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-08045

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 23 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have begun a sentence in each prison in each of the last five years, broken down by month, and (a) how many and (b) what percentage received a mental health assessment within 72 hours of entering.

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

SPS’ Prisoner Records system (PR2) does not report data in a way which would answer the question. The amount of work involved, including both electronic and manual interrogation of data as well as cross referencing would be disproportionate and extremely resource intensive.

All prisoners receive a health assessment by a nurse on admission to custody, with referrals made as appropriate. Responsibility for prisoner healthcare, including mental health, lies with the NHS. If this data is available, it is likely to be held there.

Question reference: S5W-07809

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making in developing its Circular Economy and Zero Waste Bill; what issues it has explored; what stakeholders have been engaged, and what the timeline is for its introduction.

We will work closely with business, industry and other stakeholders to develop ideas and proposals for the Bill during the course of 2017. As set out in the Programme for Government 2016-7, we intend to introduce the Bill in the second half of the parliamentary session.

The Bill will build on the priorities set out in our circular economy strategy 'Making Things Last' which identifies the areas in which we can make the biggest impact.

Question reference: S5W-07967

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many convicted (a) women and (b) men were (i) drunk and (ii) under the influence of drugs at the time of their offence in each year since 2010.

Question reference: S5W-07964

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether, in light of the briefing paper, Why focus on reducing women's imprisonment in Scotland? by the Prison Reform Trust, which notes that (a) the number of women imprisoned increased by 46% in the 10 years since 2003–04, growing at a faster rate than men’s prison population, (b) this growth can be attributed to the increasing use of custodial sentences by courts rather than changes in the pattern of offending, and (c) 85% of pregnant women in prison in 2015 were there on remand or serving sentences of 12 months or less, it will accelerate its consideration of raising the presumption against short-term sentences to 12 months.

The number of women in custody in Scotland has gone down in recent years - the average daily female prison population has in fact fallen by over 6% since 2013-14 in line with similar reductions in the overall prison population - and we are working hard to continue that trend.

The proposal to extend the presumption against short sentences is one part of this Government's wide ranging work to reduce the use of short-term imprisonment - for both men and women - in favour of more robust community sentences. As previously noted, we continue to discuss with the relevant stakeholders how best to take this proposal forward.

Question reference: S5W-08034

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 13 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recent report from Plantlife, We need to talk about nitrogen, which suggests that, because of air pollution, one third of flowering plants is under threat, and whether it will introduce measures to help build the plants' resilience.

The Scottish Government notes the conclusions of the report and recognises the impact air pollution can have on the natural environment. The sensitivity of individual plant species to nitrogen pollution is variable and the critical loading is not known for all species.

The Joint Nature Conservation Committee is currently undertaking a project, in partnership with Scottish Natural Heritage and others, to gain a better understanding of the contributions from different sources of air pollution to enable us to develop a more strategic approach to minimising the impacts of air pollution on sensitive habitats.

Question reference: S5W-07931

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the rate of fixed-penalty payment has been in each year since 2010.

Question reference: S5W-07934

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many instances of unpaid fixed penalties have resulted in a court case, in each year since 2010.

Question reference: S5W-07930

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many non-court issued fines have been issued in each year since 2010 by (a) Police Scotland and (b) local authorities, and how many of those have been paid.

Question reference: S5W-07933

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many unpaid fixed-penalty fines the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service has (a) recovered and (b) not recovered in each year since 2010.

Question reference: S5W-07968

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the briefing paper, Why focus on reducing women's imprisonment in Scotland?, by the Prison Reform Trust, which notes that, in 2014-15, 79% of prison sentences imposed on women were for low-level offences, what the rate (a) was in each year between 2010 and 2014 and (b) for men was in each year for these offences since 2010.

As published in the Scottish Government report "International Review of Custodial Models for Women" 79% of prison sentences imposed on women in 2013-14 were for low-level offences. This comprises crimes of dishonesty, common assault, breach of the peace and crimes of public justice (e.g. bail offences). The statistics requested, in line with this definition, are presented in the following table.

Custodial sentences by gender, 2009-10 to 2015-16

	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16

All custodial sentences for low level offences¹
Male Person	9,467	9,346	9,634	9,165	8,805	8,935	8,689
Female Person	930	925	1,034	999	956	1,052	941

All custodial sentences
Male Person	14,522	14,018	14,582	13,499	12,959	12,742	12,548
Female Person	1,280	1,302	1,368	1,290	1,213	1,293	1,187

Percentage low level offences
Male Person	65%	67%	66%	68%	68%	70%	69%
Female Person	73%	71%	76%	77%	79%	81%	79%

Source: Criminal Proceedings database

1 - Comprises crimes of dishonesty, common assault, breach of the peace and crimes of public justice (e.g. bail offences)