Parliamentary questions

James Kelly

833 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

14 Jun 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it can take in addition to the work being undertaken by the Serious Organised Crime and Procurement Sub Group to limit public sector contracts being exploited by serious and organised crime groups.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The Serious Organised Crime and Procurement Sub-group is leading the work to limit access to public sector contracts from organised crime groups. In addition to this work, there are a number of other initiatives being taken forward under the Deter s…

14 Jun 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress the Serious Organised Crime and Procurement Sub Group has made in scoping the feasibility of automating the validation process for previous convictions, in relation to which information is sought in the pre-qualification questionnaire for public contracts.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: Work is currently ongoing to identify a method of linking the e-Procurement and Criminal History databases in a way that is both secure and appropriately transparent. In addition to this work, representatives of the Serious Organised Crime and Procurement Sub…

14 Jun 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Serious Organised Crime and Procurement Sub Group will report on the sectors of public procurement that are most vulnerable to exploitation by serious and organised crime groups.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The Serious Organised Crime and Procurement Sub Group provides regular progress updates to both the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and to the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce. Initial collaborative work has been undertaken between the Scottish Crime …

14 Jun 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the intelligence-sharing service for public sector agencies to determine suitability of potential contractors that is being considered by the Serious Organised Crime and Procurement Sub Group will be operational and how it will operate.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The Scottish Intelligence and Co-ordination Unit (SICU) has now been established and will become the recognised single point for the co-ordination and sharing of intelligence and information on serious organised crime groups across Scotland. In addit…

11 Jun 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many antisocial behaviour orders were issued in 2006-07, broken down by local authority area.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: Statistics on the number of antisocial behaviour orders issued to adults and under 16s between 1 October 2004 and 31 March 2008, by local authority area, can be found on the Scottish Government website at <a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/">www.scotland.gov…

11 Jun 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications for antisocial behaviour orders were made in 2006-07, broken down by local authority area.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The information requested is not held centrally.

11 Jun 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average timespan is between an application for an interim antisocial behaviour order being made and the court hearing taking place.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The information requested is not held centrally.

11 Jun 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average timespan is between an application for an antisocial behaviour order being made and the court hearing taking place.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The information requested is not held centrally.

11 Jun 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what total amount of assets and proceeds of crime was (a) recovered from serious organised crime and (b) allocated to the CashBack for Communities scheme in (i) 2007-08, (ii) 2008-09 and (iii) 2009-10.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The money secured by the Crown Office is the amount the courts have authorised to be recovered, but there can be a delay before that money is secured and paid into the Scottish Consolidated Fund. This can result in a difference between the COPFS figures annou…

1 Jun 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many firefighters have (a) commenced and (b) completed training in each year since 2006-07.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The Scottish Government funds and runs the Scottish Fire Services College at Gullane as a shared services facility for the benefit of staff from all eight of Scotland''s Fire and Rescue Services. Over the last four years the numbers completing the tr…

1 Jun 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been in implementing the Fire and Rescue Framework for Scotland.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: Work towards finalising the priorities and objectives for a revised Fire and Rescue Framework are closely related to ongoing discussions between national and local government on the implications of forthcoming funding adjustments in the public sector. Given t…

25 May 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason publication of its annual progress report on the Promoting Positive Outcomes framework has been delayed until autumn 2010.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The Antisocial Behaviour Framework Implementation Plan was published on 23 October 2009. The commitment given was to produce annual reports on the progress of implementation. The first of these will be published in autumn 2010.

25 May 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether an implementation group to oversee the delivery of the Promoting Positive Outcomes Implementation Plan has been established and, if so, what stakeholders are represented on it and how many times it has met.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The delivery of the Promoting Positive Outcomes Implementation Plan is overseen by the National Community Safety Strategic Group (NCSSG). In addition to Scottish Government there are representatives from COSLA, SOLACE, ACPOS and CFOAS on this group, which mee…

25 May 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to statistically evaluate the effectiveness of (a) its antisocial behaviour strategy and (b) the Antisocial Behaviour (Scotland) Act 2004 if it does not collect data centrally on the number of times the measures in the Act have been used.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: Local partners have in place their own robust performance management systems to assess the impact of their efforts to reduce antisocial behaviour (ASB). In addition, there are national partner-led approaches such as the Scottish Policing Performance Framework…

28 Apr 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many acute occupied bed days in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde were directly connected to a diagnosis of assault by sharp object in each of the last five years for which information is available.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The number of occupied bed days in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde where a diagnosis of assault by sharp object is recorded is presented in the following table. Number of Acute Occupied Bed Days1,2 in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Connected …

26 Apr 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish its review of the national objectives and standards for social work services in the criminal justice system.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: We are working with partners to finalise new National Outcomes and Standards for Criminal Justice Social Work, which will be published later this year.

26 Apr 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is planning to include violent offenders in the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements process.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: Parliament agreed that violent offenders who would fall within the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) must have been convicted on indictment of an offence inferring personal violence and be subject to a Probation Order or subject to statutory…

26 Apr 2010 · Written Question

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The specific criminal justice social work services grant allocations for individual community justice authorities (CJA) for financial years 2006-07 to 2009-10 inclusive are detailed in the following table. I have also included the related information for 2010…

26 Apr 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the specific grant allocations are for individual community justice authorities for 2010-11.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-33381 on 6 May 2010. 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/Apps2/Bus…

26 Apr 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to review the formula for allocating funds for criminal justice social work to local authorities.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: As I said to the Justice Committee on 13 April, the Scottish Government will closely monitor increases in uptake of the planned new community payback order, and we will work with local authorities to assess funding needs.

15 Apr 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is monitoring the Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service report examining minimum response times.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The Scottish Fire and Rescue Advisory Unit (SFRAU) is currently conducting a review of fire and rescue services'' Integrated Risk Management Plans (IRMP) - locally determined risk-assessed methodology for deploying fire authority resources. This review will …

15 Apr 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment has been made of the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme Circular issued by the Local Government and Firefighters’ Pensions Division.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The annual increase of public sector pensions is a reserved matter.

15 Apr 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment has been made of the independent review of Scotland’s water rescue capability by Paddy Tomkins and when the recommendations will be implemented.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: In his report, Paddy Tomkins concluded that the current multi-agency approach to water rescue in Scotland is robust and recommended that there is no requirement for new legislation or wholesale change to current arrangements. However, he did indicate that the…

15 Apr 2010 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason ownership of the recommendations of the Scotland Together: A Study examining fire deaths and injuries in Scotland report was given to the Chief Fire Officers Association.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: I commissioned Strathclyde Fire & Rescue Chief Officer, Brian Sweeney, to examine how to reduce fire deaths and injuries caused by fire in Scotland. The study findings in the Scotland Together report were submitted to the Scottish Government at th…