Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-36194

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 14 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that the Lord Advocate remains independent in her capacity as the chief public prosecutor while also being politically accountable as the senior Law Officer.

As protected by section 48(5) of the Scotland Act 1998, the Law Officers operate entirely independently of any other person as they undertake their prosecutorial and investigation of deaths functions. The Lord Advocate is accountable to the Scottish Parliament for prosecutions and the investigation of deaths (but may decline to answer questions which might prejudice criminal proceedings or would otherwise be contrary to the public interest under section 27(3) of the Scotland Act).

Question reference: S6W-36257

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much court time it estimates is currently being lost per month on average due to any delays in establishing remote links and re-establishing failed remote links during virtual court hearings, and what the reasons are for any such delays.

Question reference: S6W-36256

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has conducted a review of (a) internet speeds in Scottish courts, (b) the effectiveness of video conferencing technology that is used in Scottish courts for virtual hearings and (c) the resourcing of the technology and infrastructure provided for such virtual hearings.

Question reference: S6W-36172

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether prioritising action on retail crime, including shoplifting, should form part of (a) its strategic police priorities and (b) the priorities of the Scottish Police Authority.

The Strategic Police Priorities (SPPs) are designed to provide high-level direction for the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) and Police Scotland, as set out in the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012. Prevention and detection of crime and working with key sectors is currently covered in the SPPs and the SPA and Police Scotland will use the SPPs to inform both their Strategic and Annual Police Plans, which will include putting in place objectives for the police service and the activities which will deliver them.

Police Scotland’s commitment to tackling retail crime has been underlined by last month’s launch of an action plan which includes a number of measures aimed at preventing such incidents and pursuing those responsible. This has been made possible through additional Scottish Government funding of £3 million for this year.

Question reference: S6W-36170

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 1 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to encourage the reporting of crimes against retailers and their staff, including to make it easier for such incidents to be reported.

The Scottish Government continue to urge all retailers and their staff to keep reporting crimes. While it might feel like some minor incidents aren’t worth it, or individual retailers may feel like the police won’t be able to do anything, each crime report aids our collective understanding of who is doing this and why. Local officers may also well have intelligence they can use to catch the perpetrators.

Our Budget will make an additional £3 million available in 2025-26 to tackle retail crime.

This funding will support the formation of a Retail Crime Taskforce which will provide a visible and measurable impact on retail crime and will deliver on the following objectives:

Prevent: Stop people from becoming perpetrators of Retail crime by developing and implementing intervention and diversion mechanisms with partners.
Pursue: Target retail crime by bringing perpetrators to justice, with a focus on repeat offenders and organised criminals.
Protect: Strengthen the collective protections against Retail Crime by engaging directly with retailers on crime prevention and training.
Prepare: Mitigate against the impact of Retail Crime by exploring innovate opportunities for direct reporting systems.

New technologies will also be utilised to explore ways to make it easier for retail staff to directly report crimes to police, as well as capitalising on Police Scotland’s existing Digital Evidence Sharing Capability (DESC), to secure early criminal justice outcomes.

This builds on a successful proof of concept within Fife Division and will aim to provide an efficient and effective direct reporting system to retailers.

Question reference: S6W-36171

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 1 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the suggestion by the Scottish Retail Consortium that the £3 million fund to deal with retail crime, which was announced in its 2025-26 Budget, should be made permanent.

I was pleased to welcome the launch of Police Scotland’s plans to tackle retail crime last month, which is being funded by an additional £3 million from the Scottish Government.

I hope to see these plans make a difference to the rates of shoplifting Scotland has seen in recent months, and we will continue to liaise closely with Police Scotland as their planned actions are rolled out.

We have increased police funding year-on-year since 2016-17, investing more than £14.6 billion since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government has initiated planning for the next Scottish Spending Review, that will identify opportunities to optimise the use of Scottish Government funding over the longer term.

The conclusion of the UK Government’s 2025 spending review will provide key funding information to underpin the Scottish Government’s own multi-year spending review. Provision of funding in future years will also be part of discussions with the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland to understand the budget requirement to deliver their three-year business plan.

