07/06/2017 Scottish Parliament

Thank you. We turn to topical questions and we start with question

number one from Ben MacPherson. Thank you. To ask the Scottish

government what action is being taken in Scotland following the

recent terrorist attack in London. I offer my heartfelt condolences to

all those affected by the dreadful incident in London on the evening of

the 3rd of June. Following the incident in London, the first

Minister chaired a meeting of the Scottish Government's is a Beams

committee, which included Police Scotland, to consider the impact of

the incident and the required response here in Scotland. The first

Minister has also received a briefing from the Deputy National

Security Council eyes. The Scottish government officials are engaged

with UK government officials to keep the implications for Scotland under

review. As with the response to the incident in Manchester, Police

Scotland increased visibility of armed and unarmed officers on the

streets in Scotland over the course of the weekend. Further events

taking place in Scotland over the next 14 days have also been reviewed

to ensure that the right level of policing is in place to meet the

operational requirements and also to provide public reassurance. Planning

for the general election is included within this review. However,

security measures are only one part of the solution. The responsibility

to tackle violent extremism is one we all share. The most important

challenge for us all is to work towards creating cohesive and

resilient communities within which the terrorist message will not

resonate. In times of adversity, how communities in Scotland have shown

that they will stand side-by-side to send a shared message of tolerance

and of unity. I found the Cabinet secretary for that answer and, like

him, all of our thoughts, I'm sure, and condolences are with the victims

at this time, their families and their communities. Following the

terror attack in Manchester on the 22nd of May and in London on

Saturday the 3rd of June, can the Cabinet secretary confirmed that the

Scottish government and Police Scotland will continue to work

closely and engage with communities across Scotland to provide

reassurance and ensure no communities feel marginalised,

isolated or vulnerable? Yes, I can. In the wake of the terrorist attack

in Manchester on the 22nd of June and the attack in London on Saturday

evening, the Scottish Government and Police Scotland have continued to

engage with communities across Scotland to provide reassurance and

also to ensure no communities feel marginalised, isolated or

vulnerable. Police Scotland continue to monitor hate crime incidents on a

daily basis and review these on a regular basis to identify any

significant rise in tensions within communities. So I can confirm that

an assurance that this is work with the Scottish government and Police

Scotland will continue to take forward with other partners to

ensure that those who wish to peddle a message of hate or exploit the

situations are not able to do so in our communities here in Scotland. I

thank the Cabinet secretary for that answer and in his first answer he

talked about community cohesion, which is clearly extremely important

in ensuring that there is one in Scotland, where people live in

peace. Can he outlined what action the Scottish Government is taking to

ensure that Scotland is a welcoming place for all of those who have

chosen to make Scotland their home? Well, as a nation, we have a long

and proud history of welcoming people to our country from various

nationalities and faiths and we as a government art committed to

continuing to support integration into our communities here in

Scotland. It is vital that we continue as a country to send out a

very strong and welcoming message that Scotland is a place where you

are welcome and you are particularly welcome if you have chosen to make

your home here. Over a number of years, we have invested in a range

of different measures to make Scotland a welcoming place,

including investing over ?100 million to 2021 in promoting

equality and tackling discrimination. We have also

published a race equality framework for Scotland, which is proposing

will race equality. We have Scotland's first new Scots refugee

integration strategy, which ran from 2014 to March 2017. These are

measures we have taken to make Scotland a welcoming place and a

place where hate crime has no place and as a government we will continue

to work with agencies, ensuring that messages taken forward. Thank you,

Presiding Officer and could I add the thoughts of the Scottish

Conservatives to the condolences to those affected by the most recent

monstrosity and play some effort our thanks to the reactions of the

emergency services in both Manchester and London. While no one

wishes to see a further increasing the number armed officers across

Scotland, if it is required - and we did see an uplift in the number of

armed officers earlier in this term - what assistance will Police

Scotland require if there is a further need for an uplifting armed

officers across Scotland? As I set out to parliament last June,

following an assessment of the level of firearms capability Police

Scotland hand, following the attacks that took place in Paris in 2015, it

was identified that a further uplift in firearms capability should be

deployed within Police Scotland. Since that statement was made to

Parliament, Police Scotland have been undertaking an extensive

training programme to have an increase in their firearms

capability. That workers now at a very advanced level and Police

Scotland have stepped up their firearms capability to a level which

was necessary, which demonstrates the level of capacity that Police

Scotland now have in their firearms capability, as they've been able to

do so without the requirement for any military support in meeting that

demand. I am confident from the information which we have been

provided with by Police Scotland, they believe that existing firearms

capability is sufficient to meet existing needs, however as with all

of these things, they are kept under constant review and should Police

Scotland feel there is a requirement for that to change in the future,

that is a matter which will require to be considered not just by this

parliament but by the public of Scotland and stakeholders across the

