Parliamentary questions
Gavin Brown
1,064 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
8 Mar 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average fine was for possessing (a) heroin, (b) cocaine, (c) ecstasy, (d) cannabis and (e) amphetamines in the Lothians region in 2009-10, broken down by sheriff court, and what percentage change was from the previous year.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The available information is given in the following table.</p> <p >Average (Mean) Fine (£) for Possession of Selected Drugs<sup>1,3</sup>, by Sheriff Court<sup>2</sup>, 2008-09 and 2009-10</p> <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 > <thead> <tr >…
8 Mar 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many hoax calls were made to Lothian and Borders (a) Police and (b) Fire and Rescue Service and at what total cost, in each year since 2007.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The latest figures available for the number of malicious false alarms to Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service are shown in table 1. The number of hoax calls made to the Lothian and Borders Police are not held centrally. However, the number of recorded …
3 Mar 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many direct measures were issued for (a) assault and (b) assault to injury in February 2011, broken down by sheriff court.
Answer · Frank Mulholland: The following table shows the number of charges of (a) assault and (b) assault to injury where the initial decision taken by the Procurator Fiscal was to deal with the offending behaviour by means of a direct measure in February 2011.</p> <p >The 169 charges…
3 Mar 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many direct measures were issued for (a) assault and (b) assault to injury in January 2011, broken down by sheriff court.
Answer · Frank Mulholland: The following table shows the number of charges of (a) assault and (b) assault to injury where the initial decision taken by the Procurator Fiscal was to deal with the offending behaviour by means of a direct measure in January 2011.</p> <p >The 205 charges …
3 Mar 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many direct measures were issued for (a) assault and (b) assault to injury in December 2010, broken down by sheriff court.
Answer · Frank Mulholland: The following table shows the number of charges of (a) assault and (b) assault to injury where the initial decision taken by the Procurator Fiscal was to deal with the offending behaviour by means of a direct measure in December 2010.</p> <p >The 196 charges…
3 Mar 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many direct measures were issued for (a) assault and (b) assault to injury in November 2010, broken down by sheriff court.
Answer · Elish Angiolini: The following table shows the number of charges of (a) assault and (b) assault to injury where the initial decision taken by the Procurator Fiscal was to deal with the offending behaviour by means of a direct measure in November 2010.</p> <p >The 193 charges…
3 Mar 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many direct measures were issued for (a) assault and (b) assault to injury in October 2010, broken down by sheriff court.
Answer · Elish Angiolini: The following table shows the number of charges of (a) assault and (b) assault to injury where the initial decision taken by the Procurator Fiscal was to deal with the offending behaviour by means of a direct measure in October 2010.</p> <p >The 221 charges …
3 Mar 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many off-licences in the Lothians region were found to have sold alcohol to people under 18 in 2009-10, broken down by local authority area.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The number of offences recorded by the police, in which a licensed person has sold alcohol to a person under 18, by local authority, 2009-10.</p> <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 > <thead> <tr > <td nowrap valign=bottom > <p align=left…
3 Mar 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many acute occupied bed days in NHS Lothian have been directly connected with (a) alcohol- and (b) drug-related conditions in each year since 2007-08, also broken down by age of patient.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Information on acute occupied bed days is recorded on the SMR01 dataset. SMR01 has space for up to six diagnosis codes to be recorded, a main diagnosis and up to 5 secondary diagnoses.</p> <p >Table 1 shows the total number of bed days for patients treated …
3 Mar 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many pupils in the Lothians region have been suspended for drug-related issues in each local authority area in each year since 2007-08.
Answer · Michael Russell: The number of pupils suspended (temporarily excluded) for incidents of substance misuse (not alcohol) in each local authority in the Lothians region, in each year since 2007-08, is:</p> <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 > <tr > <td width=132 v…
3 Mar 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many pupils in the Lothians region have been suspended for alcohol-related issues in each local authority area in each year since 2007-08.
Answer · Michael Russell: The number of pupils suspended (temporarily excluded) for incidents of substance misuse (alcohol) in each local authority in the Lothians region, in each year since 2007-08, is:</p> <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 > <thead> <tr > <td widt…
3 Mar 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many primary school pupils in the Lothians region have received hospital treatment as a result of alcohol misuse in each year since 2007-08.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The number of patients resident in NHS Lothian and aged between 4 and 12 years, discharged from general acute hospitals with a diagnosis of alcohol misuse, in each year between 2007-08 to 2009-10 are shown in the following table.</p> <p >Number of Patients D…
3 Mar 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many primary school pupils have been sent home as a result of alcohol misuse in each local authority area in each year since 2007-08.
