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: S5O-01116

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 14 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports the provision of educational support in mainstream schools.

Question reference: S5W-09355

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many people convicted of possessing (a) heroin, (b) cocaine, (c) cannabis, (d) amphetamines, (e) ecstasy and (f) other drugs in each year since 2010-11 received a (i) custodial sentence, (ii) community payback order, including a requirement to carry out a drug treatment programme, (iii) drug treatment and testing order, (iv) fine and (v) other disposal.

The requested information for the offences of "possession" and "possession with intent to supply" is presented in the following table.

Drug possession convictions by selected drug types1 and disposal, 2010-11 to 2015-16

	Custody	Community payback order	Drug treatment and testing order	Other community sentence	Monetary	Other	Total

All drug possession convictions

2010-11	1,325	14	138	885	3,606	1,095	7,063
2011-12	1,200	443	119	388	3,185	994	6,329
2012-13	1,020	801	108	108	2,780	922	5,739
2013-14	949	849	97	72	3,087	941	5,995
2014-15	831	931	79	62	3,272	1,073	6,248
2015-16	924	945	70	123	3,235	1,219	6,516

Heroin
2010-11	542	5	99	296	792	385	2,119
2011-12	484	82	71	102	598	354	1,691
2012-13	377	173	64	19	478	286	1,397
2013-14	355	156	65	20	418	215	1,229
2014-15	354	208	50	15	486	249	1,362
2015-16	394	208	52	25	550	310	1,539

Cocaine
2010-11	182	1	2	111	915	79	1,290
2011-12	181	68	5	54	851	88	1,247
2012-13	196	125	4	27	853	95	1,300
2013-14	174	142	3	14	920	91	1,344
2014-15	141	164	7	6	1,016	111	1,445
2015-16	160	177	4	20	949	116	1,426

Cannabis
2010-11	176	1	8	186	1,043	266	1,680
2011-12	170	131	6	100	848	235	1,490
2012-13	182	215	3	25	697	241	1,363
2013-14	193	305	8	20	1,006	341	1,873
2014-15	133	318	6	19	982	417	1,875
2015-16	167	328	1	43	1,026	484	2,049

Amphetamines

2010-11	37	1	2	44	112	30	226
2011-12	46	8	3	20	85	23	185
2012-13	41	19	3	10	53	19	145
2013-14	41	34	1	2	74	14	166
2014-15	34	44	2	2	84	15	181
2015-16	41	29	1	7	82	26	186

Ecstasy
2010-11	4	-	-	15	74	16	109
2011-12	5	5	-	6	141	16	173
2012-13	11	21	1	2	136	17	188
2013-14	12	28	-	2	161	40	243
2014-15	17	36	-	4	190	19	266
2015-16	16	39	-	5	190	37	287

Other drugs

2010-11	384	6	27	233	670	319	1,639
2011-12	314	149	34	106	662	278	1,543
2012-13	213	248	33	25	563	264	1,346
2013-14	174	184	20	14	508	240	1,140
2014-15	152	161	14	16	514	262	1,119
2015-16	146	164	12	23	438	246	1,029

Source: Criminal Proceedings database

1- Where main charge

Question reference: S5W-09354

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the length of custodial sentences by drug type in each year since 2010-11.

The following table presents the average custodial sentences for all drug offences by the type of drug involved. This includes the offences of "illegal importation of drugs", "production, manufacture or cultivation of drugs", "possession with intent to supply drugs", "possession", "drugs, money laundering relating offences" and "bringing drugs into prison".

Average custodial sentence (days) for drugs offences by type of drug, 2010-11 to 2015-16

	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16

All drug offences	575	542	578	604	517	476
Heroin	496	523	641	678	571	539
Cocaine	781	789	834	796	676	602
Cannabis	531	503	427	485	458	389
Amphetamines	442	495	610	865	514	439
Ecstasy	372	273	622	578	477	366
Other drugs	632	475	420	411	343	344

Source: Criminal proceedings database

Question reference: S5O-01050

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when it will introduce the first pilot schemes for the management of the seabed.

