- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the full details of its financial settlement with Shirley McKie.
Answer
The settlement figure of £750,000includes compensation for personal injuryand loss of reputation, past wage loss, future wage loss, pension loss, relevantservices and an element to cover interest. The Scottish Executive will also be responsiblefor meeting the costs of Ms McKie’s legal team. This cost is not yet known.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide written proof that it was accepted by both parties to the settlement reached between Shirley McKie and the Scottish Executive that “no malice was involved”.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-23664 on 20 March 2006. 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.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a detailed breakdown of the legal costs in respect of the Shirley McKie case already paid or pending and incurred by it or its agencies, broken down by year and into costs for solicitors, counsel, assistance, court work, documentation and other expenses.
Answer
The administration costs incurredby public bodies involved in work related to these matters cannot be separatelyidentified within the local administration costs incurred by those bodies. The finalcosts of legal representation cannot be determined until the court resolves theoutstanding issues in relation to expenses.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide details of the fingerprint expertise, experience and qualifications of each of the heads of the fingerprint bureaux in Scotland.
Answer
The posts were created with theestablishment of the Scottish Fingerprint Service. They were advertised widely andfilled following open competition. The successful candidates have a broad rangeof senior management skills and experience from industry and the armed forces. Thepost holders are not, and are not required to be, fingerprint experts.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is its understanding that the (a) management and (b) staff of the Scottish Criminal Records Office accept that "an honest mistake" was made in respect of the misidentification of Shirley McKie's fingerprint.
Answer
The Executive reached a settlementwith Ms McKie on the basis that the misidentification had been made in good faithand was not malicious. The basis on which the Executive sought to reach a settlementwas made clear to the staff at SCRO in June 2005. The Director of SCRO has confirmedthat he accepted ministers’ decision to settle the case and has acknowledged itas an opportunity for the organisation and staff to move on.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide written proof that it was accepted by both parties to the settlement reached between Shirley McKie and the Scottish Executive that an “honest mistake” was made by individuals.
Answer
The Scottish Executive offeredto settle with Ms McKie on the basis that the misidentification had been made ingood faith and was not malicious. This was made clear to Ms McKie and her legaladvisers in writing on 29 June 2005. When the case was settled on 7 February 2006, thejudge noted that the settlement was made without admission of liability.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-20247 by Cathy Jamieson on 9 November 2005, whether the reports by John McLeod in respect of his investigations into the Shirley McKie fingerprint case will now be made public and, if so, when they will be published; if not, what the reasons are for not publishing the reports and whether it will publish the terms of reference and the conclusions arising from these reports; whether the Executive or the Lord Advocate has commissioned any other reports into this case, and, if so, when these will be published, what the terms of reference were and what conclusions were reached.
Answer
It is not my intention tomake the MacLeod reports public. They were commissioned by the Executive aspart of its defence of the civil action brought by Shirley McKie. Publicationof the MacLeod reports would undermine the basic principle of Scots law thatneither party to a litigation is obliged to disclose reports commissioned forthe purpose of the litigation. The Scottish Executive has commissioned onefurther report as part of its defence of the civil action which will not bepublished for the same reason. The Lord Advocate also commissioned reports inthe course of criminal investigations linked to the Shirley McKie case. The Lord Advocatedoes not intend to publish these reports as they were prepared for the purposesof criminal investigations and as such are confidential.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, in respect of the quashing of the conviction of David Asbury for the murder of Marion Ross in Kilmarnock in 1997 on the basis that the fingerprint evidence provided by the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) was unreliable, what action was taken by Scottish Ministers and the Lord Advocate to rectify the deficiencies in the fingerprint evidence being presented by the SCRO.
Answer
I refer to the member to the answer to question S2W-23156 on 10 March 2006. 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.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 March 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 20 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many households have lived in (a) council housing, (b) other forms of socially rented housing, (c) privately rented housing and (d) owned homes in each year since 1980, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
Information on the tenure ofhouseholds at the time of the 2001 Census by current local authority area is availablefrom the data library in the publications and data section of the Scottish Executivehousing statistics branch website at
www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/housing/hsbrefin the section 2001 Census Adjusted Tenure Tables.Estimates of proportions of householdsby tenure by current local authority are available from Scottish Household Surveyreports for periods 1999-2000 (table 2.2), 2001-02 (table 4.1) and 2003-04 (table4.1). These can be accessed through the Scottish Household Survey Website at:
www.scotland.gov.uk/shs.Information on households bytenure in the form requested by current local authority area is not available forearlier periods.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 March 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has passed on to the police any allegations brought to its attention regarding the possibility that US agencies have used Scottish airports as refuelling stops for flights engaged in the process of “extraordinary rendition” and, if it has not done so, what the reasons are for its position on this matter.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-22495 on 2 February 2006. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