Question reference: S6W-35547

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many meetings the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs has had with the (a) Law Society of Scotland, (b) chief constable of Police Scotland and (c) Scottish Retail Consortium since 29 March 2023, and what subjects were discussed.

Meetings with the Law Society of Scotland

1. I have had the following meetings with the Law Society of Scotland since 29 March 2023:

Date	Meeting	Subjects Discussed
1 June 2023	Victims Taskforce (Law Society of Scotland attended)	Criminal Justice - Victims
26 July 2023	Law Society of Scotland	Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform Bill
25 September 2023	JUSTICE Scotland Roundtable (Head of Research at Law Society of Scotland attended)	Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform Bill
30 November 2023	Victims Taskforce (Law Society of Scotland attended)	Criminal Justice - Victims
20 June 2024	Victims Taskforce (Law Society of Scotland attended)	Criminal Justice - Victims
21 November 2024	Victims Taskforce (Law Society of Scotland attended)	Criminal Justice - Victims

Meetings with the Chief Constable

2. I have had the following meetings with the Chief constable since 29 March 2023 as part of their regular series of meetings:

Date	Meeting	Subjects discussed
27 April 2023	Regular meeting with the Chief Constable	Chief Constable’s reflections Call handling Police Estate – Fettes Next meeting
18 May 2023	Regular meeting with the Chief Constable	Pay and industrial relations Progress on Recommendations of the Independent Review of Police complaints handling, investigations and misconduct issues Officers on Restricted Duties HMICS/HIS Custody Inspection in Lanarkshire Handover to new Chief Constable Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Use of tasers
14 June 2023	Trilateral with the Chief Constable and SPA Chair	Chief Constable Statement on Institutional Racism Pay Succession planning Local Policing Improvement Plan
14 June 2023	Regular meeting with the Chief Constable	PVG Certificate – Morgan Prior Chief Constable reflection
14 September 2023	Regular meeting with the Chief Constable	Police staff pay Officer numbers Resource prioritisation North East pilot Recorded Police Warnings (RPWs)
05 October 2023	Regular meeting with the Chief Constable	Budget HMICS reviews Forward look
09 November 2023	Regular meeting with the Chief Constable	Operation Moonbeam Armistice Day Early observations from the new Chief Constable Criminal justice system Financial planning for a sustainable police model
18 December 2023	Regular meeting with the Chief Constable	Budget and workforce numbers Consultation on Police Scotland estate HMICS Thematic Inspection of Organisational Culture in Police Scotland and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Criminal Justice System efficiencies
9 January 2024	Regular meeting with the Chief Constable	Budget and workforce numbers New operating model Criminal Justice Committee 20 December 2023 Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act
9 January 2024	Quarterly trilateral with the Chief Constable and SPA Chair	Budget and new operating model Mental health
8 February 2024	Regular meeting with the Chief Constable	Budget, workforce and Police Scotland operating model Estates review Proportionate response to crime Safeguards on XL bully dogs Dashcam
1 March 2024	Regular meeting with the Chief Constable	Emma Caldwell case and call for a Public Inquiry Brian Low Case
30 April 2024	Regular meeting with the Chief Constable	Hate crime Criminal justice system Police officer and staff pay Revised model of policing
4 June 2024	Regular meeting with the Chief Constable	Scottish resilience Partnership Emma Caldwell Investigation – NPCC Request Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill Revised model of policing Criminal justice system
26 June 2024	Quarterly trilateral with the Chief Constable and SPA Chair (meeting combined with the scheduled June Chief Constable meeting)	Body worn video (BWV) Proportionate response to crime (PRTC) Criminal justice system improvements Revised model of policing Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) Mental health and policing Hate crime Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) (PECSS) Bill Police officer numbers
20 August 2024	Regular meeting with the Chief Constable	Update on far-right violence and disorder Police officer numbers Police pay negotiations Mental health and policing Criminal justice system reform Body worn video Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) (PECSS) Bill Emma Caldwell public inquiry
19 September 2024	Regular meeting with the Chief Constable	Commonwealth Games 2026 Police officer numbers Police pay negotiations Police Scotland three-year business plan Estates Masterplan Emma Caldwell public inquiry Sheku Bayoh public inquiry Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) (PECSS) Bill
29 October 2024	Regular meeting with the Chief Constable	Policing budget Estates Masterplan 2025/26 budget proposal Police officer numbers Police officer pay Emma Caldwell public inquiry Police Scotland three-year business plan Commonwealth Games 2026
31 October 2024	Quarterly trilateral with the Chief Constable and SPA Chair	Police Scotland three-year business plan Estates management Police officer and staff pay Recording of sec and gender
19 December 2024	Regular meeting with the Chief Constable	Policing budget Officer and staff pay Estates Masterplan Body worn video Police Scotland three-year business plan Sustainable roads policing Workforce planning Mental health and policing demand Football disorder in Glasgow
16 January 2025	Regular meeting with the Chief Constable	Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) (PECSS) Bill Officer and staff pay Emma Caldwell investigation Sheku Bayoh public inquiry Football disorder Mental health and policing demand Estate Masterplan Police Scotland three-year business plan
27 February 2025	Regular meeting with the Chief Constable	Sheku Bayoh public inquiry Sentencing review Secure accommodation Police complaints Police dogs insurance Policing budget 2025-26 3 year business plan Police officer pay UEFA Championship (Scotland) Bill Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games

