Parliamentary questions

Bill Aitken

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

27 Mar 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether during the test purchasing of alcohol pilot scheme in Fife, only licensed premises which failed two test purchases were subject to prosecution by the Crown Office and, if so, whether this position has changed following the national roll-out of the test purchasing, and whether ther…

Answer · Elish Angiolini: During the test purchasing of alcohol pilot scheme in Fife the prosecutor assigned to deal with such reports took account of all the information provided by the police and made a decision on the merits of each individual case. He also was aware of the educati…

27 Mar 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many offences of selling alcohol to under 18-year-olds have been detected 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 premises as de…

Answer · Elish Angiolini: Between 10 December 2007 and 31 March 2008 106 reports identified by the police as arising from test purchase operations were made to the Procurator Fiscal. A number of these were wrongly classified and it is not possible to distinguish between on-sales and …

27 Mar 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many test purchases of alcohol have (a) been made on a second occasion in premises which had already failed a test purchase of alcohol and (b) resulted in failure in (i) on-sales and (ii) off-sales premises as defined by the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976, broken down by police force a…

Answer · Shona Robison: Information obtained from the Scottish Police Service, indicates that: (a) there have been 91 second or subsequent test purchases made on premises which had already failed a test purchase of alcohol, and (b)(i) none of the second failures ha…

27 Mar 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many test purchases of alcohol have (a) been made and (b) resulted in failure in (i) on-sales and (ii) off-sales premises as defined by the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976, broken down by police force area.

Answer · Shona Robison: Information obtained from the Scottish Police Service, indicates that : (a) Six hundred and forty-four tests have been undertaken since test purchase went live across Scotland. 632 off-sales and 12 on-sales. (b)(i) There were four failures i…

27 Mar 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown of the funding it has made, and will make, available to police forces, local authorities and the Crown Office to support the national roll-out of the test purchasing of alcohol.

Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government provided £33,000 for the Scottish Police Service to assist with the national media launch of the test purchasing of alcohol.

27 Mar 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it made available to support the implementation of the test purchasing of alcohol pilot scheme; how much the pilot exercise as a whole cost to deliver, and whether it will provide a breakdown of these costs.

Answer · Shona Robison: The total cost of delivering the Fife Test Purchasing Pilot was £121,000, a breakdown of which is provided in the following table. The Scottish Government covered the costs of the pilot co-ordinator. Costs of Test Purchase Pilot <table border=1…

14 Mar 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what emergency plans or provisions it has put in place to cover the relocation of prison populations in the event of any prison or part of such a prison being rendered uninhabitable by reason of fire, water damage or other cause.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows: SPS contingency plans depend on making intensive use of existing accommodation and bringing into use redundant accommodation where a…

14 Mar 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what emergency plans or provisions it has inherited from the previous administration to cover the relocation of prison populations in the event of any prison or part of such a prison being rendered uninhabitable by reason of fire, water damage or other cause.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows: SPS contingency plans depended on making intensive use of existing accommodation and bringing into use redundant accommodation where…

28 Feb 2008 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to preserve sites of environmental value in Glasgow.

Answer · Michael Russell: The Glasgow City Plan sets out Glasgow City Council''s planning policies for development affecting open spaces and other sites of environmental value within the city. Planning decisions must be made in accordance with the development plan unless material cons…

26 Feb 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidences there have been, since the passing of the appropriate legislation, in which counsel have been appointed to act in cases of sexual assault where the accused sought to defend themselves.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: This information is not held centrally. Under section 22(1)(dd) of the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986 a court can automatically appoint a solicitor to a person accused of a sexual offence as defined under section 288B of the Criminal Procedure(Scotla…

7 Feb 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-8923 by Kenny MacAskill on 4 February 2008, what the terms of reference are for the review of HM Prison Castle Huntly commissioned by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows: The terms of reference are: To consider the individual circumstances and the decision to transfer Robert Foye to the SPS Op…

4 Feb 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the 774 persons on supervised bail during 2005-06 who breached their conditions did so as a result of behaviour that led to criminal convictions.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The information requested is not held centrally. The most recent statistics that relate to supervised bail cases are presented in the Statistical Bulletin Criminal Justice Social Work Statistics, 2006-07. This bulletin includes information on the numb…

4 Feb 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the 774 persons on supervised bail during 2005-06 breached their conditions.

25 Jan 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will carry out an interim study of the security at HM Prison Castle Huntly and the selection process for prisoners who go there, pending receipt of the fuller report of the Scottish Prison Service’s internal review.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked MikeEwart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond.His response is asfollows:The review commissionedby the Cabinet Secretary will be completed and published by the end of February.