Question reference: S5O-01011

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 May 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to deliver inclusive growth for Orkney.

Question reference: S5W-09118

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 11 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06022 by Michael Matheson on 24 January 2017, whether it will provided the same information for the (a) remainder of 2016 and (b) period since 1 January 2017.

Police Scotland are currently dealing with air weapon licence applications received between 1 November and 31 December 2016. We have now been advised by Police Scotland that the figure of 5,436 applications received during this period, which was provided in response to your question S5W-06022, was incorrect. The correct figure was 5,278. This error emerged when a change to the Police Scotland administration process for air weapon licences uncovered duplication of certain applications in the records.

Police Scotland are processing applications in the order in which they were received. They have processed 3,763 of the applications received between 1 November and 31 December 2016, of which 3,066 have so far been approved.

There have been 2,011 applications received between 1 January 2017 and 4 May 2017. Each application has been reviewed to ensure all necessary information has been completed and photographs received. These applications will be processed once those received by 31 December have been completed.

Up to 4 May 2017 there have been a total of 107 refusals in respect of all applications received since 1 July 2016.

In addition to these figures solely for air weapon licences, up to 4 May 2017 there have been 2,394 applications for co-terminous applications, where the applicant already has a shotgun and/or firearm certificate. There have been no refusals.

Police Scotland are unable to provide a regional breakdown of these figures.

Question reference: S5W-09120

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 11 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the HITRANS report, Midnight Train to Georgemas, which sets out a proposal for a Caithness-Edinburgh sleeper service.

HITRANS has developed an innovative proposal for linking Caithness directly with the Central Belt. It has submitted the proposal to its Board, and shared with us for our information.

We are aware that HITRANS has now engaged consultants to assist in the development of a detailed report supporting its outline proposal, and we are happy to give evidence to that process. On completion, it will then be for HITRANS to determine whether it wishes to promote this proposal further. We would, of course, then review its content and discuss directly with Hitrans.

Question reference: S5W-09084

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 28 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 11 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what performance indicators have been implemented to measure the efficiency of courts since the publication of the Audit Scotland report, Efficiency of prosecuting criminal cases though the sheriff courts.

As a result of the recommendations of the Audit Scotland report to which the question refers, the Scottish Government publishes, on a monthly basis, a measurement of the average sheriff court summary waiting period, which is the time between a plea of not guilty being recorded and the first trial diet in a summary case. Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service has a target of 16 weeks for this period, which it is presently meeting on a national basis.

This information, together with other additional statistical information about the performance of the summary criminal justice system, is available at

http://www.gov.scot/About/public-bodies/SheriffdomCriminalJusticeBoards/SummaryCriminalJusticePerformanceStatistics

Question reference: S5W-09085

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 28 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 11 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government which sheriff court buildings have functioning wi-fi.

The Scottish Courts and Tribunals (SCTS) have confirmed that all Sheriff Courts have functioning wireless access, with the exception of Dunoon. SCTS have not upgraded their wide area network connection in Dunoon due to factors outwith the court building, and must reserve the existing capacity of the legacy network connection for essential court business, including video conferencing. The wireless service will be enabled once a new connection is established.

Question reference: S5W-09082

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 28 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 11 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage criminal defence lawyers to use video-conferencing technology when dealing with clients who are (a) serving a custodial sentence and (b) being held on remand.

Action is being taken to increase up-take of video-conferencing including piloting the video-links system with advocates. Visits to Polmont and Barlinnie prisons are planned to engage with solicitors attending the prisons to provide information on the benefits of the video-links system and identify any barriers, perceived or otherwise, to usage. In addition the Video Conferencing Project Board recently met and agreed to some targeted communication activity to promote the use of video-conferencing. 415 Agents to Prisons Video-links were conducted during February to April 2017.