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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 186 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S1W-13762

Asked by: Euan Robson, MSP for Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 1 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive when it plans to publish its draft Freedom of Information Bill.

I can today announce the publication of the Executive's consultation paper Freedom of Information - Consultation on Draft Legislation as the next stage in bringing forward a distinctive and effective Scottish freedom of information regime.The consultation period will run until 25 May and the Executive intends introducing a Bill to the Parliament later this year.At the heart of the draft Bill is a new legal right of access to information held by a wide range of Scottish public authorities, underpinned by a powerful, independent Scottish Information Commissioner.The draft Bill will be laid before Parliament and circulated for wide consultation. Copies will also be placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre. I hope there will be an opportunity for the Parliament to debate these proposals in early course.

Question reference: S1W-13183

Asked by: Euan Robson, MSP for Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 February 2001
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 21 February 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what facilities it will make available to enable members of the public in rural areas to contact route managers about matters relating to trunk roads, including complaints, from 1 April 2001.

The new contracts will have a national free phone customer contact number from 1 April to allow members of the public to raise issues related to the operation and safety of the trunk road network. The number will be advertised on signs positioned at strategic locations within each maintenance Unit. Calls will be relayed to the customer contact point within each Operating Company's central office. In addition to this leaflets will be distributed by the new Operating Companies providing details of who they are and how they can be contacted. For face to face contact members of the public will be able to raise matters with the Operating Companies either at their central office or at sub-offices and depots located throughout the units.

Question reference: S1W-13035

Asked by: Euan Robson, MSP for Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 02 February 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 16 February 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the members of the Parole Board for Scotland, giving their age and length of service.

The names and length of service of those currently serving on the Parole Board for Scotland are listed in the table. Data protection legislation does not permit disclosure of the ages of those concerned without their consent having first been obtained.

Name	Length of service
Dr Jim McManus (Chairman)	1 Year*
Dr John Baird	3 Years**
Mrs Megan Casserly	2 Years***
Dr John Donnelly	1 Year
Mrs Johan Findlay	1 Year
Dr Judy Greenwood OBE	3 Years
Mrs Irene Guild	4 Years
Mr Hamish Hyslop	3Years
Sheriff Brian Lockhart	3 1/2 Years
Sheriff Principal John Maguire	I Year
Mr James Milne	4 Years
Mrs Eleanor McLaughlin	1 Year
Ms Morag Owens	2 Years
Rt Hon Lord Ross	3 1/2 Years
Hon Lord Wheatley	1 year

*Dr McManus previously served as a member of the board from 1987-94

**Dr Baird previously served on the board from 1992-94

***Mrs Casserly previously served on the board from 1990-98 and was appointed for a fresh term on 14 January 1999. Those concerned were appointed for further periods of appointment on the board following advertisement and competition.

Question reference: S1W-13037

Asked by: Euan Robson, MSP for Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 02 February 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 16 February 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to remove the power of Scottish Ministers to alter the security categorisation of prisoners and invest such power in another place; if so, in what place and whether it will introduce amendments to the Convention Rights (Compliance) (Scotland) Bill.

Question reference: S1W-13036

Asked by: Euan Robson, MSP for Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 02 February 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 16 February 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the 26 transferred life prisoners in Scotland are categorised as (a) unrestricted in terms of the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997, (b) unrestricted and transferred from jurisdictions where the government is not a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights, (c) restricted in terms of the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997, (d) restricted and transferred from jurisdictions where the government is not a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Five life prisoners were transferred on an unrestricted basis and seven on a restricted basis under the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997. 13 life prisoners were transferred on a permanent basis under section 26(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1961, which preceded the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997 and one life prisoner was transferred following a court-martial in Berlin, Germany. The Crime (Sentences) Act 1997 and its predecessor only provides for the transfer of prisoners within the UK, therefore the answer to parts (b) and (d) is none.In addition there are three transferred life prisoners who are at present detained as restricted patients in the State Hospital.

Question reference: S1W-12423

Asked by: Euan Robson, MSP for Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 12 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 26 January 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what advice is given to Sheriffs on equal opportunities issues and whether advice similar to that in the Equal Treatment Bench Book, recently produced for judges in England and Wales by the Judicial Studies Board with the support of the Lord Chancellor, will be made available to Sheriffs.

Question reference: S1W-12424

Asked by: Euan Robson, MSP for Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 12 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 26 January 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many houses were repossessed through the courts in each year from 1990 to 2000 in (a) Scotland and (b) each court.

Question reference: S1W-12237

Asked by: Euan Robson, MSP for Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 24 January 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what the clear-up rate of recorded crimes was (a) in each category of crime and (b) in total for (i) each police force and (ii) Scotland in 1979, 1987 and in each year since 1992.

The information requested is given in the table.

