Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-02141

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 31 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many requests for legal aid have been made by persons appearing in district courts in each year since 2000 and, of these, how many have been refused, also broken down by region.

Table 1 provides thenumber of applications for summary criminal legal aid in district courts and thenumbers of refusals in each year since 2000.

Table 1: Numberof applications for summary criminal legal aid in district courts since 2000

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Applications	15,504	14,470	13,932	14,519	15,608	14,674	15,464
Refusals	3,804	2,508	2,292	2,719	2,880	3,028	3,272
%age refused	25%	17%	16%	19%	18%	21%	21%

Source: ScottishLegal Aid Board.

Information on applicationsand refusals for summary criminal legal aid in district courts is not collectedby region, but can be supplied on the basis of court location for all summary criminallegal aid. That information is not collected in a way that separates district andsheriff court summary proceedings.

Table 2 provides thenumber of applications for all summary criminal legal aid in district and sheriffcourt proceedings in each year since 2000.

Table 2: Numberof Applications for Summary Criminal Legal Aid in all Summary Courts Since 2000

Sheriffdom		2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Glasgow and Strathkelvin	Applications	17,211	19,099	19,795	19,332	22,144	21,901	22,322
	Refusals	2,236	1,369	1,536	1,624	1,751	2,014	2,063
	%age refused	13%	7%	8%	8%	8%	9%	9%
Grampian, Highlands and Islands	Applications	8,207	9,224	10,092	10,677	10,174	10,056	10,696
	Refusals	1,017	866	989	1,058	951	910	950
	%age refused	12%	9%	10%	10%	9%	9%	9%
Lothian and Borders	Applications	10,830	11,549	11,401	10,522	11,258	12,020	13,223
	Refusals	1,787	1,171	1,002	1,018	976	1,071	1,202
	%age refused	17%	10%	9%	10%	9%	9%	9%
North Strathclyde	Applications	8,881	8,871	9,428	10,420	11,275	10,401	11,158
	Refusals	972	568	535	684	720	643	646
	%age refused	11%	6%	6%	7%	6%	6%	6%
South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway	Applications	11,129	12,200	12,503	13,862	14,323	13,320	13,807
	Refusals	1,603	1,138	1,087	1,217	1,161	1,125	1,171
	%age refused	14%	9%	9%	9%	8%	8%	8%
Tayside, Central and Fife	Applications	13,054	13,867	16,049	16,812	18,028	16,600	18,118
	Refusals	1,849	1,325	1,395	1,648	1,774	1,524	1,496
	%age refused	14%	10%	9%	10%	10%	9%	8%
Unknown Sheriffdom	Applications	19	62	121	180	167	180	164
	Refusals	2	8	21	37	30	27	28
	%age refused	11%	13%	17%	21%	18%	15%	17%
Total	Applications	69,331	74,872	79,389	81,805	87,369	84,478	89,488
	Refusals	9,466	6,445	6,565	7,286	7,363	7,314	7,556
	%age refused	14%	9%	8%	9%	8%	9%	8%

Source: ScottishLegal Aid Board.

Question reference: S3W-02139

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 31 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many requests for legal aid have been made in each year since 2000 and, of these, how many have been refused, also broken down by region.

The information onapplications and refusals for all types of legal aid, except solemn criminal legalaid, is collected centrally by the Scottish Legal Aid Board.

Solemn criminal legalaid is granted by the court and data relating to applications and refusals is notcollected centrally. Previous information received show refusals of applicationsfor solemn criminal legal aid to have totalled two in 2001-02, three in 2002-03and 7 in 2005-06.

Table 1 provides thenumber of applications and refusals for civil legal aid and summary criminal legalaid in each year since 2000.

Table 2 provides thenumber of applications for all summary criminal legal aid in district and sheriffcourt proceedings in each year since 2000, broken down by court area. Information on civil legal aid applicationsand refusals is not collected in a format that can be broken down by region or courtarea.

Table 1: Numberof Applications for Civil Legal Aid and Summary Criminal Legal Aid, since 2000

Type		2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Civil Legal Aid	Applications	17,804	20,245	19,423	18,526	17,089	17,095	16,196
	Refusals	5,150	5,825	6,156	5,852	5,371	5,199	4,238
	%age refused	29%	29%	32%	32%	31%	30%	26%
Summary Criminal Legal Aid	Applications	69,331	74,872	79,389	81,805	87,369	84,478	89,488
	Refusals	9,466	6,445	6,565	7,286	7,363	7,314	7,556
	%age refused	14%	9%	8%	9%	8%	9%	8%
Total	Applications	87,135	95,117	98,812	100,331	104,458	101,573	105,684
	Refusals	14,616	12,270	12,721	13,138	12,734	12,513	11,794
	%age refused	17%	13%	13%	13%	125	12%	11%

Source: ScottishLegal Aid Board.

