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-00384

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider establishing a victims’ commissioner.

Question reference: S4W-00386

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many community payback orders have been imposed since their introduction.

There were 333 community payback orders imposed during the months of February and March 2011. This information was published on 10 May 2011 and is available on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Datasets/CPOs.

Further updates will be published on a quarterly basis throughout 2011. The next publication date, covering the period from April to June 2011 (inclusive), is scheduled to be in August 2011.

Question reference: S4W-00382

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will evaluate the savings that would be generated from (a) reducing the number of police forces and (b) creating a single national police force.

Question reference: S4W-00494

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-40242 by Kenny MacAskill on 14 March 2011, when it will next publish an audit of community service.

Question reference: S3O-13346

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 17 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many deaths there have been from knife attacks since 1 January 2010.

Question reference: S3W-39983

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many acute occupied bed days were directly connected to a diagnosis of assault by sharp object between 1 April 2010 and 31 January 2011, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S3W-40029

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 11 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many crimes of handling an offensive weapon were reported between 1 April 2010 and 31 January 2011, broken down by (a) type of crime and (b) police board area.

The statistical bulletin Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2010-11 is scheduled for publication in September 2011. Under the Pre-release Access to Official Statistics (Scotland) Order 2008, the requested data will not be available until the day of publication.

The dates of all Scottish Government Official and National Statistics publications are pre-announced, and the up to date list of future publications can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Search/Forthcoming.

Question reference: S3W-39982

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 11 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hospital admissions due to assault by sharp object there were between 1 April 2010 and 31 January 2011, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S3W-39443

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 7 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many individuals were convicted of carrying a knife or other offensive weapon in 2009-10, broken down by (a) manner of disposal and (b) local authority area.

Latest statistics show a downward trajectory across the country in the fight against knives with homicide rates down to their lowest level in 31 years, the number of homicides using a sharp instrument down 39% between 2008-09 and 2009-10, the number of people caught carrying a knife down to its lowest level in a decade and sentence lengths for such crimes at their longest in a decade, but there will be no let up in our efforts as every knife incident is one too many.

The available information is given in the following table.

Persons with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts for Handling Offensive Weapons¹ by Approximate Local Authority Area², 2009-10

Local Authority/Crime	Custody	Community Sentence	Monetary	Other	Total
Aberdeen City
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	9	10	21	6	46
Possession of an offensive weapon	9	22	20	9	60
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	18	32	41	15	106
Aberdeenshire
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	5	5	6	0	16
Possession of an offensive weapon	2	0	8	1	11
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	7	5	14	1	27
Angus
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	6	7	2	3	18
Possession of an offensive weapon	1	9	3	1	14
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	7	16	5	4	32
Argyll and Bute
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	4	8	2	0	14
Possession of an offensive weapon	4	5	5	0	14
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	8	13	7	0	28
Clackmannanshire
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	10	10	4	1	25
Possession of an offensive weapon	0	8	8	2	18
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	10	18	12	3	43
Dumfries and Galloway
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	7	10	0	3	20
Possession of an offensive weapon	3	7	8	2	20
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	10	17	8	5	40
Dundee City
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	27	15	13	4	59
Possession of an offensive weapon	6	13	4	6	29
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	33	28	17	10	88
East Ayrshire
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	45	25	5	3	78
Possession of an offensive weapon	20	18	33	9	80
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	1	0	1
Total	65	43	39	12	159
East Lothian
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	4	3	4	1	12
Possession of an offensive weapon	4	4	10	3	21
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	8	7	14	4	33
Edinburgh, City of
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	31	35	29	12	107
Possession of an offensive weapon	12	16	48	16	92
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	43	51	77	28	199
Eilean Siar
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	0	0	0	0	0
Possession of an offensive weapon	0	1	0	0	1
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	0	1	0	0	1
Falkirk
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	20	10	3	3	36
Possession of an offensive weapon	3	6	12	6	27
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	23	16	15	9	63
Fife
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	21	32	9	4	66
Possession of an offensive weapon	13	15	22	4	54
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	34	47	31	8	120
Glasgow City
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	199	160	62	51	472
Possession of an offensive weapon	131	147	145	86	509
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	330	307	207	137	981
Highland
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	12	8	6	2	28
Possession of an offensive weapon	5	11	7	0	23
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	17	19	13	2	51
Inverclyde
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	21	21	3	2	47
Possession of an offensive weapon	15	9	10	6	40
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	36	30	13	8	87
Moray
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	0	2	4	1	7
Possession of an offensive weapon	1	2	9	3	15
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	1	4	13	4	22
North Lanarkshire
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	13	16	6	3	38
Possession of an offensive weapon	5	25	12	7	49
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	1	0	1
Total	18	41	19	10	88
Orkney Islands
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	0	0	1	2	3
Possession of an offensive weapon	0	2	0	0	2
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	0	2	1	2	5
Perth and Kinross
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	12	4	5	2	23
Possession of an offensive weapon	5	2	5	0	12
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	17	6	10	2	35
Renfrewshire
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	35	27	10	8	80
Possession of an offensive weapon	11	18	10	13	52
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	46	45	20	21	132
Scottish Borders
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	8	2	2	3	15
Possession of an offensive weapon	4	6	7	6	23
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	12	8	9	9	38
Shetland Islands
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	0	1	1	0	2
Possession of an offensive weapon	1	1	0	0	2
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	1	2	1	0	4
South Ayrshire
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	28	10	4	0	42
Possession of an offensive weapon	11	14	5	1	31
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	39	24	9	1	73
South Lanarkshire
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	31	48	10	7	96
Possession of an offensive weapon	36	65	21	14	136
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	67	113	31	21	232
Stirling
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	11	4	2	1	18
Possession of an offensive weapon	0	6	1	1	8
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	11	10	3	2	26
West Dunbartonshire
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	36	22	3	2	63
Possession of an offensive weapon	5	14	9	5	33
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	41	36	12	7	96
West Lothian
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	4	12	5	2	23
Possession of an offensive weapon	6	7	6	0	19
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	0	0	0
Total	10	19	11	2	42
Scotland³
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point	601	507	222	126	1,456
Possession of an offensive weapon	315	453	428	201	1,397
Restriction of offensive weapons	0	0	2	0	2
Total	916	960	652	327	2,855

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Incorporates an approximate mapping of sheriff courts into local authority areas. Some sheriff courts will deal with cases from more than one local authority area. Some local authority areas, including East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Midlothian and North Ayrshire, do not contain a sheriff court.

3. Contains a small number of cases where local authority is unknown.

Question reference: S3W-39726

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 24 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive on what date building work commenced on phase 2 of the Gartcosh crime campus.