country. Thank you. We are all shocked at the attack at the weekend

and our thoughts are with the victims and their families. This is

the third terror incident within three months that we have had to

experience and while it is right that the focus is on the capacity

and deployment of our police officers and intelligence service,

can I ask the Cabinet secretary what advice the Scottish Government can

give to people who may be feeling vulnerable after witnessing the

terrible events on Saturday night, but who have also taken strength

from watching a concert in Manchester on Sunday evening? One of

the early actions that was undertaken by Police Scotland

following the terrible incident in Manchester and also in London was to

deploy specialist officers at transport hubs to meet any

individuals who had travelled from Manchester, who had witnessed the

events, and who travelled from London who may have witnessed the

events of Saturday night, in order to provide them with any advice or

information and to take any information they may have that could

help to support the investigation. This was then shared the agencies

responsible for investigating these matters, in Manchester the

Manchester police, and in London Metropolitan police. Alongside that,

advice is provided on where they can get support through the NHS, through

their GP services and in specialist support for anything that they may

have witnessed. That supporters also there for those who may have

witnessed some of these scenes on social media. I am particular the

conscious of that with the incident which took place in Manchester,

given the number of young people involved in that incident, who may

have been particularly interested in the concert itself. Advice was

provided to local authorities, to our education departments and to

schools, and also through our health services to make sure that any young

person who is seeking advice or support, that there was an avenue

and a pathway which they could go into to get that advice and support

and that information was disseminated as widely as possible

through our schools and our health service. Question number two, Jamie

Green. To as the Scot has gone on what efforts it is undertaking to

comply with Freedom of Information requests to talk Scotland has the

most open and far reaching Freedom of Information laws in the UK. Would

take our responsibilities for FY seriously and the large majority of

cases, respond on time and in full. The Scottish Government is open and

transparent about how it with FOIA requests and all of our guidance is

in the public domain. I thank him for that response. In April of this

year, Rosemary Agnew, the former Scottish information officer,

ordered ministers to improve their performance following a number of,

and I quote, totally unacceptable failures to respond to requests,

adding that she was dissatisfied with their performance and would

respond with the full force of the law. She launched a formal

intervention to force improvements and will be closely monitoring

responses until September this year, so therefore can I ask, what will

the Scottish Government do to raise its game whilst it is being

monitored? Thank you for the question. Performance over recent

years is consistently better than the 61% achieved under the last full

year of the previous administration. The volume of requests has increased

steadily over the years. In 2015, the Scottish Government received

2155 requests, an increase of 173% since 2007, and even so a record

1674 responses were issued on time in 2015, compared to 684 responses

on time in 2006. In recent months, the numbers of spiked dramatically.

We received 777 requests in the first quarter of 2017, compared to

five to four requests in the first quarter of 2016. By April this year,

we had received more requests than 2017 and work received in the whole

of 2007. That said, we are committed to improving our response times and

I am working with the commission's offers to that end. I appreciate

that very long list of statistics but how telling is a bad just 40

hours before we exercise our biggest manifestation of democracy that we

have to bring this to the Scottish Parliament to question the

transparency of an SNP led government? Last week, journalists

from across the political spectrum that either the guardian, common

space, the Times, the Courier, the Daily Mail, the Herald - I could go

on signed a letter to the Scottish Parliament selection panel for the

Scottish information officer. In this letter, the outline a number of

concerns over the Scottish Government's use of legislation

which undermines openness and accountability. Clearly, this

practice is not sustainable in a mature democracy, so can I ask the

Minister again if he understands the need for transparency, and will the

Scottish Government commit to addressing all six of the concerns

outlined in this letter? Minister. Scotland has the most open

and freedom of information laws in the UK, and we are determined that

we will continue to improve our performance. And continue to make

more information available. We can compare the information we have

released in Scotland to what happens in the rest of the UK. In Scotland

in 2016, 85% of valid requests received information either

completely or at least in part. Compared to the rest of the UK, only

63% of UK Government departments have released information, so we

have widely recognised as being the most robust regime in these islands

and that is something the information commission have noted in

our special report and she made the point that Scotland is ahead of the

international field in that area but we are determined to continue to

improve those response times. But in Scotland we release more information

than anywhere else in the UK. My crumble.

Does the minister accept that there is suspicion that the Scottish

Government is time to circumvent the freedom of information legislation

by failing to record meetings that they had previously recorded and

that the secrecy is not conducive to good government? There is a question

on this particular topic tomorrow. I can confirm that the Scottish

Government will actively publish information about ministerial

engagements and then -- information on these apartments, and that is

something that did not use to happen. -- on these appointments.

