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: S1W-32017

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 November 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 10 December 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many unfit places are projected for 2005-06, based upon the targets outlined on page 7 of the Justice section in Spending Proposals 2003-2006 - Technical Notes.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:Projections for the number of prisoner places in future years with no access to night sanitation facilities will fluctuate over time dependant on plans and progress against the building of new accommodation and associated temporary closures for upgrade. Current projections show that the number of such places for the year 2005-06 would be about 850.

Question reference: S1W-32009

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 November 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 10 December 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-30372 by Mr Jim Wallace on 12 November 2002 and given that the Scottish Prison Service does not monitor the number of reportable accidents notified by Premier Prison Services Ltd (PPSL) to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), how it measures PPSL's performance against the target for number of injuries reportable to the HSE.

Question reference: S1W-32006

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 November 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 10 December 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-30688 by Mr Jim Wallace on 11 November 2002, whether it has any plans to estimate convictions by class of drug at any level more detailed than national level and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Some information on convictions by class of drug is available from statistics collected from Scottish police forces by the Home Office. The coverage of this data is known to be incomplete and so estimates derived from this source for areas below Scotland level are not currently considered to be sufficiently reliable.Information on the main drug type involved in convictions for drug offences has been included in the Scottish Executive Justice Department's court proceedings database since early in 2001. However, this information is only available for those convictions where the codes used for the charges involved were recorded under the relevant Integration of Scottish Criminal Justice Information Systems (ISCJIS) data standards. It is anticipated that nearly all charges involved in court disposals will become ISCJIS compliant over the next couple of years. At that point, sufficiently complete statistical information will have built up to provide more reliable data on numbers of drug offence convictions by class of drug for areas below Scotland level.

Question reference: S1W-31466

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 November 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 6 December 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received any information about any refinancing of the contract for HM Prison Kilmarnock by Kilmarnock Prison Services Limited and, if so, whether it will give details of such refinancing.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:Kilmarnock Prison Services Limited advised the SPS in November 1999 that the possibility of financial restructuring/refinancing was being considered. Details of the outcome for the Home Office are shown in Figure 8 of the National Audit Office (NAO) report PFI Refinancing Update published on 7 November 2002. Similar arrangements were put in place in respect of HM Prison Kilmarnock. This matter was discussed with the Managing Director of KPSL at the Justice 1 Committee meeting on 30 October 2001.The NAO report is available on the NAO website at:www.nao.gov.uk/publications/nao_reports/01-02The minutes of the Justice 1 Committee meeting of 30 October 2001 (meeting number 29, 2001) are available on the Parliament's website at:www.scottish.parliament.uk/official_reprt/cttee/just1-01.

Question reference: S1W-31468

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 November 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 6 December 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any subsequent financing agreement, as defined in section 1.1.105 of the Minute of Agreement between the Secretary of State for Scotland and Kilmarnock Prison Services Limited for the Design, Construction, Management and Financing of a Prison at Kilmarnock, has been entered into that did not require the Executive's prior written consent under section 3.2 of the minute of agreement for the reasons shown in section 3.3 and, if so, whether it will list each such subsequent financing agreements.

Question reference: S1W-31637

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 2 December 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-30376 by Mr Jim Wallace on 31 October 2002, whether the figures given in the answer include charges incurred as variables Ga and Gb, defined in paragraph 6 of schedule E to the Minute of Agreement between the Secretary of State for Scotland and Kilmarnock Prison Services Ltd for the Design, Construction, Management and Financing of a Prison at Kilmarnock.

Question reference: S1W-31636

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 28 November 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-30375 by Mr Jim Wallace on 31 October 2002, when it expects the modelling of the detailed effect on the supply of prisoner places of its decisions in relation to new prisons and investment in existing prisons to be complete and whether it will publish the results of the modelling.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:Capacity modelling is continually updated to support operational decisions and advice to ministers. Scenarios and projections based on such modelling are not routinely published, since they fall within the category of information identified by the Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information whose disclosure "would harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion". The SPS does, however, publish information based on capacity modelling to support consultations and announcements on key decisions affecting the supply of prisoner places, as for example was included in the Scottish Prison Service Estates Review published earlier this year.

Question reference: S1W-31541

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 November 2002
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 26 November 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many re-referrals to children's hearings there have been in each of the last three years.

Question reference: S1W-31543

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 November 2002
Current Status: Answered by Richard Simpson on 26 November 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to encourage courts to use the power granted to them under section 96 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.

Section 96 of the Crime and Disorder Act provides that, where it is proved that any offence was racially aggravated, that aggravation should be taken into account in sentencing. A guide to those provisions was issued by the then Scottish Office Home Department on 25 September 1998. The guidance made it clear that in cases involving racial aggravation the judge, whilst sentencing, would be expected to impose a higher sentence within the maximum available.The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service pursue a robust prosecution policy in cases of racist crime and area procurators fiscal are personally responsible for monitoring its implementation. In the last year prosecutors received 1,315 cases from the police which either included charges of racially aggravated harassment and behaviour or separate statutory racial aggravations. Proceedings which included either a statutory charge or aggravation were taken by procurators fiscal in 95% of these cases.

Question reference: S1W-31638

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 26 November 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-30376 by Mr Jim Wallace on 31 October 2002, how much of the fixed element of the variable payment for the 48 additional prisoner places in HM Prison Kilmarnock, referred to in paragraph 6 of schedule E to the Minute of Agreement between the Secretary of State for Scotland and Kilmarnock Prison Services Ltd for the Design, Construction, Management and Financing of a Prison at Kilmarnock, has been spent on empty places in (a) 1999-2000, (b) 2000-01, (c) 2001-02 and (d) 2002-03 to date.