Table 2: Numberof Applications for Summary Criminal Legal Aid in all Summary Courts Since2000, by Court Area

Sheriffdom		2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Glasgow and Strathkelvin	Applications	17,211	19,099	19,795	19,332	22,144	21,901	22,322
	Refusals	2,236	1,369	1,536	1,624	1,751	2,014	2,063
	%age refused	13%	7%	8%	8%	8%	9%	9%
Grampian, Highlands and Islands	Applications	8,207	9,224	10,092	10,677	10,174	10,056	10,696
	Refusals	1,017	866	989	1,058	951	910	950
	%age refused	12%	9%	10%	10%	9%	9%	9%
Lothian and Borders	Applications	10,830	11,549	11,401	10,522	11,258	12,020	13,223
	Refusals	1,787	1,171	1,002	1,018	976	1,071	1,202
	%age refused	17%	10%	9%	10%	9%	9%	9%
North Strathclyde	Applications	8,881	8,871	9,428	10,420	11,275	10,401	11,158
	Refusals	972	568	535	684	720	643	646
	%age refused	11%	6%	6%	7%	6%	6%	6%
South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway	Applications	11,129	12,200	12,503	13,862	14,323	13,320	13,807
	Refusals	1,603	1,138	1,087	1,217	1,161	1,125	1,171
	%age refused	14%	9%	9%	9%	8%	8%	8%
Tayside, Central and Fife	Applications	13,054	13,867	16,049	16,812	18,028	16,600	18,118
	Refusals	1,849	1,325	1,395	1,648	1,774	1,524	1,496
	%age refused	14%	10%	9%	10%	10%	9%	8%
Unknown Sheriffdom	Applications	19	62	121	180	167	180	164
	Refusals	2	8	21	37	30	27	28
	%age refused	11%	13%	17%	21%	18%	15%	17%
Total	Applications	69,331	74,872	79,389	81,805	87,369	84,478	89,488
	Refusals	9,466	6,445	6,565	7,286	7,363	7,314	7,556
	%age refused	14%	9%	8%	9%	8%	9%	8%

Source: ScottishLegal Aid Board.

Question reference: S3W-02144

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 13 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prosecutions have been undertaken in each year since 2000 where requests for legal aid have been made by persons appearing in district courts and it has been specified that the applicants had disabilities which would prevent them from understanding proceedings but legal aid has been refused and in how many such cases procurator fiscals decided not to prosecute, also broken down by region.

Information on the number ofcases procurators fiscal prosecuted since 2000 is given in the response the answer to question S3W-2143 on 13 August 2007. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Statisticson the number of court cases closed as no further proceedings are not identifiablefrom the information held centrally.

Informationon the number of requests for legal aid made by people appearing in district courtssince 2000 where it was specified that the applicants had a disability which wouldprevent them from understanding proceedings in each year since 2000 is not heldcentrally.

Theprosecutor is not informed, and would be unlikely to be aware, whether legal aidhad been applied for or granted and, in any event, his or her consideration of acase would not be affected by this. Assuming that the report indicates that there is sufficient admissible evidenceof a crime committed by the accused, and that the evidence is reliable and credible,the Procurator Fiscal must consider which of the available options would best servethe public interest.

Where it is known that an accusedis suffering from a mental disorder, prosecution policy requires procurators fiscalto commence proceedings in the sheriff or High Court. If information comes to lightduring proceedings in the district court to indicate that an accused has a mentaldisorder, the prosecutor will make application in terms of section 52A of the MentalHealth (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 for transfer to the sheriff court.

Question reference: S3W-02142

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 13 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many requests for legal aid have been made by people appearing in district courts where it was specified that the applicants had a disability which would prevent them from understanding proceedings in each year since 2000 and, of these, how many have been refused, also broken down by region.

Information on the disabilitiesof applicants for legal aid is not recorded centrally. The application form forsummary criminal legal aid questions whether the accused is able to understand theproceedings or to state his own case because of his age, inadequate knowledge ofEnglish, mental illness, other mental or physical disability or otherwise. Informationoffered in reply to that question is taken into consideration, alongside other factors,by the Scottish Legal Aid Board when assessing the application.

Question reference: S3W-02143

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 13 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prosecutions in district courts have been undertaken in each year since 2000 and in how many cases procurator fiscals decided not to prosecute, also broken down by region.

The available information isgiven in the following table. Statistics on the number of district court cases closedas no further proceedings are not identifiable from the information held centrally.