Minutes are taking when there are discussions regarding policy

decisions and substantive discussions, in line with the

ministerial code. Question three. To ask the Scottish Government what the

impact will be the planned closure of the police control room in

Inverness and its move to Dundee will B. Decisions on operation of

individual police control rooms are the responsibility of the Scottish

police authority and the Scottish ministers are clear that any

decision will be subject to appropriate assurance including

external scrutiny in order to make sure that the impact of any change

is fully understood. Understand the decision on the transfer of control

room functions from Inverness to Dundee is now expected to be made on

the 24th of August, 2017. Edward Manton. I thank the Cabinet

Secretary, and in 2015 when the Inverness police control room was

last threatened with closure, the inspector of them Stade du Ray said

that moving course away from the control room was creating additional

risk -- the inspector of the constabulary. Given recent failings

are not convinced the risks have been eradicated, and so how will the

Scottish Government convince the people living in the Highlands and

Islands that they have been? Cabinet sector. The member highlights an

issue which was featured in the assurance review which was published

in 2015 which I directed them to carry out. He may also be aware that

there was an updated report published in January this year which

highlighted significant progress and improvements that had been made by

police Scotland in their handling arrangements. And a significant

number of the recommendations that had been made had been discharged as

a result. 16 of them have been discharged and partially discharged

and only two outstanding. He confirmed the model that was

proposed was still appropriate and was being taken forward by police

Scotland and they are continuing to be part of the assurance process

before any changes undertaken. It is important to keep in mind, although

there were original issues highlighted, in 2015, there has been

a significant amount of work undertaken in that period and the

updated report confirms the significant improvements which have

been made. Cabinet Secretary, history has taught be that in an

emergency, command and control should be as close to the incident

as possible, so why does the Scottish Government think it would

be sensible, for instance in Caithness and Sutherland, to be

dealt with in the first instance by a control room in Dundee which is

240 miles away, hardly local. He has not dealt with the other problems

which were brought up within the report. I can only presume that you

were not aware of the actual content of the report which was published in

January which highlighted the very significant progress which has been

made in all of these areas, which was undertaken independently by HM

are ICS looking at the most appropriate model and whether the

police had addressed the issues which were highlighted in the

original review report which the member had just made reference to.

Alongside that, the Scottish police authority have their external review

of these changes as well which reports to the Scottish police

authority which has to be agreed upon and considered before any final

decisions can be made on these particular issues. The very reason

that they Scotland have moved to these models is to provide a much

more comprehensive contact and control system than what was their

previously with the eight legacy forces. What I would do, I would

encourage the member to consider the updated report which was published

in January. Which demonstrates the significant progress which the

member seems to choose to wish to ignore. John Finnie. Cabinet

Secretary, the issue of local knowledge is often played up quite a

bit, but I share the view that this is a backward step for

communications. I take some reassurance from the role of

Inspectorate. We know the facility remains and we have had it

assurances about it. Can you confirm that is still the case? As a general

principle and unaware that you don't wish to intrude on operational

matters, but do you believe public bodies including police Scotland,

where technologies exist, they take the opportunity to disperse jobs to

areas like Inverness? Yes, on the latter point, I do, to disperse

jobs, as long as it can provide operational reassurance, and as a

member, you will be aware, moving to this model, one of the aspects that

they Scotland were considering having established at Inverness, is

the national database inquiry unit. My understanding is that is still

the intention of police Scotland, that the national database will be

largely based at Inverness. But alongside that they are looking at

the existing arrangements which they also have for national enquiries to

see where there is a partnership arrangement that should be in place

and my understanding is this will be considered by the Scottish police

authority in due course to make a final decision on whether it will be

one single national database or across bases but it will involve

having some of that provision being delivered to Inverness. Liam

McArthur. I share many of Edward's concerns. They are reasons why this

Scottish Lib Dems did not create -- support the creation of this. Will

the Cabinet cigarette confirmed that in supporting the creation of police

Scotland -- the Cabinet Secretary. I was not the Cabinet Secretary for

justice for that piece of legislation but I don't recall any

specifically of the top of my head, but the member makes a good boy,

although the Conservative Party thinking to criticise the single

force -- a good point. It was in the manifesto as part of the election.

That concludes topical questions. Steve, Steve, Sofia, thank you very

much, and to all of Birmingham, thank you for being here tonight.

This is the first time we have done a rally all over the country for our

party. Thank you for being here tonight. CHEERING

Thank you Steve Coogan for being the compere. They get up for Steve. --

big it up. Sofia, thanks what you have said and for standing up

against the