Parliamentary questions
Gil Paterson
788 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
5 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on publicising and making available the consultation document The Scottish Executive's Consultation on the Future of the Scottish Prison Estate.
Answer · Jim Wallace: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-29287 on 28 October 2002. 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…
5 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on publicising and making available the consultation document Hungry for Success - A Whole School Approach to School Meals in Scotland.
Answer · Nicol Stephen: The consultation exercise was launched on 17 July 2002. The cost of printing and publishing the expert panel's interim report and consultation document, analysing the responses and commissioning consultants to gather views of pupils on issues related to the p…
5 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on publicising and making available the consultation document Towards Better Oral Health in Children.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Publication costs of the consultation document <I>Towards Better Oral Health in Children</I> including web publication were £8,500 and distribution costs £4,000.
5 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on publicising and making available the consultation document Reform of Social Work Education: Proposals for Consultation on the Curriculum for the New Honours Degree.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The total cost of publicising and making available the consultation document, <I>Reform of Social Work Education: Proposals for Consultation on the Curriculum for the New Honours Degree</I>, was as follows:<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=378><…
5 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much it spends, on average, on publicising a consultation document.
Answer · Andy Kerr: There is currently no central record of such costs. Such detailed information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
4 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people convicted of sexual offences in each of the last three years were at the time of conviction aged (a) under 18, (b) from (i) 18 to 21, (ii) 22 to 25, (iii) 26 to 35, (iv) 36 to 45 and (v) 46 to 55 and (c) over 55.
Answer · Jim Wallace: The information available is given in the following table.<P>Persons with a Charge Proved for Sexual Offences<SUP>1</SUP> in Scottish Courts, by Age, 1998-2000<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=217><TR><TD WIDTH="35%" VALIGN="TOP" ROWSPAN=2><P>Ag…
4 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it has taken to help prevent the abuse of children via the internet.
Answer · Jim Wallace: The Police Service and the Crown Office have taken steps to improve their existing training on internet crime, including child abuse. The Executive joined with the Home Office in running a UK-wide Internet Child Safety campaign between December 2001 and March…
4 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to change legislation in order to combat abuse of children via the internet.
Answer · Jim Wallace: Existing statute and common law already provides protection against child abuse. The general position in law is that what is illegal offline is also illegal online. The law therefore covers the abuse of children via the internet as well as elsewhere. However,…
4 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what programmes are available to people in secure accommodation that have been convicted of a sexual offence to help them address their behaviour.
Answer · Jim Wallace: Information obtained from providers of secure accommodation indicates that in certain establishments offence-related and offence-specific work is being undertaken with offenders convicted of sexual offences or that this is in the process of being developed. T…
4 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any evaluation has been made of any effects of action taken by police in respect of domestic abuse on stopping further incidents of such abuse and, if not, whether there are any plans to carry out such an evaluation.
Answer · Jim Wallace: There has not been a centrally commissioned evaluation of any effects of action taken by police in respect of domestic abuse on stopping further incidents of such abuse and there are no plans to commission any such evaluation. <P>However, most police forces i…
4 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it plans to take to ensure that domestic abuse cases reach the courts.
Answer · Margaret Curran: A working group established by the National Group to Address Domestic Abuse in Scotland has carried out a review of legislation and practice relating to domestic abuse.<P>The working group made a number of recommendations for improvement and these are current…
4 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to address repeat domestic abuse.
Answer · Margaret Curran: Repeat victimisation is, by its nature, a characteristic of domestic abuse and therefore all action taken to address domestic abuse will address repeat domestic abuse.<P>Police databases now record repeat victimisation in order to provide a full account of th…
18 Oct 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the process is for a verbal complaint to be made against the police.
Answer · Jim Wallace: Verbal complaints against the police are treated in the same way as a written complaint. The process for making a complaint is contained within the Executive's <I>Complaints Against the Police</I> leaflet, copies of which are available from the Parliament's I…
18 Oct 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-29010 by Mr Jim Wallace on 11 October 2002, whether it will detail the changes in the national recording of complaints against the police that were introduced in 2001 and how such complaints are defined.
Answer · Jim Wallace: Under revised recording procedures introduced in 2001, statistics on complaints against the police are now defined to include: "any complaint made by or on behalf of any person against one or more on duty members of a police force and from which it may r…
18 Oct 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what evaluation is made of training programmes for the investigation of rape and sexual assaults provided by individual police forces; when any such evaluations were carried out in each force; who carried out the evaluation, and what the outcome was.
Answer · Jim Wallace: Evaluation of the training provided by individual police forces is carried out by members of the force staff who have had no input to the training courses. Questionnaires are used to elicit information about participants' satisfaction with the course content …
18 Oct 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-29187 by Mr Jim Wallace on 11 October 2002, whether any external evaluation of police training programmes for the investigation of rape and sexual assaults has taken place, who carried out any such evaluation, and what the outcome was.