Persons Proceeded Against¹in District Courts, 2000-01 to 2005-06

District Court	2000-01⁵	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Aberdeen City²	2,199	2,139	2,020	2,277	1,967	1,985
Aberdeenshire²	1,633	1,741	1,447	1,297	1,341	1,393
Angus	1,308	1,194	1,458	1,797	1,423	1,265
Argyll and Bute	624	657	536	570	383	169
Clackmannanshire	517	461	388	622	651	620
Dumfries and Galloway	1,490	956	954	1,053	1,634	2,022
Dundee City	2,486	1,913	2,124	2,504	2,300	2,232
East Ayrshire	1,255	922	749	1,059	1,407	1,521
East Dunbartonshire	286	308	245	193	285	122
East Lothian	379	352	384	337	365	273
East Renfrewshire	249	207	222	216	212	103
Edinburgh, City of	2,975	2,814	2,470	2,776	2,876	2,960
Eilean Siar²	64	56	72	84	100	88
Falkirk	1,901	1,709	1,458	1,308	1,442	1,617
Fife	2,428	2,461	2,138	2,631	2,584	1,953
Glasgow City³	7,812	10,245	9,202	11,850	13,978	13,235
Highland²	1,669	2,213	2,769	3,214	3,134	2,564
Inverclyde	1,217	965	843	799	522	181
Midlothian	495	340	368	374	352	333
Moray	421	535	346	501	521	408
North Ayrshire	936	783	601	752	661	866
North Lanarkshire	3,690	3,959	3,121	3,813	3,408	3,694
Perth and Kinross	1,468	2,045	1,583	1,745	1,535	1,315
Renfrewshire	842	689	629	714	883	737
Scottish Borders	1,006	1,274	1,181	1,094	1,299	1,619
South Ayrshire	1,368	1,074	1,157	936	812	801
South Lanarkshire	2,494	2,908	2,154	2,048	2,094	2,576
Stirling	805	751	808	1,114	1,035	885
West Dunbartonshire	757	925	785	885	695	260
West Lothian	988	1,101	1,147	1,063	1,022	875
All district courts²⁴	45,763	47,698	43,364	49,637	50,924	48,678

Notes:

1. May exclude some acquittalsdue to recording delays.

2. Figure for 2000-01 excludessome prosecutions for motor vehicle offences.

3. Includes the stipendiary magistratescourt.

4. Includes a small number ofcases where district court is unknown.

5. The figures for some courtswill have been affected by the industrial action taken by district court staff inlate 2000 and early 2001.

Question reference: S3W-02140

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 13 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many requests for legal aid have been made where it was specified that the applicants had a disability which would prevent them from understanding proceedings in each year since 2000 and, of these, how many have been refused, also broken down by region.

Question reference: S3W-01795

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 29 June 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to ensure that people with asthma have access to Xolair, in light of draft guidance issued by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to recommend Xolair for the treatment of severe allergic asthma.

The National Institute for Healthand Clinical Excellence (NICE) draft single technology appraisal (STA) on Xolairdoes not constitute the Institute’s formal guidance and the draft recommendationsmay change following consultation.NICE STA guidance does not applyin Scotland where the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) providesearly advice on newly licensed medicines. In June 2006 and January 2007, the SMCissued advice to NHSScotland on the use of Xolair as add-on therapy to improve asthmacontrol in adults and adolescents aged 12 years and above with severe persistentallergic asthma. The SMC did not recommend Xolair for use as the economic case wasnot demonstrated. This advice can be accessed at www.scottishmedicines.org.

The manufacturer of Xolair has made a further resubmission to the SMC and their updated advice is expected to bepublished on Monday, 8 October 2007.

Question reference: S2W-32411

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 28 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration it has given to the development of a waste incinerator in the Forth Valley area.

Question reference: S2W-32412

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 28 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what communication it has had from local authorities or joint council bodies regarding the development of a waste incinerator in the Forth Valley area.

Question reference: S2W-32410

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 28 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans for the development of a waste incinerator in the Forth Valley area.

The Executive itself has no plansto develop a waste incinerator in the Forth Valley area.

The local authorities in the Forth Valley area (Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling Councils) submitted a StrategicOutline Case which included suggested infrastructure for treating residual municipalwaste.

Following consideration of this Strategic Outline Case, and othercases put forward by other local authorities, I have recently written to all localauthorities in Scotland. In particular, I have asked the Forth Valley authoritiesto produce an Outline Business Case on residual waste by 31 December 2007 and toconsider the scope for producing this Outline Business Case jointly with Fife Counciland Perth and Kinross Council.

Chamber and committees