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: S4W-02604

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Lesley Thomson on 23 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases on average a procurator fiscal deals with per week.

Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) does not record figures for the average number of cases a Procurator Fiscal deals with per week. Such a figure would not provide any meaningful information due to the varied nature of the work undertaken by procurators fiscal. The categories of work undertaken by prosecutors vary considerably and include making decisions in relation to the action to be taken following receipt of reports from the police and other specialist agencies, preparing cases for court hearings, interviewing expert witnesses, conducting fatal accident inquiries and summary and sheriff and jury court hearings, and the investigation of death cases. While prosecutors preparing and conducting summary procedural and trial courts could deal with many cases per week, prosecutors within specialist homicide or sexual offence units may deal with one case over a period of weeks or in some more complex cases over a period of months.

Question reference: S4W-02606

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Lesley Thomson on 23 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service staff were absent from work as a result of (a) illness and (b) stress-related illness in (i) 2007-08, (ii) 2008-09, (iii) 2009-10 and (iv) 2010-11.

Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has several different groups of staff spanning 12 grades involved in a wide variety of legal and administrative work across 51 locations. Periods of absence due to illness range from one or two days to absences for longer periods due to chronic or severe health issues. The undernoted table sets out the total numbers of staff – fixed-term staff and permanent - absent from work during the periods (i) 2007-08; (ii) 2008-09 (iii) 2009-11 and (iv) 2010-11 as a result of (a) illness and (b) stress related illness.

Period	Total number of staff absent during period	Total number of staff absent due to stress-related illness during period
1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008	1,099	63
1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009	1,133	53
1 April 2009 to 31 March 2010	1,229	58
1 April 2010 to 31 March 2011	1,139	62

Question reference: S4O-00196

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth has had with the Cabinet Secretary for Justice regarding the next spending review.

Question reference: S4W-02290

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 12 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive (a) how many staff and (b) what financial resources are being allocated to carry out the reform of the fire and rescue service.

I announced to the Scottish Parliament on 8 September 2011 this government’s proposals to reform fire and rescue services in Scotland. Reform will protect and enhance these services; make them more sustainable for the long-term, and strengthen governance and accountability at national and local level.

Sixteen existing civil servants and two secondees from the fire and rescue service have been allocated to support this work. Their total staff costs in 2011-12 is forecast to be £849,000.

Question reference: S4W-02292

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 8 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what input (a) it and (b) the Scottish Public Pension Agency has provided to discussions at a UK level on changes to pension arrangements affecting the fire and rescue service.

Both the Scottish Government’s Fire and Rescue Services Division and SPPA are members of the Firefighters’ Pension Committee (FPC) where changes to the Firefighters’ pension schemes are discussed. The FPC is chaired and managed by the Department of Communities and Local Government and minutes of each meeting are available from the following website:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/firerescueservice/firefighterpensions/firefighterpensioncommittee/.

Question reference: S4W-02291

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 8 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what pension reserves the Scottish Public Pension Agency holds in relation to the fire and rescue service.

Question reference: S4W-02248

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 5 September 2011

Statistics on drug-related deaths in Scotland are published annually by National Records of Scotland (NRS).

The published statistics are reported by calendar year and the breakdowns of the data include by local authority and NHS health board.

Information on the number of drug related deaths by financial year and parliamentary constituency is not held centrally.

The most recent statistics are for 2010 (published 9 August 2011) and the report, which includes figures for each local authority and NHS board for each year from 2000 to 2010, is available on the NRS website:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/theme/vital-events/deaths/drug-related/index.html.

Question reference: S4O-00139

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive when the next meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee will take place.

Question reference: S4W-02154

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will fund any increased costs incurred by the alteration to the police station duty scheme.

Question reference: S4W-01303

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 1 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider rolling out Strathclyde Police's Domestic Abuse Task Force across Scotland.

Strathclyde Police’s Domestic Abuse Task Force is an innovative model which is achieving great success in targeting criminality by serious domestic abuse offenders. Many other police forces from Scotland, the rest of the UK and indeed even further afield, have visited the task force to learn about their methods.

Rollout of the model across Scotland would be an operational matter for individual chief constables.