Mary Fee

11 Feb 2013 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government when a Scottish passport system will be in place if Scotland separates from the rest of the United Kingdom.

23 Jan 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the hourly wage is for working prisoners at each prison.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows: “The SPS does not pay prisoners on an hourly basis, therefore it is not possible to provide an hourly wage rate for working prisoners …

21 Jan 2013 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what steps the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment is taking to tackle rural poverty.

14 Jan 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether offenders' families are involved in reviews of (a) sentencing, (b) care in custody and (c) other aspects of offenders' care.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: In relation to reviews of sentencing, following a person's conviction, the court will decide on an appropriate sentence within the overall legal framework provided by Parliament. The court has wide discretion to consider what an appropriate sentence should be…

14 Jan 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether families can accumulate prison visits if they live a long distance from the prison.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows: “A life prisoner or those serving a sentence of more than 14 months who has served at least six months may apply to the Governor to start ac…

14 Jan 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many repeat offenders have repeated rehabilitation programmes in each year since 2007.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows: “Interventions will be delivered after an assessment of an individual’s risks and needs. This may result in an individual having to re…

14 Jan 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it evaluates rehabilitation programmes (a) in and (b) out of prison.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows: “The evaluation of rehabilitation programmes for individual prisoners is undertaken by analysing data gathered before, during and afte…

14 Jan 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of prisoners is released without accommodation.

Answer · Margaret Burgess: Between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012 there were 19,792 discharges from prison, of whom 846 people stated that they would be of no fixed abode on release. In the same period there were 1,735 applications to local authorities for homelessness assistance from …

14 Jan 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by nationality of the prison population.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows: “On 16 January 2013 the number of offenders in custody including those on remand was 7750 if which 7459 were British. The following table sh…

14 Jan 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of offenders who carry out a community payback order has gone on to reoffend.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: Re-offending rates cannot be measured directly, as not all offences result in prosecution and conviction. Instead, reconviction rates are used as a proxy measure of the rate of re-offending. Information about the percentage of offenders who received these ord…

14 Jan 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many community payback orders have been issued.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The information requested can be found in Criminal proceedings in Scotland 2011-12 (Table 7). This publication is available on-line on the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/11/5336.

14 Jan 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of prisoners are attending education programmes.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows: The number of prisoners attending education in the Scottish Prison Service varies from day to day. A snapshot of prisoners attending educati…

14 Jan 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding each community justice authority receives under section 27 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: Funding allocated to each Community Justice Authority (CJA) under section 27 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, for the current financial year (2012-13), is provided in the following table: CJA Area Amount Fife and Forth Valley £12,148,540 Glasgow …

14 Jan 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it tackles mental health problems in rural areas.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The Scottish Government sets national direction of policy and provides funding to agencies to support implementation of policy. The management of local actions in implementing this policy is the responsibility of these relevant local agencies, based on local …

14 Jan 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many prisons use father and child visit contracts.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows: “No prison should be describing the process for bonding visits as a contract. As I advised when I wrote to Mary Fee MSP on 25 September 201…

14 Jan 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will reassess its anti-poverty policies in light of the UK Government’s welfare reform policies.

Answer · Margaret Burgess: The Scottish Government’s approach is to tackle the long term drivers of poverty through early intervention and prevention. Our Solidarity target reflects the importance we attach to reducing income inequality, something which the UK Government's policies ris…

14 Jan 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many looked-after children are taking part in programmes aimed at getting them into employment.

Answer · Angela Constance: As at the end of December 2012, 67 individuals had been supported through the Employer Recruitment Incentive for targeted young people and includes care leavers. The aim of this incentive is to support 1000 targeted young people over the three financial years…

14 Jan 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what programmes are available to support looked-after children into employment.

Answer · Angela Constance: In December 2011 the Scottish Government announced that £1.5 million was to be invested over three financial years in an Employer Recruitment Incentive for 1000 targeted young people. 80 targeted young people will be supported in 2012-13; 460 in 2013-14; and …

17 Dec 2012 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to make prison visiting times child-friendly.

3 Dec 2012 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on prisoners being issued with contracts for father and child visits.

28 Nov 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many empty (a) council and (b) social houses there are, also broken down by local authority.

Answer · Margaret Burgess: The following table shows the number of local authority and registered social landlord (RSL) owned lettable dwellings which had been void for 6 months or more as at 31 March 2012. Local Authority (a) Local Authority owned RSL (b) Total Social Sector Scot…

21 Nov 2012 · SPCB Written Question

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the cost is of processing a parliamentary motion.

Answer · Mary Scanlon: The costs of processing parliamentary motions are largely those attributable to the time of Parliamentary staff in making checks on admissibility, compliance with the relevant guidance and publishing motions in accordance with Standing Orders. Due to the fa…

19 Nov 2012 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what reduction there has been in the number of female college students in the west of Scotland since 2006-07.

16 Nov 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what training is provided to teachers regarding giving support to children with imprisoned parents.

Answer · Alasdair Allan: The teaching standards set by the General Teaching Council for Scotland require teachers to be able to identify and respond appropriately to pupils with difficulties in or barriers to learning and recognise when to seek advice in relation to their additional …

16 Nov 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how schools support children with imprisoned parents.

Answer · Alasdair Allan: The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (as amended) places duties on education authorities and other agencies to provide support to children and young people who have an additional support need which is causing a barrier to their …

16 Nov 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of self-harm have been reported in prisons in each year since 2008.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Colin McConnell, chief executive of the Scottish prison service, to respond. His response is as follows: “The following table illustrates the total number of self-harm incidents recorded as such on the prisoner records system.” 2012 2011 2010 …

16 Nov 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many hours per week a psychiatrist is on duty at each prison.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The information requested is not held centrally.

16 Nov 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many referrals there have been in prisons for mental health treatment in each year since 2008.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Colin McConnell, chief executive of the Scottish prison service, to respond. His response is as follows: “This information is not held by the Scottish prison service (SPS). You will be aware that responsibility and accountability for the provisi…

16 Nov 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many prisoners are receiving treatment for mental health problems.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The information requested is not held centrally.

16 Nov 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the reoffending rates are for each prison.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Colin McConnell, chief executive of the Scottish prison service, to respond. His response is as follows: “It is not possible to accurately align reconviction rates with individual prisons as prisoners may transfer between prisons on a number of …