- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Ash Regan on 24 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what its current estimate is of the number of people who have been trafficked into Scotland or are being held against their will through acts of modern slavery.
Answer
Human trafficking is a hidden and often complex crime. Accurately assessing the scale of the problem in Scotland and beyond is challenging, although a range of estimates exist around the prevalence of the issue, both in the UK and globally.
Data on the number of trafficking victims in Scotland is drawn from the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). The NRM is the UK-wide framework for identifying potential victims of trafficking and ensuring they receive appropriate support and assistance.
Information from the NRM is released by the Home Office Single Competent Authority quarterly and in an end of year summary. Data relating to 2020 and 2021 can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-referral-mechanism-statistics .
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 November 2021
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 25 November 2021
To ask the First Minister what discussions have taken place between the Scottish Government and the postal and banking sectors regarding the continued access to everyday services, particularly for rural, digitally excluded and vulnerable consumers.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 25 November 2021
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 22 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many people it estimates are awaiting dental treatment as a result of the reported backlog in (a) North Ayrshire and (b) Inverclyde.
Answer
This information is not held by the Scottish Government.
NHS dental services are in the main provided by self-employed independent contractors, across 1,100 dental practices, each with local differences in patterns of service delivery.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 22 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what the current (a) permanent, (b) temporary and (c) contract workforce is at Ferguson Marine shipbuilding yard in Port Glasgow; how this compares with figures for the same date in each of the last five years; what the current job vacancy rate is, expressed in number of FTE roles, and for how long these vacancies have been live and unfulfilled.
Answer
In the following table, the data provided covers the period from when the Scottish Government took control of the shipyard to the present day. The table includes a yearly workforce count, and a count taken when the shipyard entered administration on 16 August 2019. The Agency/Contracted count includes workers employed through agencies and contractors working under FMPG management control, including interims.
| | 16 August 2019 | 18 November 2019 | 13 November 2020 | 17 November 2021 |
Permanent | 158 | 150 | 323 | 365 |
Temporary | 117 | 172 | 45 | 45 |
Agency/ Contracted | 10 | 10 | 56 | 39 |
Total | 285 | 332 | 424 | 449 |
Currently, there are 10 roles that the shipyard is in the process of recruiting.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 22 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many solicitors it and its directorates directly employ, and what the average salary is for those roles, broken down by bandings related to seniority or other factors.
Answer
The Scottish Government currently directly employs the following number of solicitors, set out below by pay band/grade. SCS - Director is the most senior grade with legal trainees being the most junior grade. It should be noted that there are other individuals who may be qualified solicitors employed in non-legal roles in policy/operational directorates across the Scottish Government but that information is not centrally known or held.
Directorate for Legal Services
Grade | Total Headcount |
SCS - Director | 1 |
SCS - Deputy Director | 12 |
C3 | 4 |
C2 | 52 |
C1 | 142 |
Legal Trainee | 13 |
Total | 223 |
Parliamentary Counsel Office
Grade | Total Headcount |
SCS - Director | 1 |
SCS - Deputy Director | 8 |
C3 | 2 |
C2 | 3 |
C1 | 9 |
Total | 23 |
The Scottish Government average annual salaries (full time equivalent) for 2021 – 22, for each pay band, are shown in the following table:
Grade | Annual average salary (full time equivalent) per band |
SCS - Director | £102,980 |
SCS - Deputy Director | £81,259 |
C3 | £76,060 |
C2 | £69,044 |
C1 | £55,181 |
Legal Trainee | £27,704 |
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 12 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 19 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many body-worn cameras are currently being used by Police Scotland officers; how much funding it has allocated to Police Scotland to procure or introduce such devices, and what plans are in place to increase (a) funding for and (b) the quantity of such devices.
Answer
Police Scotland have advised there are currently over 250 body worn cameras in use within North East Division. In addition, Police Scotland also equipped all armed police officers across Scotland who were deployed at COP26. A consultation on a wider roll-out of body worn cameras to all front line operational officers and staff closed in September and work is ongoing to consider a national introduction.
For 2021-22, the Scottish Government increased the policing budget by £75.5m to over £1.3bn and provided one off funding of £0.5m in 2021-22 to the SPA, to support the use of body-worn cameras. The allocation of resources is a matter for the SPA and the Chief Constable.
