Parliamentary questions

Bill Aitken

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

7 Sep 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) uniformed frontline and (b) administration staff were employed by the Scottish Prison Service as at 30 June 2009.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows: (a) The Scottish Prison Service employed 2823 frontline uniformed staff, 99 Operational Senior Managers and 183 nursing staff as at 30 J…

2 Sep 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners released on compassionate grounds were foreign nationals and how many of them remained in Scotland on release in each of the last five years

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: In addition to Mr Megrahi, one foreign national has been released on compassionate grounds in the last five years. He did not remain in Scotland on release.

2 Sep 2009 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners have been released from custodial sentences after serving a quarter of their sentences in respect of powers employed by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill : This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link: <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0910-01.htm">http://www.scot…

29 Jul 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many offences of selling alcohol to under-18s have been detected in the last 6 months, broken down by police force; how many have resulted in a (a) prosecution and (b) conviction of licensees operating (i) on-sales and (ii) off-sales premises, and how many prosecutions for these offen…

Answer · Frank Mulholland: The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) case management system shows that in the first six months of 2009, 238 charges were reported by the police under the provisions of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976 concerning the sale of alcohol to under…

29 Jul 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many test purchases were carried out in on-sales between January 2009 and June 2009 and how many resulted in alcohol being sold to an (a) underage person and (b) underage person for the second time, broken down by police force.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The use of test purchasing is an operational decision for each police force. We understand most test purchasing is intelligence-led and deployed in premises with a perceived problem of sales of alcohol to those under the age of 18. The number of test…

29 Jul 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many test purchases were carried out in off-sales between January 2009 and June 2009 and how many resulted in alcohol being sold to an (a) underage person and (b) underage person for the second time, broken down by police force.

29 Jul 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the prison officer to prisoner ratio has been for each prison in each year since 2000.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows: The information requested is given in the following table. Prisoner to Prison Officer Ratios <table border=1 cellspacing=0…

15 Jun 2009 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister how many sentences of six months or less were imposed by the courts in the 12 months to 1 May 2009 and what the average time served was.

Answer · Alex Salmond:   There were 12,646 sentences of six months or less handed down during 2007-08. The average time served by prisoners liberated during that period was 40 days.   Three out of four of those sentenced to six mon…

20 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many court fines there were where no payment was made and what the value was of such fines in each of the last five years, broken down by sheriffdom.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The information is set out in the following tables: 2004 <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=532 > <thead> <tr > <td width=272 valign=top > Sheriffdom </td> <td width=184 valign=top > <p a…

20 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was unpaid in court fines in each of the last five years, broken down by sheriffdom.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: Over the five-year period 2004 to 2008, a total of £125.4 million court fines were imposed. For those fines still to be paid, £4.1 million (3%) is in the process of being collected through agreed instalments and £7.9 million (6%) is currently in arrears, due …

20 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many court fines were imposed in each of the last five years, broken down by sheriffdom.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The number of court fine accounts registered in the sheriff court in the last five years are as follows: <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 > <tr > <td width=199 valign=top > Sheriffdom </td> <td width=83 valign=…

19 Mar 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many television channels are available to prisoners in prison and how many of these channels are directly related to educational provision.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows: Prisoners have in-cell access to 20 freeview television channels none of which are directly related to educational provision.

19 Mar 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what provision is made in prisons for voluntary participation by prisoners in educational courses and what the nature is of such courses.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows: The Scottish Prison Service provides a range of educational and employability courses and programmes in all prisons, which are themed aro…

11 Mar 2009 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what steps the Scottish Government intends to take to make the law more effective in respect of the confiscation of assets of criminals.

Answer · Alex Salmond: This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link: <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0312-01.htm">http://www.scott…

10 Mar 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been collected in fiscal fines imposed since the implementation of summary justice reforms and in how many cases (a) no payment has been made and (b) payments are overdue.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: From the 36,038 fiscal penalties registered and accepted (including deemed acceptance), with a total value of £3.7 million, between 10 March 2008 and 31 December 2008, the Scottish Court Service (SCS) has collected £1.3 million. 59% of all fiscal pe…

10 Mar 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases have resulted in fiscal fines being imposed since the implementation of summary justice reforms and what the total value is of these fines.

