Parliamentary questions
Margaret Smith
931 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
25 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what additional financial support is proposed to assist police forces to deal with testing drivers for drink driving.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: There are no plans to provide additional financial support to assist police forces to deal with testing drivers for drink driving. It is for chief constables to allocate sufficient funding for this from within the resources available to them.</p>
25 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many antisocial behaviour orders have been issued to (a) 12, (b) 13, (c) 14 and (d) 15-year-olds since May 2007.
Answer · Fergus Ewing: The information requested is not held centrally.</p>
25 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people aged (a) under 10, (b) 10 to 17, (c) 18 to 20 and (d) 21 and over were sentenced to immediate custody for (i) violent and (ii) non-violent crimes in each of the last five years.
Answer · Fergus Ewing: The available information is given in the following table.</p> <p >Persons Convicted in Scottish Courts given Custodial Sentences for Violent and Non-Violent Crimes<sup>1</sup>, by age, 2002-03 to 2006-07</p> <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 > …
25 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to reduce the number of people under the age of 21 years in prison for non-violent offences.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: We launched the report of the review of community penalties last November, which makes recommendations for the improvement of the quality, effectiveness and perception of community penalties and to allow prisons to focus on those who need to be there. Work is…
24 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive for each year since 2001 how many drug treatment and testing orders were (a) issued and (b) breached and what the re-offending rate was, also broken down by local authority area.
Answer · Fergus Ewing: Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) were rolled out in phases between 1999 and 2006. Information on the number of DTTOs and breaches were collected centrally for the first time in 2004.</p> <p >Table 1 below shows the number of DTTOs and the number of …
13 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish the findings of Professor James Fraser’s review into procedures for keeping DNA samples.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: Professor Fraser submitted his report to me on 25 June 2008. I will publish the report together with the Scottish Government’s response as soon as I have had a chance to consider it.</p>
12 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many attempted child abductions were reported to the police in each of the last five years, broken down by parliamentary constituency.
Answer · Fergus Ewing: Information on the number of attempted child abductions reported to the police is not held centrally, although it is possible that police forces may hold some information on this. The available information is shown in the following table, and can only be brok…
12 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many convictions were secured for the offence of driving without insurance in each of the last five years, broken down by parliamentary constituency.
Answer · Fergus Ewing: The available information on the number of persons with a charge proved by approximate local authority area is given in the following table. Information by parliamentary constituency is not available.</p> <p >Persons with a charge proved where the main offen…
5 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been caught trying to break into prisons in the last five years, broken down by prison.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:</p> <p >There have been no people caught trying to break into Scottish prisons in the last five years.</p>
3 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much will be spent by NHS boards on tackling drug misuse in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11 in (i) real and (ii) cash terms.
Answer · Fergus Ewing: £24.6 million has been allocated to health boards in 2008-09, from the Justice portfolio alone, for drug treatment and rehabilitation services. A further £2.65 million has been allocated to health boards in 2008-09 to support the work of Alcohol and Drug Acti…
3 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent by NHS boards on tackling drug misuse in 2007-08.
Answer · Fergus Ewing: £23.7 million was allocated to NHS boards in 2007-08 for drug treatment and rehabilitation services. A further £2.5 million was allocated to support the work of alcohol and drug action teams.</p> <p >NHS boards may also use some of their unified budget for d…
3 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much will be spent under the Justice budget on tackling drug misuse in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11 in (i) real and (ii) cash terms.
Answer · Fergus Ewing: The following table sets out figures for 2008-09 and indicative allocations, which are subject to Parliamentary approval, for 2009-10 and 2010-11 under the Justice portfolio for tackling drug misuse.</p> <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 > <thea…
3 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent under the Justice budget on tackling drug misuse in 2007-08.
Answer · Fergus Ewing: A total of £65.9 million was allocated to tackling drug misuse in 2007-08 under the Justice portfolio. This consisted of £23.7 million for drug treatment and rehabilitation services; £5 million to support the work of Drug Action Teams and centrally managed pr…
29 May 2008 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will announce the location of the Gogar rail and tram station to indirectly serve Edinburgh Airport.
Answer · Stewart Stevenson: The Scottish Government will announce the location of a new railway station in the Gogar area following completion of the necessary studies, stakeholder engagement and commercial discussions. It is expected an announcement will be made later this financial ye…
22 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether an individual is able to access public services if they do not have a Scottish national entitlement card.
