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: S2W-25254

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 April 2006
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 27 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many freedom of information (FOI) requests each of its departments has received; how many FOI requests have been answered in full; how many have been refused; how many have been answered partially; of the refusals and partial answers, how many have been the subject of an appeal to the relevant department; how many of these appeals have been upheld; how many have been the subject of an appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner, and how many of these appeals have been upheld.

A report covering the firstsix months of requests handling by the Executive was published on the Executivewebsite in October 2005:(http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/11/monitor).

A copy was also placed inthe Parliament’s reference centre. The report includes details on numbers ofrequests and outcomes. A further report covering the whole of 2005 is plannedfor publication during the week beginning 24 April. Information about 2006requests handling will be published later in the year. Information aboutrequests which are appealed to the Scottish Information Commissioner and his decisionsare published on his website at http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/.

Question reference: S2W-23591

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 26 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-22728 by Cathy Jamieson on 8 February 2006, whether this answer indicates that the Scottish Prison Service is unable to determine the amount of taxpayers’ money saved by placing prisoners in open prisons rather than regular prisons.

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

The SPS considers, for the reasonsset out in the answer to question S2W-22728, on 8 February 2006, that it is selfevident that costs in open prisons are lower than those in closed establishments.

Reasons for these differencesinclude the lower standards of security required including lower levels of staffsupervision. Greater access to the community by prisoners also requires less duplicationof facilities and services which in the case of open establishments, can be accessedin the community. We could determine the exact difference in cost but to do so wouldbe at disproportionate cost and would represent poor value for money.

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.

Question reference: S2W-23967

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 25 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the then Minister for Justice received a letter dated 7 August 2001 from a former employee of the Scottish Criminal Record Office in which he states that “after commencing duty at the SCRO Bureau I was shocked and appalled at the level of malpractice” and whether a copy of this letter was also received by the Lord Advocate; what action the (a) Minister for Justice and (b) Lord Advocate took to address this and other statements in the letter, and what the outcome was of any action taken.

Question reference: S2W-24550

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 25 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will confirm that the identification of Shirley McKie’s fingerprint in 1997 has been disputed within the Scottish Criminal Record Office from the outset.

Question reference: S2W-24605

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 25 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-23924 by Tavish Scott on 16 March 2006, whether the change in name of this potential new railway station from Castlecary to Allandale indicates a change in preferred location for the station and, if so, what the preferred location is now.

Question reference: S2W-24679

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 24 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers it to be in the public interest that a definitive view should be established in respect of the legality of the process of “extraordinary rendition” in both Scots law and international law.

The Scottish Executive has madeclear in previous answers that it has not approved and will not approve apolicy of facilitating the transfer of individuals through Scottish territoryor airspace to places where there are substantial grounds to believe they wouldface a real risk of torture. Anyallegations of criminal acts made to the police will be considered on their ownfacts and circumstances. If the police refer a case to the Procurator Fiscaland criminal proceedings are brought, it will be for the courts to determinewhether an offence has been committed in each individual case.

Question reference: S2W-24469

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 24 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it was aware of the current Solicitor General’s party political affiliation when she was appointed to the post and, if so, what account was taken of it.

Question reference: S2W-24604

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 24 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-23924 by Tavish Scott on 16 March 2006, what benefits it considers may be derived by an Allandale railway station with park and ride facilities.

The Allandale Park andRide site was proposed in the Central Scotland Transport Corridor Study toprovide some alternative for road traffic using the A80/M80 corridor into Glasgow, andwas part of a package of measures aimed at limiting the need for additionalroad capacity.

The present study hasevaluated that option in greater detail, and also considered more recent ideasto develop an additional or alternative park and ride site at Bannockburn.

Transport Scotland hasthe operational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for moreinformation if required.

Question reference: S2W-24493

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 21 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-23877 by Tavish Scott on 16 March 2006, whether it will now consider commissioning an assessment of the annual cost to the Scottish economy caused by traffic delays as a result of the collection of tolls on the Forth and Tay road bridges.

Question reference: S2W-24678

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 20 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-22705 by Colin Boyd QC on 7 February 2006, in what way this answer indicates for whom the Executive considers it would be unhelpful if it speculated as to what would constitute a credible allegation in respect of the allegations that US agencies have used Scottish airports to facilitate the process of “extraordinary rendition”.