3. The purpose of these meetings is to focus on matters of strategic importance and understand the challenges, risks and issues facing Police Scotland, and plans to mitigate these, as well as implications for policing.

4. I have met the Chief Constable outside these regular meetings. The most recent meetings are in the table below:

Date	Meeting
31 March 2023	Introductory meeting with the Chief Constable, Iain Livingstone
1 August 2023	Cabinet Secretary visit to Police Scotland, Tulliallan Castle
10 October 2023	Introductory meeting with the new Chief Constable, Jo Farrell
2 August 2024	Meeting with the Chief Constable to discuss officer numbers
5 August 2024	First Minister and CSJHA meeting with the Police Scotland following far-right violence and disorder across the UK
4 September 2024	Scottish Police Memorial Service

5. From January 2024, all notes of my regular meetings with the Chief Constable (and with the SPA Chair) are published on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/collections/police-minutes-of-regular-meetings. Notes of other meetings involving Police Scotland and the Scottish Government, including those outside regular meetings detailed in the table above, are not routinely published.

6. The note of the meeting between myself and the Chief Constable on 27 February will be published on the Scottish Government website once this has been reviewed by the Chief Constable and myself.

Meetings with the Scottish Retail Consortium

7. I have not met with the Scottish Retail Consortium since 29 March 2023.

8. It may be helpful to note that Siobhian Brown MSP, the Minister for Victims and Community Safety has met with the Scottish Retail Consortium since 29 March 2023 which is listed in the following table:

Date	Meeting	Subjects discussed
19 March 2024	Scottish Retail Consortium	Retail crime

Question reference: S6W-36007

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34510 by Angela Constance on 3 March 2025, in light of its previous commitment to publish an updated memorandum of understanding between the Parole Board for Scotland and the Scottish Ministers by the end of 2024, what the reasons are for (a) the five-year delay and (b) missing the "end of 2024" commitment, and by what date, or nearest quarter, it anticipates that the new document will be agreed by both the Parole Board for Scotland and the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S6W-36009

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when the Aberdeen–Central Belt 2026 Enhancement Project was renamed the Aberdeen–Central Belt Service Improvement Project; for what reason the name was changed; at the time that the name was changed, whether anything else was changed, such as the scope, outcomes or delivery dates, and which stakeholders were consulted prior to the name change.

Question reference: S6W-36008

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-35073 by Fiona Hyslop on 4 March 2025, whether it will provide the information requested regarding what increase in freight capacity will be delivered through the Aberdeen–Central Belt Service Improvement Project, and for what reason it did not provide this information in its answer, which instead referred to a "freight path".

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