Answer · John Swinney: Where it is necessary to hold a card for a particular service, such as the Scotland-wide concessionary travel schemes individuals will require a national entitlement card. This is no different to how previous travel schemes worked.</p> <p >However, there is …
22 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is any difference in the information held on a Scottish national entitlement card where an individual did not want their personal data to be used for any purpose other than processing their application for free national bus travel, compared with where they consented to the s…
Answer · John Swinney: There is no difference in the information held on the national entitlement card whether it is a single-application card or a multi-application card.</p> <p >The card holder’s name, photograph and the card reference number are printed on the card. In the case…
22 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of applicants, when applying for a Scottish national entitlement card, specified that they did not want their personal data to be used for any purpose other than processing their application for free national bus travel.
Answer · John Swinney: To date, 34.56% of older and disabled national entitlement card applicants did not wish to share their personal data for purposes other than the Scotland-wide free bus travel scheme.</p>
22 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide users of a Scottish national entitlement card with legally binding terms and conditions about its purpose and functions.
Answer · John Swinney: Currently, the purpose and the function of the National Entitlement Card and the details of compliance with the Data Protection Act, are included on the application form for the card. The wording used on the form is based upon advice from local authority soli…
22 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to include an individual’s CHI number or other information on their Scottish national entitlement card in the future, and if so, for what purpose, and whether individuals will be able to opt out.
Answer · John Swinney: There are no plans to include an individual’s CHI number on the national entitlement card. There was an initial proposal to include the number on the card (in order to inform individuals of their CHI number and advise them on its use) but that proposal has no…
22 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether all data obtained through application of a Scottish national entitlement card is shared across its directorates.
Answer · John Swinney: The Scottish Government does not have access to any of the data provided by applicants for a national entitlement card. Local authorities are the issuing authority for the scheme.</p> <p >Each local authority has access to the records of their own residents …
22 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what specific functions a multi-purpose Scottish national entitlement card can serve.
Answer · John Swinney: Current priorities of the national entitlement card scheme are to replace the various and numerous card schemes currently run by local authorities, to reduce the number of cards people have to carry and to help make use of the card easier, i.e. one card to ac…
22 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to introduce an alternative to the Scottish national entitlement card that does not carry a unique reference number.
Answer · John Swinney: The Scottish Government has no plans to introduce an alternative to the national entitlement card.</p> <p >The card was introduced to improve choice and convenience for people accessing public services by replacing the various and numerous card schemes curre…
22 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to make Scottish national entitlement cards compulsory for young people to verify proof of age.
Answer · John Swinney: Young people, particularly over 18s, have a number of ways of proving their age, e.g. driving licences, student cards etc, and there are a number of cards in circulation which have been accredited under the British Retail Consortium’s proof of age standard sc…
22 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any local authorities or individual schools have made it compulsory for students to use a Scottish national entitlement card to access school meals.
Answer · John Swinney: The national entitlement card is not compulsory.</p> <p >Local authorities and schools who use the card to access school meals must also provide an alternative method to access the service for those students who do not wish to carry a card. Alternatives inc…
22 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is possible to identify the user of a Scottish national entitlement card by its unique 19 digit reference number.
Answer · John Swinney: The 16 digit number printed on the National Entitlement Card is the card number and is unique within a local authority area. It is not a lifelong personal identifier. If the cardholder moves to a new local authority area a new card will be issued with a new n…
22 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide separate single-purpose entitlement cards for those individuals who do not wish to have a multi-purpose entitlement card.
Answer · John Swinney: The Scottish Government has no plans to issue a separate single purpose entitlement card.</p> <p >There is no compulsion for anyone in Scotland to use a multi-application card, i.e. a number of entitlements on one card. They can, if they wish, choose to have…
15 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to extend the Scottish Crime Survey to include under 16-year-olds.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey currently interviews adults aged 16 years and over. We are aware of developments with the BCS survey of crime in England and Wales to extend coverage to 11 to 15-year-olds and watch these developments with interest, but h…
14 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many times tasers have been fired by police officers in the last three years.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: In Scotland tasers have been discharged by police officers 16 times during nine incidents in the last three years.</p>
14 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what training is given to police officers who have the use of tasers.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: Authorised firearms officers are trained and deployed in accordance with detailed ACPO/ACPOS (Association of Chief Police Officers/Scotland) guidance. This covers matters such as the selection and training of personnel, the authorisation procedures to be put …
14 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how is it decided which police officers have access to tasers.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-12940 on 22 May 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/w…