Answer · Jim Wallace: Each of the Scottish Police College's training programmes is subject to a continuous evaluation and review process. <P>A quality assurance committee reviews all the outputs of training design and examines the detail of evaluations. The membership of that comm…
8 Oct 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what research has been carried out into links between experiencing domestic abuse and mental illness in young people.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The Executive has commissioned two pieces of research that are relevant to this important topic. A study is under way to look at the prevalence of mental health problems amongst children and young people in the care of Scottish local authorities. The research…
8 Oct 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what research has been carried out into the effects on children of experiencing domestic abuse.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The Executive has not commissioned research to look at the wider effects on children of experiencing domestic abuse, but I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-30303 today. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Pa…
4 Oct 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what procedures or guidelines are in place to ensure that victims of abuse in schools are able to report it.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The Scottish Executive has issued guidance on child protection in schools, Circular 10/90, which requires all education authorities in Scotland, and the Scottish Council for Independent Schools, to have in place arrangements for responding to issues of child …
4 Oct 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any assessment has been made of the risk to children of being abused by teachers.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: It is a mandatory requirement that all teachers employed in local authority schools in Scotland be registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland, which since 1989 involves a criminal records check undertaken by the Disclosure Bureau. Teachers can …
4 Oct 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what research has been carried out into the prevalence of child sex abuse by teachers and the effect of such abuse on children.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The Scottish Executive is not aware of any research that focuses specifically on this subject matter. The effect of abuse on children in a wider context has been the focus of numerous pieces of research by various organisations.
4 Oct 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the ministerial task force on children's services or the National Group to Address Domestic Abuse have looked, or will look, into the effect that experiencing domestic abuse has on young people.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The Cabinet Sub-Committee on Children's Services will be holding a special meeting later this month, chaired by the First Minister, to discuss child protection, including domestic abuse, in the light of the current multi-disciplinary review, which has been in…
4 Oct 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to advertise the implementation of the Sexual Offences (Procedure and Evidence) (Scotland) Act 2002.
Answer · Jim Wallace: A circular giving details of the commencement of the act and the transitional provisions has been sent, together with a copy of the relevant commencement order, to approximately 150 organisations, mainly representative of the legal and voluntary sectors. Noti…
4 Oct 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether measures announced by the Home Secretary on changes to the sex offenders' register will apply in Scotland and, if so, what information it has received about when such changes will come into effect.
Answer · Jim Wallace: The notification requirements of the Sex Offenders Act 1997 apply across the UK. We are keen that this should continue to be the case, where possible. A recent review of the act made a number of recommendations to strengthen and improve its effectiveness. The…
4 Oct 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive why Prison Statistics Scotland, 2001 does not give statistics on the length of sentences imposed for crimes of indecency and what the average length of sentence imposed was for those convicted of crimes of indecency in (a) 2000 and (b) 2001.
Answer · Jim Wallace: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:<P>Individual crimes within crime groups such as "crimes of indecency" can vary widely in terms of seriousness and the length of impriso…
4 Oct 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-29191 by Mr Jim Wallace on 25 September 2002, whether it is aware of the Home Office research study, Rape and sexual assault of women: the extent and nature of the problem - Findings from the British Crime Survey, and whether it plans to carry out an…
Answer · Jim Wallace: The Scottish Executive is aware of the Home Office research report on <I>Rape and sexual assault of women: the extent and nature of the problem - Findings from the British Crime Survey</I>. The report utilised the sample from both the 1998 and 2000 British Cr…
20 Sep 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of elder abuse have been recorded in each of the last three years.
Answer · Jim Wallace: The information requested is not held centrally.
20 Sep 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review each local authority's procedures for issuing taxi licenses, with particular regard to screening applicants for previous convictions and what further action it plans to take in respect of this matter.
Answer · Peter Peacock: The legislative provisions contained in Schedule 1 paragraphs 2(1) of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 requires a local authority to forward a copy of any application for the grant or renewal of a taxi or private hire car licence to the Chief Constabl…
20 Sep 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many young people with mental health problems have been placed in secure units in each local authority area in each of the last three years.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: Between 1998-99 and 2000-01 in Scotland, secure units reported no children having a clinically diagnosed mental health illness. However, many young people in secure accommodation do have mental health problems. The Health Department is conducting a review of …
20 Sep 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many young girls have been placed in secure units for their own safety in each local authority area in each of the last three years.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: Information on the numbers of girls placed in secure units for their own safety from each local authority area between 1998-99 and 2000-01 is given in the following table.<P>The figures include only placements which are either a place of safety order or warra…