Patrick Harvie

7 Dec 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many Taser guns or other electro-shock weapons have been bought by police forces in Scotland, broken down by police force.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: This information is not heldcentrally. The purchase of police equipment, including firearms is a matter forthe relevant Chief Constable.</p>

22 Nov 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what top six subjects were raised by individual members of the public with the Minister and Deputy Minister for Justice, as measured by volume of written correspondence, in the last 12 months.

Answer · Margaret Curran: The top six subjects raised weresentencing; family law; the Scottish Fingerprint Service; complaints against thepolice; antisocial behaviour, and the review of the law on knives.</p>

22 Nov 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what top six subjects were raised by individual members of the public with the Minister and Deputy Minister for Communities, as measured by volume of written correspondence, in the last 12 months.

Answer · Margaret Curran: The top six subjects between15 November 2005 and 14 November 2006 were:</p><p>1.Land use planning - casework (448)</p><p>2.Central Heating Programme and Warm Deal (284)</p><p>3.Ahmed Family campaign (241)</p><p>4.Housing Association Activities (129)</p><p>5.P…

21 Sep 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what work it is currently supporting to promote volunteering among hard-to-reach groups.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: We work with partners, includingVolunteer Development Scotland (VDS) to implement our volunteering strategy andattract people from socially diverse backgrounds to volunteering. VDS, togetherwith a number of volunteer centres, takes forward a range of training…

21 Sep 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has received through Barnett consequentials following the recent announcement by the UK Government Cabinet Office of £1.1 million funding to promote volunteering among hard-to-reach groups.

Answer · Tom McCabe: The funding to promote volunteeringrecently announcement by the UK Government Cabinet Office was allocated from existingresources and does not therefore result in any consequentials for Scotland.</p>

12 Sep 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what correspondence it has had with the (a) UK Government and (b) UK Information Commissioner regarding the use of fingerprint systems in schools.

Answer · Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive is inregular contact with the UK Government and the UK Information Commissioner on arange of issues, including the use of fingerprint systems in schools.</p>

12 Sep 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what correspondence it has had with (a) schools and (b) local authorities regarding the use of fingerprint systems in schools.

Answer · Peter Peacock: The Executive has had no suchdirect correspondence.</p>

12 Sep 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that parental consent should be required before schools take the fingerprints of pupils.

Answer · Peter Peacock: The Executive believes that parenta lconsent is an essential pre&#8209;requisite.</p>

12 Sep 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it provides funding for the installation of fingerprint systems in schools and, if so, how much has been spent on this in the last three financial years.

Answer · Peter Peacock: The Executive does not providefunding specifically for the installation of such systems.</p>

12 Sep 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has a policy of supporting the installation of fingerprint systems in schools and, if so, what the objective is of this policy.

Answer · Peter Peacock: Such decisions are matters forindividual education authorities and schools.</p>

30 Aug 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on whether the implementation of the recommendations of Sir David Henshaw’s report, Recovering child support: routes to responsibility, will require separate Scottish legislation and, if so, whether this will be addressed through an Act of the Scottish Parliament o…

Answer · Hugh Henry: I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-28047 on 19 September 2006. All answers towritten parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the searchfacility for which can be found at <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/…

30 Aug 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish its comments on the UK Government’s response to Sir David Henshaw’s report, Recovering child support: routes to responsibility, prior to 18 September 2006.

Answer · Hugh Henry: I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-28047 on 19 September 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webap…

30 Aug 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the Department for Work and Pensions regarding the recommendations of Sir David Henshaw’s report, Recovering child support: routes to responsibility, and what issues have been identified as having a distinctive Scottish aspect.

Answer · Hugh Henry: Sir David Henshaw’s report waspublished in July 2006 together with the UK Government’s response, <i>A fresh start:child support redesign-the Government’s response to Sir David Henshaw</i>. The responsetakes the form of a consultation document, seeking views o…

19 Jul 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) recorded cases of, (b) prosecutions for and (c) convictions for sexual attacks against men there have been in each year since 1996, broken down by offence.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The information requested isnot available as the statistics collected centrally on recorded crime, prosecutionsand convictions do not identify victim characteristics unless this is implied bythe specific charge involved.</p>

19 Jul 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-26055 by Cathy Jamieson on 1 June 2006, whether the rate of conviction for rape for cases proceeding to court in 2002-03 was 63.8%, as identified in the answer, or 26%, as identified in Review of the Investigation and Prosecution of Sexual Offences i…

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The two figures referred toare not directly comparable as they are based on different analyses of twodifferent sets of information.</p><p>The conviction rate of 26%published in the <i>Review of the Investigation and Prosecution of SexualOffences in Scotland</…

19 Jul 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-26055 by Cathy Jamieson on 1 June 2006, how many of the charges proven in cases where rape was the main offence were for rape and not a lesser offence.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The available information, consistentwith the numbers of convictions for rape given in reply to question S2W-27511 answeredon 18 August 2006, is given in the following table.</p><p>Persons with a Charge Provedfor Rape¹: Total Number of Charges of R…

19 Jul 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-26055 and S2W-26525 by Cathy Jamieson on 1 and 14 June 2006 respectively, what the reasons are for the discrepancies between the answers in respect of the number of convictions for rape in the last 10 years.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The figures given in the answer to question S2W-26055 on 1 June 2006, were on the basis of year of conviction or acquittalwhereas those given in the answer to question S2W-26525 on 14 June 2006, were byyear of sentence or acquittal. The small differences in t…

23 Jun 2006 · SPCB Written Question

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether the Parliament's internet filter software automatically classifies all websites with metatags relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues as pornography.

