Parliamentary questions
Margaret Smith
931 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
22 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been allocated to the Fire Capital Grant in 2007-08.
Answer · Fergus Ewing: £24.6 million hasbeen allocated to the Fire Capital Grant in 2007-08.</p>
22 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much ring-fenced funding will be allocated to pay for criminal justice social work in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: £86.45 million in2008-09 and each of the two subsequent years for criminal justice social workis included in the Local Government Finance settlement for 2008-09 as part of the total amount of funding that the Scottish Government pays to localauthorities, via …
22 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been allocated to pay for criminal justice social work in 2007-08.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The ScottishGovernment has allocated £88.6 million in total in 2007-08 to date, comprisingan initial allocation of £86.0 million and further allocations to take forwarda range of specific initiatives.</p>
22 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much ring-fenced funding will be allocated for local authorities to pay for the police in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: Discussions are continuingwith COSLA over the distribution of resources in the local government finance settlement,including the allocations for police. Final decisions will be confirmed when theCabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth announces t…
22 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much ring-fenced funding has been allocated to local authorities to pay for the police in 2007-08.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The police GAEfigure for Scotland for 2007-08 is £1,077 million. The policegrant is paid at the rate of 51% of expenditure up to a maximum of this figure andlocal authorities make up the balance.</p>
22 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding will be rolled into the local authority settlement to pay for the National Accommodation Strategy for Sex Offenders in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11.
Answer · Stewart Maxwell: Under theConcordat agreed between Scottish Ministers and COSLA, the ring-fence aroundthe National Accommodation Strategy for Sex Offenders will be removed from 1 April 2008, with the funding being absorbed into the main localgovernment settlement.</p><p>The S…
22 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been allocated to pay for the National Accommodation Strategy for Sex Offenders in 2007-08.
Answer · Stewart Maxwell: £2 million hasbeen allocated in 2007-08 to assist local authorities in developing thesystems, protocols and practices required to implement the National AccommodationStrategy for Sex Offenders.</p>
22 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding will be rolled into the local authority settlement for the Violence Against Women Fund in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11.
Answer · Stewart Maxwell: Under theconcordat agreed between Scottish ministers and COSLA, an element of the fundingring-fenced in the Violence Against Women Fund will from 1 April 2008, be absorbedinto the main local government settlement.</p><p>The Scottish Governmentwill be providin…
22 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been allocated for the Violence Against Women Fund in 2007-08.
Answer · Stewart Maxwell: £3.1 million was allocatedto the Violence Against Women Fund for 2007-08.</p>
22 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding will be rolled into the local authority settlement for the Police Capital Grant in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The amount of policecapital grant included within the local government settlement announced by the CabinetSecretary for Finance and Sustainable Development on 13 December 2007 is £26 million in each year.</p><p>In addition, a further£5 million has been includ…
22 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been allocated for the Police Capital Grant in 2007-08.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The totalallocated for Police Capital Grant in 2007-08 is £31.415 million.</p>
22 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding will be rolled into the local authority settlement to pay for community safety partnerships in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11.
Answer · Fergus Ewing: Under the Concordatagreed between Scottish ministers and COSLA, the ring-fence around Community Safetyfunding will be removed from 1 April 2008, with the fundingbeing absorbed into the main local government settlement.</p><p>The Scottish Governmentwill be pro…
22 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been allocated to pay for community safety partnerships in 2007-08.
Answer · Fergus Ewing: For 2007-08, £3.6million of funding has been allocated to pay for Community Safety Partnerships.</p>
22 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding will be rolled into the local authority settlement to tackle antisocial behaviour in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11.
Answer · Fergus Ewing: Under theconcordat agreed between Scottish ministers and COSLA, funding to tackle antisocialbehaviour will be absorbed into the main local government settlement from 1 April 2008.</p><p>The Scottish Governmentwill be providing local government with record lev…
22 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been allocated to tackle antisocial behaviour in 2007-08.
