarding the use of spit hoods by Police Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-03486

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02503 by Michael Matheson on 22 September 2016, what procurement criteria are used by the police when sourcing spit hoods, and which companies supply these.

2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
9	10	6	6	10	6	8	5	3	1	0