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: S2W-29335

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 10 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what input it has into road traffic regulations and laws; whether there is a standing committee on this issue on which it is represented, and what representations it has made, and on what subjects, about road traffic regulations and laws to Her Majesty’s Government since 1999.

The majority of road trafficregulation legislation is reserved to allow consistency throughout the United Kingdom.There is no formal standing committee.

Notwithstanding this, the ScottishExecutive is in contact with the Department for Transport and other Departmentssuch as the Home Office on a wide range of road traffic regulation matters on aregular basis.

Recent examples have includedthe Graduated Fixed Penalty and Deposit Scheme Steering Group, the DVLA Courts LiaisonGroup, Road Safety matters, the implementation of road works provisions in the EnglishTraffic Management Act 2004 and the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005 and representationson consultation on amendments to the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions2002.

Question reference: S2W-29295

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 10 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many fines have been remitted in each year since 1999.

The decision to remit a fineis always a judicial one and is only taken when there is no realistic prospect ofpayment of an outstanding fine being made. Examples of situations where a judgemay decide to remit a fine include where an offender has died or has been declaredbankrupt.

The available information onsheriff court fines remitted is given in the table below.

Number of Accounts Relating toSheriff Court Fines¹ which were Fully or Partially Remitted^2,3,1999-2000 to 2005-06

Year	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Number remitted	1,532	1,728	1,664	1,833	1,718	1,698	1,851

Notes:

1. The figures relate to finesimposed in the sheriff courts and those transferred in from Courts outwith Scotland.

2. The figures represent accountswith sums remitted only and do not include accounts with sums written off or discharged.This is consistent with previous answers on fines remitted, for example the answer to question S2W-27946.

3. It is not possible to provideseparate figures on those accounts which resulted in the full fine being remittedas opposed to those having had only a proportion remitted.

During each of the last threefinancial years, the value of fines remitted by sheriff courts as a proportion of the value of all fines imposed by sheriff courts has remained constant at around3 per cent.

Information on the number ofdistrict court fines remitted in 1999-2000 to 2003-04 was given in the answerto question S2W-13957 on 9 February 2005. Allanswers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website,the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Of the 40,648 district courtimposed fines with a final outcome in 2004-05, 1,153 were recorded as fully remitted(2.8 per cent) and a further 611 as partially remitted (1.5 per cent). The figuresfor 2004-05 exclude Dumfries and Galloway, Eilean Siar, Fife and Stirling. The figures for district court fines remitted in North Lanarkshire in 2004-05 include other types of monetary penalty such as compensationorders, transfers (in and out), registered fines and fiscal fines for MotherwellDistrict Court.

Question reference: S2W-29294

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many offenders have had fines deducted directly from their (a) benefits or (b) wages and how many have been subject to any other order seeking to recover goods or money in each year since 1999.

Information on the number ofsheriff court fines marked for recovery by deduction from benefits or wages wasgiven in the answers to questions S2W-24321, S2W-24322 and S2W-24323 on 27 March 2006 .

The available information ondistrict court fines which resulted in deductions from income support is given inthe following table.

District Court Fines¹Resultingin Deductions from Income Support², 1999-2000 to 2004-05.

Year	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Number³	630	729	636	653	646	498

Notes:

1. Court imposed fines.

2. For those district court commissionareas who reported the use of deductions of money from income support in the period1999-2000 to 2004-05.

3. Some district court commissionareas were not able to provide this information. For example, in 2003-04 and 2004-05this information was not available for Dumfries and Galloway, Eilean Siar, Fife, Glasgow and Stirling. In 2003-04 East Renfrewshire was also unable to providethis data. Care should therefore be taken when considering these Scotland totals.

Information is not held centrallyon the number of offenders who have had district court fines deducted directly fromother benefits or wages.

Question reference: S2W-29312

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Elish Angiolini on 9 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is the policy of the Crown Office to make a full disclosure to the defence of information obtained by, or available to, it; if not, when the position changed, and, if the position has not changed, on how many occasions full disclosure has not been made and what the reasons were for this

The Crown’s policy and practicein relation to disclosure rests on its legal duty as understood in McLeod vHer Majesty’s Advocate in 1997 i.e. it has a subsisting duty to provide to thedefence information disclosed during the course of the investigation which is likelyto be of material assistance to the proper preparation or presentation of the accused’sdefence.

Following Lord Bonomy’s reviewof the practice and procedure of the High Court, the Crown Office and ProcuratorFiscal Service (COPFS) issued a Crown Practice Statement on Disclosure in High Courtcases which introduced a formal system of disclosure in all High Court cases wherethe first appearance of the accused was after 1 January 2005.In order to support the High Court reform programme, the scheme exceeded thecrown’s legal obligations, as set out in McLeod, by disclosing all witnesses statementsin its possession, subject to limited exceptions.

The decisions of the JudicialCommittee of the Privy Council in the cases of Holland v Her Majesty’sAdvocate and Sinclair v Her Majesty’s Advocate in May 2005 reconsideredthe extent of the Crown’s obligation under McLeod and led to a further change inthe practice so that the COPFS now provides the defence with copies of any statements,in their possession, of witnesses who will give evidence at trial in thesheriff and district courts. In addition, in light of these decisions, the COPFSalso introduced a system to provide the defence with appropriate information aboutthe previous convictions and outstanding charges of witnesses.

The COPFS database does not recordinformation about the number of cases where disclosure has not taken place or thereasons for this. Accordingly, the further information requested is not available.

Question reference: S2W-29297

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners have been on methadone medication in each month since May 1999.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

The precise information soughtis not available.

The number of prisoners beingprescribed methadone on specific dates from December 2004 to August 2005 is availableand is given in the following table:

17 December 2004	845
10 June 2005	886
30 September 2005	934
30 December 2005	984
12 May 2005	1,093
25 August 2006	1,140

Question reference: S2W-29296

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many compensation orders have been imposed in each year since 1999.

The available information onthe number of convictions which resulted in a compensation order being imposed isgiven in the following table.

Convictions in ScottishCourts with a Compensation Order Imposed¹, 1999-2000 to 2004-05

Year	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Total	5,360	5,462	6,450	8,029	9,265	9,176

Note: 1. As main sentence orin addition to some other penalty such as a fine.

Question reference: S2W-29306

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many nurses have been employed in Scottish prisons in each year since 1999.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

The information requested isonly available from 2000 and is shown in the following table:

On 1 April 2000	121
On 1 April 2001	129
On 1 April 2002	136
On 1 April 2003	142
On 1 April 2004	143
On 1 April 2005	149
On 1 April 2006	153

Question reference: S2W-29037

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many trained drug sniffer dogs have been deployed in Scottish prisons in each year since 1999.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

Financial Year	No. of Dogs
1999-2000	2
2000-01	8
2001-02	12
2002-03	12
2003-04	12
2004-05	10
2005-06	6

The drug detection dogs have reduced in number from 12 in 2001-02to six in 2005-06 due to tactical changes in the configuration of the SPS operationaldog capability.

Question reference: S2W-29336

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 8 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated annual costs of Addiewell prison are from 2007 to 2017.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

No costs will be incurred forHM Prison Addiewell until the prison comes on stream towards the end of 2008. Thecontract will run for 25 years from this point and the contract value is estimatedto be £369 million in Net Present Value terms. This equates to around £15 millionpa in Net Present Value terms over the life of the contract.

Question reference: S2W-29338

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 8 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers have been on duty at Scottish courts in each year since 1999.