Answer · Fergus Ewing: For 2007-2008,£33.16 million of funding has been allocated to tackle antisocial behaviour.</p>
16 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the changes are from the 2007-08 baseline for each proposed budget line at levels (a) one, (b) two and (c) three of the Justice portfolio resulting from Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007, expressed in real (i) cash and (ii) percentage terms for each year of the spending review.
Answer · John Swinney: The informationrequested for levels one and two is given in Draft Budget 2008-09: Real TermsAnalysis, a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre (Bib. number 44133.)</p>
16 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the changes are from the 2007-08 baseline for each proposed budget line at levels (a) one, (b) two and (c) three of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service portfolio resulting from Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007, expressed in real (i) cash and (ii) percentage terms for …
Answer · John Swinney: The informationrequested is given in Draft Budget 2008-09<i>: Real Terms Analysis</i>, a copyof which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib.number 44133).</p>
13 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive from what date it will begin to increase police officers in the community by 500 through retention and redeployment.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-6303on 22 November 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa…
13 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the 500 police officers it plans to place in communities from retention and redeployment by 2011 will be from (a) retention and (b) redeployment.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The Scottish Governmentwill deliver an additional 1,000 police officers in our communities through increasedrecruitment, improved retention and redeployment. We have already announced, asa first step, the recruitment of 500 new officers over the lifetime of P…
13 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has consulted any stakeholders about a new retention scheme for police officers.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-6303on 22 November 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa…
13 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers are due to leave active service in 2007-08.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: Approximately 470police officers will be eligible to retire with full pension rights during thisfinancial year.</p>
13 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive which police forces have personnel who have signed up to the 30+ scheme.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: All police forcesin Scotland, apart from Tayside Police, have policeofficers signed up to the 30+ scheme.</p>
13 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-4206 by Kenny MacAskill on 6 September 2007, whether it plans to recruit 150 new recruits in this financial year in addition to the 550 recruits due to complete their induction training at the Scottish Police College during 2007-08.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: Yes. As a result of the government’s announcement on 12 November 2007, Chief Constables will be ableto recruit an additional 150 police officers this financial year, over and abovethe recruitment plans they would have developed under the previous administrati…
9 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether all emails and feedback forms received by Transport Scotland or only Transport Scotland’s summary of responses and its report in respect of the consultation on the Forth replacement crossing will be made publicly available.
Answer · Stewart Stevenson: The publicinformation exhibitions were held in order to present the facts from the Forth ReplacementCrossing Study to the public, local communities and other interested parties.</p><p>Transport Scotlandhave carried out a thorough analysis of all the feedback …
30 Oct 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to set up a non-emergency number for people needing to contact the police.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: Scottish police forcesare looking at how to reduce the burden of non-emergency calls on the 999 serviceand three police forces namelyDumfries and Galloway Constabulary, Fife Constabulary and Grampian Police, havea non-emergency number for people needing to co…
30 Oct 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it intends to take to promote awareness of the correct use of the 999 emergency number.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: Malicious and unnecessary999 calls divert the emergency services away from genuine emergency calls. Scotland’s fire and rescue services’ leaflets and the ScottishGovernment’s fire safety website contain information about misuse of the 999 systemthrough making…
25 Oct 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it is taking to provide better support to victims of crime.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I committed to ensuringthat victims of crime receive the support they need when they need it and I seethis as integral to making Scotland a safer and stronger country. The ScottishGovernment’s provision of around £41.5 million in 2007-08 to address issues aff…
25 Oct 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it plans to take to ensure that victims of all crimes are kept informed of legal proceedings.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I want to ensure thatvictims of crime receive the information they need about legal proceedings thataffect them. Significant numbers of victims, particularly victims of serious crime,already receive information from the Victim Information and Advice service, …
25 Oct 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to extend the victim notification scheme.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: An analysis of thevictim notification scheme was published in September of this year. On the basisof that analysis I am minded to extend the terms of the scheme to include more victims.A final decision on the extension of eligibility will depend upon the avai…
25 Oct 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to extend legal aid provisions to provide victims of crime with better access to compensation.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I am considering whetherministers’ powers to fund or employ solicitors through the Scottish Legal Aid Boardto provide legal advice and representation could be utilised to further help victims.The legal aid system can already assist victims claim compensation …