Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps she is taking to ensure the prosecution of people whose acts towards fellow passengers on domestic flights are perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on disability or perceived disability.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Courts in the United Kingdom have the power to deal with offences which are committed on board any aircraft whilst on the ground or in the air over the United Kingdom, and on “British-controlled aircraft” whilst “in flight” outside United Kingdom airspace. In such instances, as with any crime, the CPS will prosecute cases that are referred to it by the police and other law enforcement agencies where the test set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors is met.
The Code makes it clear that where an offence involves hostility or prejudice based upon race, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity, disability, gender or age, it is more likely that a prosecution will be required in the public interest. Where a crime is found by a court to involve hostility based on a disability, this will be an aggravating factor in the sentence and the court must openly state the crime involved this hostility.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Attorney General:
Whether his Department has received representations on the incorporation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scots law.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Member for East Renfrewshire will be aware of my decision, alongside the Advocate General’s for Scotland, to refer the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill to the Supreme Court on legislative competence grounds. We have also referred the European Charter of Local Self-Government (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill.
It would not be appropriate for me to comment in detail on what are live proceedings.
Ultimately, our concerns with regards to these Bills do not relate to their policy content, nor to the approach the Scottish Parliament has taken in incorporating these international agreements into Scots law. Rather they relate to specific provisions in the Bill and whether they fall outside the Scottish Parliament’s legislative powers.