Answer · George Reid: The internet filter softwareutilised by the Scottish Parliament does not automatically classify allwebsites with metatags relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)issues as pornographic. The filtering technology uses several methods of textana…

21 Jun 2006 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it is meeting the needs of gypsy traveller communities, particularly in relation to the provision of caravan sites.

Answer · Johann Lamont: Scottish Planning Policy threestates that planning authorities should identify suitable locations for Gypsies/Travellerssites where need is identified in the local housing strategy.</p><p>In addition, we have made £3million funding available to cover the thre…

14 Jun 2006 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what procedures it has in place to enforce the Scottish Ministerial Code.

Answer · Margaret Curran: Copies of the code areprovided to all ministers. Individual ministers are responsible for ensuringthat they follow the guidance in the code in order to uphold the highest standardsin public life and are ultimately accountable to Parliament.</p>

20 Apr 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it supports the creation of a child population register, as proposed by the Citizen Information Project within the Office of National Statistics, and to what extent devolved public services would be involved in the operation of such a register or access its contents.

Answer · Tom McCabe: I understand that the Departmentfor Education and Skills has accepted the recommendation from the Citizen InformationProject to consider whether there is scope for a child population register and iscurrently considering the position. No decision has yet been …

20 Apr 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether citizen entitlement cards will be linked with address-based data in any central government data initiatives.

Answer · Tom McCabe: I can confirm the Scottish Executivehas no plans to link the citizen entitlement cards with address-based data in anycentral (UK) government data initiatives.</p><p>In relation to Scotland, thecitizen entitlement card is connected to address based data to fac…

20 Apr 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-19893 by Mr Tom McCabe on 10 November 2005, what steps it has taken to ensure that civil servants, especially those working in geographic information services, are made aware of the Executive’s position that the citizen entitlement card will not be l…

Answer · Tom McCabe: I can confirm that civil servantsin the geographic information services are fully aware of the position that the Executive has no plans to link the citizen entitlement card to any national identityregister or similar database as confirmed in my stated answer …

13 Mar 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will prevent the electronic blocking of responses to any future consultations on subjects of a sexual content.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The current process for filtering,blocking and release of e-mails is necessary to ensure that the amount of inappropriatee-mail being received by the Scottish Executive can be kept to a manageable level.However, for future consultations on subjects of a sexua…

13 Mar 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will take account of the views expressed in responses to its consultation on the possession of extreme pornographic material which were blocked by its IT system.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: I refer to the member to the answer to question S2W-24154 on 23 March 2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/…

13 Mar 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many responses to its consultation on the possession of extreme pornographic material will be excluded from the analysis of responses due to being blocked by the Executive’s IT system.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: I am aware of one response tothe consultation on the possession of extreme pornography which was blocked by theExecutive’s IT system. Officials have been in contact with the respondent and theirresponse has now been received and will be included in the consul…

24 Feb 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the ban on smoking in public places will cover the driver’s compartment in black taxi cabs where there is physical separation from the passenger compartment.

Answer · Lewis Macdonald: All public transportation vehiclesare classed as no-smoking premises under the new law. A “public transportation vehicle”under the law means any vehicle available to the public as a means of transportationand specifically includes a taxi and a private hire ca…

23 Feb 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of its policies have been race impact assessed since the specific duties under the relevant provisions under the Race Relations Act 1976, as amended, came into force in 2002.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The Scottish Executive publishedits <i>Race Equality Scheme</i> on 30 November 2005 and details of all the race equality impact assessments that are plannedor underway are available from the scheme’s impact assessment database on the ScottishExecutive’s websi…

22 Feb 2006 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in the event of an outbreak of avian flu, it will undertake an emergency vaccination programme to curb the spread of the virus in poultry flocks surrounding the affected area and what preparations it has made to facilitate such a programme.

Answer · Ross Finnie: In the event of an outbreak ofavian flu in Scotland we would cull birds on infected premises with a viewto eradicating disease quickly. If further measures to control and eradicate diseasein Scotland were needed we would consider the role vaccination couldpla…

9 Feb 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it has committed in each of the last three financial years to support the development and delivery of abuse recovery services to children who have been abused.

Answer · Robert Brown: A number of funding streamsare available to agencies and voluntary sector organisations to support thedevelopment and delivery of local services.</p><p>One of the priorities of theChildren, Young People and Families Unified Voluntary Sector Fund is to protect…