I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Scottish Prison Service (SPS) staff are dealing with some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Every death, whether in prison custody or in our communities, is a tragedy for families, friends, and for those who have support the individual on a daily basis.

SPS are fully committed to engaging with key partners to gain a better understanding to prevent deaths occurring and to ensure wider supports are in place for those in our care.

Whilst SPS have taken into account the University of Glasgow report ‘ Still nothing to see here?’, the new SPS Mental Health Strategy will explicitly reference the Scottish Governments ‘Creating Hope Together Scotland’s Suicide Prevention Strategy’ and their emerging Self Harm Strategy. The new strategy goes even further to reference ‘Time, Space & Compassion’ which not only provides recommendations for improvements in suicidal crisis response, but is an overarching, whole person, whole system approach.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with justice partners to ensure effective implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 (‘the Act'); we are working together towards a 1 April 2024 commencement date. This is to provide enough time to allow justice partners to complete a number of key IT change programmes and for the delivery of a robust package of training and guidance for police officers prior to commencement.

Our recently published Hate Crime Strategy for Scotland makes a number of commitments including ensuring improved support for victims, improving data and evidence and developing effective approaches to prevention. It will also support the implementation of the Act. A delivery plan, setting out our immediate and longer term activity, will be published later this year.

The Task Force has been meeting during 2023, most recently in August, to progress this work. Minutes of the Ministerial meetings are published on the Transport Scotland website.

Scottish Government and Orkney Islands Council (OIC) officials have also met regularly to support OIC’s consideration of options for the long term renewal of the Orkney internal ferry fleet. OIC is currently preparing an updated business case to inform future budget discussions.

The Task Force has been meeting during 2023, most recently in August, to progress this work. Minutes of the Ministerial meetings are published on the Transport Scotland website.

Scottish Government and Orkney Islands Council (OIC) officials have also met regularly to support OIC’s consideration of options for the long term renewal of the Orkney internal ferry fleet. OIC is currently preparing an updated business case to inform future budget discussions.

It is envisaged that the Task Force will continue to meet beyond September 2023 to support of OIC’s work on this important matter.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The SPS anticipate the Strategy will be finalised by the end of October and will be published at the end of this year.

Continued competing priorities impacted stakeholder capacity to contribute within the planned timeframe, and a need to divert SPS resources to support several acute cases of mentally unwell people in SPS care have contributed to a delay in publication.

The revised date now reflects the impact of those delays, whilst ensuring sufficient time is allocated in order to analyse the evidence gathered from consultation with mental health experts and those in our care with lived experiences.

Section 4A of the Public Order Act 1986 does not apply to Scotland.

The latest available information on convictions is for the financial year 2020-21 and is provided in the following table.

Number of people convicted under section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, where main crime, 2011-12 to 2020-21.

The latest available information on convictions is for the financial year 2020-21 and is provided in the following table.

Number of people convicted under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, where main crime, 2011-12 to 2020-21.

Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 does not apply to Scotland.

The Scottish Government has provided funding for 190 properties for energy efficiency measures through the Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan Scheme since it was established in April 2020.