Crimes cleared up by the police as a percentage of those recorded

Police force area	1979	1987	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
Central
Total crimes	38	48	54	53	54	59	59	57	57	55
Non-sexual crimes of violence	86	87	92	91	93	93	93	94	92	91
Crimes of indecency	63	79	79	89	89	87	89	83	88	83
Crimes of dishonesty	38	47	51	48	48	52	52	48	49	47
Fire-raising, vandalism etc	24	35	42	43	45	48	49	46	42	43
Other crimes	97	99	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Dumfries & Galloway
Total crimes	40	53	39	44	47	56	62	61	59	57
Non-sexual crimes of violence	89	94	91	88	96	89	98	93	94	89
Crimes of indecency	82	88	83	87	94	95	98	84	92	90
Crimes of dishonesty	41	50	33	39	41	45	56	50	52	51
Fire-raising, vandalism etc	25	39	27	28	33	44	47	43	40	41
Other crimes	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	99
Fife
Total crimes	43	40	31	35	40	45	46	48	50	43
Non-sexual crimes of violence	94	91	84	87	87	89	90	89	89	83
Crimes of indecency	59	70	65	79	76	89	96	83	82	88
Crimes of dishonesty	42	36	27	33	37	42	41	41	45	38
Fire-raising, vandalism etc	34	30	20	22	22	27	28	31	31	24
Other crimes	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Grampian
Total crimes	37	31	30	31	32	34	34	37	38	37
Non-sexual crimes of violence	82	78	75	73	72	73	71	73	70	66
Crimes of indecency	80	69	78	77	71	69	71	69	80	69
Crimes of dishonesty	35	28	24	25	25	28	28	31	31	31
Fire-raising, vandalism etc	28	22	21	21	21	21	22	22	24	22
Other crimes	99	99	97	97	98	97	97	96	97	97
Lothian & Borders
Total crimes	29	37	30	33	34	35	34	36	35	39
Non-sexual crimes of violence	54	67	63	61	58	63	65	63	66	69
Crimes of indecency	43	60	63	62	66	63	62	66	70	66
Crimes of dishonesty	29	33	26	27	30	30	30	31	30	34
Fire-raising, vandalism etc	20	26	19	19	20	19	20	17	19	19
Other crimes	99	99	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Northern
Total crimes	61	62	56	55	57	64	64	67	64	59
Non-sexual crimes of violence	97	95	94	92	93	93	95	93	94	95
Crimes of indecency	83	89	94	91	92	90	89	93	95	82
Crimes of dishonesty	57	57	50	51	50	59	59	61	57	50
Fire-raising, vandalism etc	53	55	43	40	41	46	44	48	48	42
Other crimes	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	99
Strathclyde
Total crimes	26	29	25	27	30	31	33	36	40	45
Non-sexual crimes of violence	49	59	54	56	57	58	60	61	63	70
Crimes of indecency	53	66	69	70	76	74	77	74	76	80
Crimes of dishonesty	24	26	20	21	24	23	25	26	31	35
Fire-raising, vandalism etc	15	18	15	15	15	15	17	19	20	24
Other crimes	99	99	99	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Tayside
Total crimes	35	41	33	29	33	34	34	37	39	40
Non-sexual crimes of violence	81	86	84	81	86	89	87	90	94	90
Crimes of indecency	63	73	73	72	80	86	82	89	88	88
Crimes of dishonesty	33	39	28	23	28	28	29	29	30	31
Fire-raising, vandalism etc	24	25	21	18	20	20	18	20	20	22
Other crimes	99	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
All Scotland
Total crimes	30	34	29	31	34	35	37	39	41	43
Non-sexual crimes of violence	57	67	62	63	64	65	67	68	69	72
Crimes of indecency	56	68	71	72	75	74	76	75	78	78
Crimes of dishonesty	29	31	24	25	28	28	30	31	33	35
Fire-raising, vandalism etc	20	23	19	19	20	21	21	22	23	24
Other crimes	99	99	99	100	100	100	99	100	99	99

Question reference: S1W-11781

Asked by: Euan Robson, MSP for Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 22 January 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers have left the service in each year since 1990.

The information is provided in the following table:

Year	Number of Officers Who Left the Scottish Police Service
1990	501
1991	552
1992	584
1993	605
1994	483
1/1/95 to 31/3/96	748
1996-97	537
1997-98	563
1998-99	543
1999-2000	569

Figures on officers leaving the police service are collected annually by HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary and published in his Annual Report. Until 31 December 1994 figures were collected by calendar year but thereafter cover financial years. For adjusting to this change the numbers shown from 1 January 1995 to 31 March 1996 cover a 15-month period.

Question reference: S1W-11780

Asked by: Euan Robson, MSP for Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 22 January 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many new recruits entered the police force in each year since 1980 and what the projected numbers of new recruits are for those future years for which figures are available, broken down by police force.

The available information is shown in the following table:

Number of New Recruits to the Scottish Police Service

Year	Number	Year	Number
1980	699	1990	499
1981	465	1991	605
1982	511	1992	719
1983	463	1993	621
1984	614	1994	639
1985	676	1/1/95 to 31/3/96	910
1986	609	1996-97	743
1987	518	1997-98	664
1988	523	1998-99	321
1989	759	1999-00	437

Figures on new recruits to the police service are collected annually by HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary and are published in his Annual Report. Figures for individual forces are not held centrally. Until 31 December 1994 figures were collected by calendar year but thereafter cover financial years. In order to allow for this change the numbers for 1 January 1995 to 31 March 1996 cover a 15-month period.Decisions on the numbers of officers to be recruited are the responsibility of chief constables.