Funding for the policing budget for 2022-23 will be set out at the Scottish budget on 9 December.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 19 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of violence have been recorded within the Scottish prison estate in the last 12 months, including acts of violence recorded as prisoner to prisoner, or prisoner to staff member, broken down by (a) location, (b) prison and (c) type or severity of offence.
Answer
I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:
The following table details the total number of violent incidents in each Scottish prison, during the reporting period of 1 November 2020 to 31 October 2021:
Establishment | Prisoner on Prisoner Serious Injury Category | Prisoner on Prisoner Minor Injury Category | Prisoner on Staff Serious Injury Category | Prisoner on Staff Minor Injury Category |
HMP Addiewell | 11 | 71 | 2 | 14 |
HMP Barlinnie | 7 | 109 | 0 | 18 |
HMP & YOI Cornton Vale | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
HMP Dumfries | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
HMP Edinburgh | 16 | 72 | 0 | 11 |
HMP Glenochil | 6 | 33 | 0 | 9 |
HMP Grampian | 5 | 31 | 0 | 8 |
HMP Greenock | 2 | 12 | 0 | 2 |
HMP Inverness | 0 | 11 | 0 | 2 |
HMP Kilmarnock | 4 | 32 | 0 | 9 |
HMP Low Moss | 11 | 77 | 1 | 6 |
HMP Open Estate | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
HMP Perth | 16 | 62 | 2 | 13 |
HMP & YOI Polmont | 9 | 148 | 2 | 9 |
HMP Shotts | 11 | 34 | 0 | 7 |
TOTALS | 99 | 700 | 8 | 108 |
In relation to (a) location, the SPS does not centrally collate a breakdown of the location of violent incidents within prisons.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 19 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent, directly or indirectly, via its agencies and intermediaries, on government public awareness campaigns on traditional or non-traditional media, broadcast or social media, in each of the last 10 financial years, broken down by (a) directorate, (b) cabinet portfolio and (c) campaign.
Answer
Detail on Scottish Government marketing spend between the years 2004-2005 and 2013-2014 can be found here: https://webarchive.nrscotland.gov.uk/20170402085259/http:/www.gov.scot/About/People/Directorates/Communications/advertising-marketing/spend
Detail on Scottish Government marketing spend between the years 2013-2014 and 2020-2021 can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/collections/marketing-spend
This information is broken down by campaign and by channel, though not by directorate or cabinet portfolio.
We do not hold details of marketing spend by Scottish Government agencies. This would need to be sourced directly from the specific agencies themselves.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Ash Regan on 18 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider introducing legislation in the current parliamentary session that aims to deter men who pay women for sex.
Answer
Programme For Government includes a commitment to develop a model for Scotland which effectively tackles and challenges men’s demand for prostitution.
This model will aim to reduce stigma and criminalisation experienced by women and encourage better access to services. Ensuring that women are supported and that services are responsive to their needs is central to this work. We have also committed to engaging with those with direct or lived experience to shape services, and design measures which will protect them from harm and provide service users the support they need.
There are several considerations which must be made in designing the model, including ensuring it’s alignment to the Equally Safe Strategy and our unique legal landscape in Scotland. The model must operate effectively not only to hold those who buy sex to account, but to deter them from purchasing sex. Any changes proposed to the current criminal law would require legislation.
The criminal law is only one aspect of the model and it is vital that a package of measures is developed in parallel to underpin any changes which are brought forward.
We will continue to work across government and with stakeholders as our work on Scotland’s future approach to prostitution progresses. A Short Life Working Group with key stakeholders considering the fundamental principles to underpin a model for Scotland will hold its initial meeting, later this month.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 18 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that the number of drugs tests taking place in prisons has fallen considerably since 2018.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognises the importance of providing a safe and secure environment for those who work in our prisons and individuals in custody.
The SPS carries out drug testing for a range of reasons which includes suspicion testing and the identification of drug trend information as part of wider efforts to detect and deter illicit substances. It is also used for risk assessment purposes to support and evidence a prisoner’s progression through to release.
The reduction in the number of drug tests throughout 2020 and 2021 is linked to the COVID pandemic, partly due to reduced movement across the prison estate lessening the demand for drug tests related to progression.
The SPS anticipates that the number of drug tests will begin to increase as we move through to recovery from the pandemic.
