Questions and answers

Question reference: S2W-18626

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 August 2005
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 22 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the administration costs are expected to be for the Individual Learning Account scheme in each of the next five years.

Administration costs for ILA Scotland in year 2005-06 are forecast to be around £2.6 million, estimated to rise to £2.7 million in 2006-07 and £2.75 million in 2007-08. The administration costs are expected to reduce from 2006-7 onwards as a proportion of the overall budget. These initial cost forecasts will be updated in 2006, to reflect actual learner uptake and provider participation to date.

Question reference: S2W-19842

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 5 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what investigations it has undertaken into the full economic impact of the G8 summit and G8-related protests and demonstrations, such as costs for extra security, added insurance and loss of business, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-19841

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 1 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what additional payments it has made or allocated to local authorities for costs associated with extra security relating to the G8 summit and G8-related protests and demonstrations, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S2W-20098

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 10 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases were dropped at each sheriff court in each year since 1999, broken down by category of crime or offence.

The information requested is not available. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s Case Management Database records details of the charges against each accused in terms of the specific common law or statutory offence that is alleged to have been committed. There are over 3,000 separate charge codes in use at present. These charge codes are not routinely categorised into broader categories of offence.

Information is collected regularly about cases in which a decision is made that there should be “No Further Proceedings”. This information does not, however, distinguish between cases where the original decision was to initiate proceedings in the Sheriff court, cases where the original decision was to initiate proceedings in another court and cases where the original decision was to pursue a non-court disposal such as a Fiscal Fine.

Regularly updated statistics on case processing are available on the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s website www.copfs.gov.uk/About/corporate-info/Caseproclast5.

Question reference: S2W-19838

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 9 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are still awaiting prosecution for crimes and offences relating to G8 protests, broken down by the (a) police force and (b) local authority area where the offence took place.

Question reference: S2W-19837

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 9 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been prosecuted for crimes and offences relating to G8 protests, broken down by the (a) police force and (b) local authority area where the offence took place.

Comprehensive information isnot available. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service's Case ManagementDatabase records details of the charges against each accused in terms of thespecific common law or statutory offence that is alleged to have beencommitted. It is not possible to identify separately within the Databaseoffences relating to specific events.

An analysis of informationcollated at the time of the G8 Summit indicates however that, during the period5 to 12 July 2005, G8-related cases involving a total of 309 accused called inthe Sheriff Courts at Edinburgh, Falkirk, Glasgow, Perth and Stirling. Thefollowing table provides a more detailed breakdown of those figures.

G8-Related Cases Calling InCourt : 5 to 12 July 2005

Sheriff Court	No of Accused	Pled Guilty	Pled Not Guilty or Case Otherwise Continued
Edinburgh	113	2	111
Falkirk	39	1	38
Glasgow	16	1	15
Perth	91	0	91
Stirling	50	6	44
Total	309	10	299

Question reference: S2W-19840

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 9 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have had charges relating to G8 protests dropped and for what reasons, broken down by the (a) police force and (b) local authority area where the alleged offence took place.

Question reference: S2W-20174

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 9 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the expenditure per head was in each local authority, broken down into (a) education, (b) highways and transport, (c) social services, (d) housing, excluding housing revenue account (HRA), (e) culture, (f) environmental, (g) planning and development, (h) police, (i) courts, (j) central services, (k) other, (l) mandatory rent allowances, (m) mandatory rent rebates to non-HRA tenants and (n) mandatory rent rebates to HRA tenants, in the most recent year for which figures are available.

The answers to questions (a)to (c) and (e) to (k) can be obtained from the following links on the Scottish Executivewebsite. Table 3 in the first link gives local authority expenditure by servicearea. The second link is to the most recent mid-year population estimates whichwill provide population figures to allow an “expenditure per-head” figure to becalculated. It should be noted that the “central services” expenditure heading containssome district court expenditure.http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/16945/SLGFShttp://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/library/recently-published-population-estimates/index.html.

The following tables providethe answers to questions (d) and (l)-(n), although, as indicated in the footnotes,the information does not distinguish between HRA tenants and non-HRA tenants.