Answer · Michael Russell: Nationally, the number of primary school pupils recorded as being excluded from school as a result of alcohol misuse in each year since 2007-08 is as follows</p> <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 > <tr > <td width=74 valign=top > <p align=c…
3 Mar 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many arrests for drug-related offences have been made in the Lothian and Borders Police force area in each year since 2007-08.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: Information on the number of arrests made by the police is not held centrally, only the number of crimes recorded. The following table shows the number of drug-related crimes and offences recorded by Lothian and Borders Police Force from 2007-08 to 2009-10:</…
3 Mar 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many deaths in the NHS Lothian area were (a) alcohol and (b) drug related and, of these, how many were of people aged (i) under 18, (ii) 18 to 29, (iii) 30 to 55 and (iv) over 55, in each year since 2007-08.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The total numbers of alcohol-related deaths in the NHS Lothian area, in each calendar year from 1979 to 2009, are given in Table 2 of the Alcohol-related deaths section of the website of the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS), which can be found at t…
3 Mar 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many arrests for drug-related offences have been made in the Lothian and Borders Police force area in each year since 2007-08.
18 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been charged with stealing petrol from cars in each of the last three years, broken down by sheriff court.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The information requested is not held centrally. We are unable to separately identify theft of petrol from vehicles within Scottish Government court proceedings data.</b></p>
18 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents of petrol being stolen from cars have been reported in each of the last three years, broken down by police force area.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The information requested is not held centrally.</p>
19 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what disposals were applied to people charged under section 33(1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 in each year since 2007-08.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The available information is given in the following table.</b></p> <p >Persons Proceeded Against Under Section 33(1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990<sup>1</sup>, by Main Result, from 2007-08 to 2009-10</p> <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding…
18 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3O-12587 by Jim Mather on 13 January 2011, whether any of the £32 million invested came from a source other than the Scottish Co-investment Fund, the Scottish Venture Fund and the Scottish Seed Fund.
Answer · Jim Mather: Primarily, the investment activity would be delivered through the Scottish Co-investment Fund, the Scottish Venture Fund and the Scottish Seed Fund. Some 90% of the investments in 2009-10 relate to these funds.</b></p> <p >In addition, Scottish Enterprise, t…
13 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when it last conducted the Annual Survey of Small Businesses’ Opinions.
Answer · Jim Mather: The latest Annual Survey of Small Businesses'' Opinions (2007-08) was conducted between November 2007 and February 2008.</b></p> <p >In addition that frequent mind-mapping sessions held between 2007 and 2011 have kept ministers informed of small business opi…
13 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many meetings of the Small Business Consultative Group took place in (a) 2005, (b) 2006, (c) 2007, (d) 2008, (e) 2009 and (f) 2010.
Answer · Jim Mather: Details of meetings of the Small Business Consultative Group between 2005 and 2010 are listed in the following table:</b></p> <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 > <tr > <td width=43 valign=top > <p align=center >Year</p> </td> <td valign…
13 Jan 2011 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Investment Bank is open for business.
Answer · Jim Mather: The Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) is open for business and currently operating as a division of Scottish Enterprise. In the year to 31 March 2010 the SIB''s existing equity funds have invested a total of £32 million in 106 businesses, leveraging a further £6…
10 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what analysis it has conducted on the economic outlook for the retail sector in (a) 2011 and (b) 2012.
Answer · Jim Mather: The future prospects of the Scottish economy are summarised within the Scottish Government''s quarterly State of the Economy publication available at: </p> <p >http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Economy/state-economy/latestSofE.</b></p> <p >The latest versi…
10 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what impact it considers commodity price increases will have on the retail sector.
Answer · Jim Mather: An increase in commodity prices can increase both the cost of production and distribution across sectors in the economy however it is difficult to anticipate the exact nature of impact in the retail sector. For example, the implications will depend on the pri…
10 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what meetings it had with the retail sector in December 2010 and what issues were discussed.
Answer · Jim Mather: Ministers and officials regularly speak to, meet and correspond with a range of individual retailers and business organisations, such as the Scottish Retail Consortium, as part of ongoing engagement with sectors of the economy. In November 2010, there were se…
10 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what meetings it had with the retail sector in November 2010 and what issues were discussed.
Answer · Jim Mather: Ministers and officials regularly speak to, meet and correspond with a range of individual retailers and business organisations, such as the Scottish Retail Consortium, as part of ongoing engagement with sectors of the economy. In November 2010, there were se…
10 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what support and advice it has for businesses considering the use of electric vehicles.
Answer · Keith Brown: Transport Scotland currently work with the Energy Saving Trust to provide businesses and members of the public with advice on transport and travel choices. This is provided by staff at Energy Saving Advice Centres as well as through the website www.chooseanot…
10 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to encourage businesses to use electric vehicles.
Answer · Keith Brown: Central Scotland is one of only eight UK regions to be successful in joining the Plugged-in Places programme, which will provide match funding for the installation of electric vehicle charging points. This Scottish scheme, led by Transport Scotland, is curren…
23 Dec 2010 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive for what reasons it has chosen the retail sector for its proposed increase in business rates.
Answer · John Swinney: On balance it was decided that, in light of the £1.3 billion budget cut from the UK Government, it was only fair to ask some of the largest businesses in Scotland to contribute a little more in business rates income. Increasing the rates paid by the very larg…