24 Jan 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many accused persons (a) were made subject to bail supervision and (b) offended while on bail over the last three years.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: Statistics on thenumber of individuals made subject to bail supervision are given in table 12.1 of the Criminal Justice Social Work Statistics 2006-07 bulletin, available at:<ahref="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/01/11134527/0">http://www…

15 Jan 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners are serving sentences of 12 months or less in (a) HM Prison Castle Huntly and (b) HM Prison Noranside and what the figures were five years ago.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:As of 17 January 2008 thereare no prisoners in either (a) Castle Huntly or (b) Noranside serving 12 monthsor less.As of 17 January 200…

15 Jan 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners are serving sentences of 12 months or less in the open estate and how many were serving similar sentences five years ago.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:As of 17 January 2008 thereare no prisoners in the Open Estate serving 12 months or less.As of 17 January 2005 therewas one prisoner i…

7 Jan 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many appeals are outstanding where the appellant is at liberty and, of these, how many have been outstanding (a) for up to three months, (b) from three to six months, (c) from seven to 12 months, (d) at least 12 months and (e) over 24 months.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The number of appealsoutstanding where the appeal records show the appellant to be at liberty is400. It is possible that of this number some appellants may have subsequentlybeen subject to other court proceedings and remanded or committed to custody inthose p…

7 Jan 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many appeals are outstanding where the appellant is in custody and, of these, how many have been outstanding (a) for up to three months, (b) from three to six months, (c) from seven to 12 months, (d) at least 12 months and (e) over 24 months.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The number of appealsoutstanding where the appeal records show the appellant to be in custody is348.Of those the followingperiods apply:<table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3> <tr> <td width=132 valign=top> Period </td> <td width=1…

7 Jan 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) indictments were dealt with and (b) appeals were lodged against (i) conviction, (ii) sentence and (iii) conviction and sentence in sheriff and jury courts over the last three years for which figures are available.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: (a) Figures are not held centrally on total indictments dealt with in the sheriff courts to include alldisposals and outcomes. Over the last three years 5,512 new indictments wereregistered in the sheriff court in 2004-05, 5,798 in 2005-06 and 6,304 in2006-07…

7 Jan 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) indictments were dealt with and (b) appeals were lodged against (i) conviction, (ii) sentence and (iii) conviction and sentence in the High Court over the last three years for which figures are available.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: (a) Figures are not held centrally on total indictments dealt with in the High Court to include alldisposals and outcomes. Over the last three years 1,352 new indictments wereregistered in the High Court in 2004-05, 1,152 in 2005-06 and 1,264 in 2006-07.<…

7 Jan 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made with the Home Office in obtaining the appropriate technology to detect people driving under the influence of drugs.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: Policy and legislation ondriving whilst under the influence of drugs is reserved.Home Office officials haveadvised that plans to issue a specification for the technology in December havebeen delayed. They are hopeful that discussions underway will enab…

12 Dec 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many positive drug tests have been obtained in HM Prison Barlinnie in each of the last three months.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:The number of tests and positiveresults for HM Prison Barlinnie for September to November 2007 were as follows:<table border=1 cellspacin…

28 Nov 2007 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures are in place to ensure that routine cleaning procedures are carried out in all ambulances.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The ScottishAmbulance Service operates a national infection control policy, with clear processesfor the cleaning of vehicles. These processes allow for appropriate cleaning ofambulances after each response and a full “deep clean” on a regular basis.

14 Nov 2007 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the impact on the Scottish budget would be of the revenue consequences of increasing the justice department budget sufficiently to allow police numbers to increase by a total of 1,000.

Answer · John Swinney: As the cost of 500additional police officers is £54 million over the Spending Review period, thenit follows that 1,000 additional officers would cost in the region of £108 million.In order for the additional sum to be found, other spending announced in the Sp…

19 Sep 2007 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to improve rail services between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: TransportScotland has been leading workto provide firm proposals for the most cost-effective ways to improvereliability, bring down journey times and provide capacity for the expectedcontinuing growth in rail passenger numbers between Edinburgh and Gla…

5 Sep 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost has been of civil legal aid and what amount has been recovered from defenders where legal aid has been granted to a successful pursuer in each of the last five years.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The Scottish Legal Aid Board''s system which records receipt of property recovered or preserved, and expenses from opponents, does not record whether the opponent was the pursuer or defender in the case. SLAB summarises in its annual report, a copy of…

16 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many minutes of agreement containing provisions relating wholly or partly to the aliment of a child or children have been registered in the Books of Council and Session each year since 2000.

Answer · Jim Mather: This information isnot collected. Minutes of Agreement may be registered in the Books of Council andSession by Registers of Scotland. The Books of Council and Session are held by theNational Archives of Scotland. Registered Minutes of Agreement can be searche…

25 Jul 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-1975 by Kenny MacAskill on 24 July 2007, how many crimes and offences have been omitted from the records of the (a) Scottish Crime Survey and (b) Scottish Crime and Victimisation Survey because they have been committed on a person who has already bee…

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The ScottishCrime Survey and Scottish Crime and Victimisation Survey (SCVS) provides anestimate of personal and household crime in Scotland. Analysis of personal and household crime has involved capping repeat victimisation at five repeat instances per victim…

6 Jul 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any crimes or offences were omitted from the records of the Scottish Crime Survey or the Scottish Crime and Victimisation Survey, similar to those against repeat victims omitted from the British Crime Survey, as identified by CIVITAS: the Institute for the Study of Civil Society.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The Scottish Crime Survey (SCS)and Scottish Crime & Victimisation Survey (SCVS) provides an estimate ofpersonal and household crime in Scotland. In this calculation repeat victimisation has beencapped at 5 repeat instances per victim,similar to the Britis…