Housing Expenditure ExcludingHousing Revenue Account, 2003-04

	Total Expenditure (£000)	Net Expenditure (£000)
Scotland	494,298	52,109
Aberdeen City	15,093	2,413
Aberdeenshire	11,190	794
Angus	7,740	1,278
Argyll and Bute	1,994	518
Clackmannanshire	4,496	166
Dumfries and Galloway	19,679	1,284
Dundee City	14,274	1,463
East Ayrshire	399	196
East Dunbartonshire	6,087	745
East Lothian	10,389	552
East Renfrewshire	6,659	381
Edinburgh City	68,589	6,518
Eilean Siar	1,876	853
Falkirk	10,870	1,903
Fife	39,609	2,041
Glasgow City	127,964	18,831
Highland	15,746	1,509
Inverclyde	9,180	819
Midlothian	6,079	59
Moray	8,160	466
North Ayrshire	18,632	719
North Lanarkshire	6,076	-848
Orkney	978	232
Perth and Kinross	9,429	2,291
Renfrewshire	5,555	1,502
Scottish Borders	7,135	320
Shetland	2,515	497
South Ayrshire	8,926	-191
South Lanarkshire	30,421	2,845
Stirling	2,068	1,316
West Dunbartonshire	5,248	690
West Lothian	11,242	-53

Source: Scottish ExecutiveLocal Financial Returns 2003-04.

Housing Expenditure - Rent Allowances,2003-04

	Total Expenditure (£000)	Net Expenditure (£000)
scotland	635,343	41,878
Aberdeen City	11,595	632
Aberdeenshire	8,953	1,084
Angus	7,984	304
Argyll and Bute	7,693	417
Clackmannanshire	4,157	102
Dumfries and Galloway	24,648	1,268
Dundee City	22,206	1,438
East Ayrshire	9,205	555
East Dunbartonshire	3,687	365
East Lothian	5,603	13
East Renfrewshire	4,439	203
Edinburgh City	57,999	10,247
Eilean Siar	781	47
Falkirk	6,575	311
Fife	20,671	1,223
Glasgow City	269,125	14,186
Highland	12,234	840
Inverclyde	10,123	-17
Midlothian	6,329	452
Moray	5,003	-16
North Ayrshire	12,156	844
North Lanarkshire	19,867	918
Orkney	926	15
Perth and Kinross	7,858	511
Renfrewshire	25,475	1,050
Scottish Borders	15,534	1,132
Shetland	342	23
South Ayrshire	8,275	708
South Lanarkshire	16,398	1,024
Stirling	3,547	131
West Dunbartonshire	12,449	809
West Lothian	13,506	1,059

Source: Scottish ExecutiveLocal Financial Returns 2003-04.

Housing Expenditure - Rent Rebates,2003-04

	Total expenditure (£000)	Net Expenditure (£000)
Scotland	495,107	20,673
Aberdeen City	23,859	1,302
Aberdeenshire	12,173	193
Angus	8,118	231
Argyll and Bute	7,897	689
Clackmannanshire	6,694	330
Dumfries and Galloway	1,945	568
Dundee City	24,486	973
East Ayrshire	18,179	1,097
East Dunbartonshire	6,873	623
East Lothian	8,224	727
East Renfrewshire	4,499	104
Edinburgh City	42,134	-4,136
Eilean Siar	2,563	143
Falkirk	21,710	769
Fife	49,045	2,189
Glasgow City	0	0
Highland	21,456	847
Inverclyde	16,250	1,114
Midlothian	4,191	142
Moray	5,321	455
North Ayrshire	20,788	1,294
North Lanarkshire	56,710	2,886
Orkney	1,003	14
Perth and Kinross	7,812	421
Renfrewshire	19,686	1,159
Scottish Borders	0	0
Shetland	1,870	59
South Ayrshire	13,188	848
South Lanarkshire	45,193	3,083
Stirling	7,900	559
West Dunbartonshire	16,329	686
West Lothian	19,011	1,304

Source: Scottish ExecutiveLocal Financial Returns 2003-04.

Notes:

1. These figures are collectedannually by the Scottish Executive on the Housing Local Financial Return.

2. Housing, excluding housingrevenue account includes expenditure on private sector housing renewal,homelessness, welfare services, administration of housing advances andsupporting people.