Answer · Frank Mulholland: A total of 42,090 offers of fiscal fines were issued from 10 March 2008 to 28 February 2009, and the total value of these was £3,979,775. In the same period, a total of 1,645 offers of combined fiscal fine and compensation offer were issued, with a total fine…

2 Mar 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, of the 1,134 alcohol off-sales test purchase operations carried out between February 2008 and January 2009, how many resulted in alcohol being sold to (a) an underage person and (b) an underage person for the second time; what action was taken against the licensees in each of these cases…

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: Within Off-sales premises subject to alcohol test purchase between February 2008 and January 2009 alcohol was sold to: (a) an underage person on 172 occasions, and (b) and underage person for the second time on 13 occ…

12 Feb 2009 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing last met the Scottish Ambulance Service.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link: <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0212-01.htm">http://www.scot…

5 Feb 2009 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government will take in light of reports that a breach of bail is committed every 47 minutes.

Answer · Alex Salmond: This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link: <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0205-01.htm">http://www.scot…

21 Jan 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many under-18s were (a) arrested and (b) charged for purchasing or attempting to purchase alcohol in 2007-08.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: Information on the number of under 18s arrested for purchasing or attempting to purchase alcohol is not held centrally, only the number of offences recorded. There were 115 of these offences recorded in 2007-08 and 131 in 2006-07. Information on the …

21 Jan 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many offences of selling alcohol to under-18s have been detected in the last 12 months as a result of the national roll-out of the test purchasing of alcohol; how many of these have resulted in (a) prosecution and (b) conviction of licensees operating (i) on-sales and (ii) off-sales p…

Answer · Frank Mulholland: Information available from police forces indicates that between December 2007 and January 2009, 187 reports to the Procurator Fiscal involving alcohol test purchase operations were made, four of which concerned on-sale premises. The Crown Office and …

16 Jan 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were reported for breaching bail (a) through failure to appear and (b) conditions in the 12 months to 30 September 2008.

Answer · Frank Mulholland: In the 12 months to 30 September 2008, 11,146 charges indicating breach of bail conditions were reported to procurators fiscal. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service database is a live operational database which mainly tracks the processing …

15 Jan 2009 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing will next meet the chief executive of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: This PQ was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link: <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0115-01.htm">http://www.scotti…

14 Jan 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, excluding the standard induction meeting, how many people sentenced to community service orders begin work within (a) one week, (b) one month, (c) two months, (d) three months and (e) six months.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: This information is not held centrally. However, to measure the impact of the additional £1 million being made available, it is intended to carry out an early audit of current timescales for the start of placements and a repeat of the exercise 12 months later…

12 Jan 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many complaints were received by the police from people under the age of 18 regarding adults challenging their behaviour.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: Information on the number of complaints received by the police is not held centrally.

24 Dec 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made on the review of community penalties involving the Sheriffs’ Association, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, social work departments and Scottish Government officials.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: In response to the report of the review of community penalties, the Scottish Government established a multi-agency reference group, membership of which included representation from the Sheriffs'' Association, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the La…

10 Dec 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many sentenced foreign nationals were released from prisons in the last 12 months.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows: There have been 592 sentenced foreign national prisoners released between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2008.

10 Dec 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many foreign nationals were released from prisons in Scotland into UK Border Agency detention in the last 12 months.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows: There have been 90 foreign national prisoners released to the UK Border Agency between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2008.

9 Dec 2008 · SPCB Written Question

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it is satisfied that the level of illumination in the public part of the parliamentary building is sufficient to comply with health and safety legislation.

Answer · Alex Johnstone: The lighting in the main hall has been reconfigured recently and this has dramatically improved the standard in this area. Additionally, a survey of the garden lobby lighting has been carried out. This has shown that the light levels in some areas…

1 Dec 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers the pay offer made to Scottish Water staff to be satisfactory.

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: Pay offers made by Scottish Water to their staff are a matter for them.