Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S3W-04482

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Livingston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 28 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15383 by Cathy Jamieson on 19 April 2005, what expenditure the Scottish Prison Service incurred in connection with its involvement in the International Correction and Prison Association in 2005-06 and 2006-07.

I have asked MikeEwart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

The Scottish PrisonService has national membership of the International Corrections and Prisons Associationfor which the subscription was $5000US in each year.

In addition, a smallamount of staff time was given in both years to providing support to the Officeof the Association’s President who was the previous Chief Executive of the SPS.The costs of this support are estimated at approximately £28,000 in total.

In 2005-06, the International Correction and Prison Association(ICPA) Conference was held inEdinburgh. Over 300 delegates attended the event fromsome 40 jurisdictions. The service supported a number of events as host countryand, in particular, supported the presence of a number of delegates from developingcountries.

Question reference: S3W-04485

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Livingston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 28 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-30117 by Cathy Jamieson on 14 February 2007, whether it will provide a breakdown of the flight costs incurred by senior staff of the Scottish Prison Service on overseas trips in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S3W-04488

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Livingston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 28 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the location and costs of all conferences attended by senior members of Scottish Prison Service staff since 1999.

Question reference: S3W-04486

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Livingston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 28 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many conferences on prison privatisation members of staff of the Scottish Prison Service have attended in the last year.

Question reference: S3W-04484

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Livingston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 27 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers membership and the active involvement of the Scottish Prison Service and its staff in the International Correction and Prison Association to be a productive use of public funds.

Question reference: S3W-04483

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Livingston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 27 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of Scottish Prison Service (SPS) expenditure for financial years 2005-06 and 2006-07 was used to fund the involvement of SPS staff in the administration and organisation of the International Correction and Prison Association.

Question reference: S3W-04489

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Livingston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 27 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Prison Service currently seconds staff to the International Correction and Prison Association and, if so, which organisation funds the related salary costs.

Question reference: S3W-04357

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Livingston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 27 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what access the voluntary sector will have to future European Social Fund provision.

Voluntary sectorbodies are one of the three main categories of eligible organisations able toregister, apply and compete for European Social Funds (ESF) under the 2007-13Lowlands and Uplands (LUPS) and Highlands and Islands (H&I) programmes.These main categories are - Voluntary or Charitable Organisations; PublicSector Organisations, and Joint Ventures (Public/Private Partnerships)

The on-lineregistration process is now open for all organisations wishing to compete forESF funding towards the cost of eligible projects. So far 48% of theregistrations for LUPS, and 36% of the H&I registrations are from voluntarysector bodies. More information on the very simple registration process isavailable at www.esep.co.uk for the LUPSprogramme and at www.hipp.org.uk for theH&I programme.

Question reference: S3W-04487

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Livingston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Prison Service has any plans to attend or participate in overseas conferences.

Question reference: S3W-04359

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Livingston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many Security Industry Authority licences have been (a) applied for and (b) awarded.

The Security IndustryAuthority (SIA) has regulated the private security industry in England and Wales since 2004. Licensing in Scotland will become mandatory on 1 November 2007.

The following tableshows the number of applications received by the SIA on 14 September 2007 from applicants with Scottish addresses, the number awarded,the number refused and the number currently being processed. SIA licences are validacross Great Britain and it is possible that licences issued to people with Englishor Welsh addresses will be for work in Scotland.

Applied	9,973
Granted	6,788
Refused	212
Being Processed	2,223
Received, but sent back to applicant for re-correction as application is incomplete	750