3. Housing Benefits: Rent allowancesincludes rent allowances paid to the tenants of private landlords and registeredsocial landlords. It excludes any housing benefit paid to homeless people whichis recorded in “other non-HRA housing”.

4. Housing Benefits: Rent rebateincludes rent rebates paid to council tenants. The figures supplied to the ScottishExecutive do not distinguish between rent rebates paid to HRA and non-HRA tenants.

5. All inter account and interauthority transfers are deducted from total expenditure.

6. Net expenditure is the expenditureto be financed from non domestic rates, council tax and balances.

Question reference: S2W-20097

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding each sheriff court has received in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Court Service delegates certain budgets to each sheriff court but a large proportion of running costs are managed at a central level. The following table gives a breakdown of the total of these direct running costs for each of the sheriff courts. Included are staff, accommodation (including capital charges) and other administrative costs. Judicial salaries/expenses, court operational costs (such as jurors’ expenses), capital or central service costs are not included.

Information in this format is not available for the years 1999-2000 to 2000-01.

The cost of capital element of the capital charge reduced from 6% in 2002-03 to 3.5% in 2003-04 and explains why most sheriff courts’ costs have decreased in 2003-04 (compared against 2002-03). All buildings were professionally re-valued at the end of 2003-04 and in the case of Aberdeen, Ayr and Dumbarton sheriff courts there was a decrease in value resulting in lower capital charges.

Sheriff Court	Costs (£ Thousand)
Sheriff Court	2004-05	2003-04	2002-03	2001-02
Aberdeen	1,795	1,901	1,830	1,772
Airdrie	1,119	934	905	848
Alloa	246	244	280	261
Arbroath	320	294	328	321
Ayr	1,118	1,237	1,815	1,667
Banff	164	129	142	133
Campbeltown	89	79	94	78
Cupar	249	194	193	185
Dingwall	194	158	179	168
Dornoch	109	94	90	83
Dumbarton	642	694	761	730
Dumfries	544	482	559	525
Dundee	1,326	1,204	1,326	1,239
Dunfermline	603	596	661	645
Dunoon	157	143	151	123
Edinburgh	7,182	6,838	8,467	7,866
Elgin	297	241	235	232
Falkirk	884	803	914	847
Forfar	253	217	230	222
Fort William	130	97	98	90
Glasgow	7,477	7,174	8,385	7,928
Greenock	823	753	825	766
Haddington	235	220	218	190
Hamilton	1,922	1,643	1,618	1,562
Inverness	599	589	605	564
Jedburgh and Duns	329	285	302	290
Kilmarnock	1,124	1,010	1,118	1,086
Kirkcaldy	827	720	734	707
Kirkcudbright	147	129	146	131
Kirkwall	130	111	108	101
Lanark	515	315	242	244
Lerwick	128	103	106	100
Linlithgow	1,210	747	688	692
Oban	119	107	121	113
Paisley	2,416	2,225	2,626	2,410
Peebles	281	199	81	71
Perth	746	700	755	713
Peterhead	351	341	424	386
Portree and Lochmaddy	192	149	160	148
Rothesay	312	211	82	77
Selkirk	210	177	182	162
Stirling	766	710	754	708
Stonehaven	208	150	163	157
Stornoway	127	116	136	126
Stranraer	230	213	244	233
Tain	108	91	110	106
Wick	168	135	130	116
Total	39,123	35,901	40,322	37,921

Question reference: S2W-19835

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 7 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were arrested for crimes and offences relating to G8 protests, broken down by (a) police force and (b) local authority area.

Statistics on the number of individualsarrested for G8 related offences during the period of the Summit were recordedby the Scottish Police Information and Co-ordination Centre (S-PICC). These figuresare broken down by police force area and are included in the table below. No figuresare available for the number of arrests by local authority area.

	BTP	MDP	Tayside	Central	D&G	Fife	Grampian	L&B	Northern	Strathclyde
Violence	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
Damage to property	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0
Public Order	1	3	96	80	0	0	0	152	0	48
Drugs related	2	0	3	1	0	0	0	1	0	2
Dishonesty	2	1	0	0	9	0	0	0	2	0
Total	7	4	99	82	9	0	0	154	6	50

Scottish total: 411 arrests.

Chamber and committees