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-16215

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 April 2005
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 12 May 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) mean and (b) median travel times by car were from Edinburgh city centre to Glasgow city centre in (i) 1975, (ii) 1985, (iii) 1995, (iv) 1999, (v) 2000, (vi) 2001, (vii) 2002, (viii) 2004 and (ix) 2005.

Question reference: S2W-16297

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 12 May 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15878 by Colin Boyd QC on 21 April 2005, whether it will provide a breakdown of the European Arrest Warrants received by (a) issuing country and (b) offence in (i) 2004 and (ii) 2005.

In 2004, Scotland received three European Arrest Warrants and to date in 2005 Scotland has received a further two European Arrest Warrants.

Two of those received in 2004 were from Portugal, but were subsequently withdrawn.

One of the warrants received in 2005 was from Poland in respect of an allegation of attempted murder. It was executed earlier this year.

The other warrants remain outstanding. It is inappropriate for operational reasons to give details of either the issuing country or the offences for which those outstanding warrants have been issued.

Question reference: S2W-16298

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 12 May 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15878 by Colin Boyd QC on 21 April 2005, whether it will provide a breakdown of the European Arrest Warrants issued by (a) country to which they were addressed and (b) offence in (i) 2004 and (ii) 2005.

In 2004 Scotland issued 14 European Arrest Warrants (EAW) so far in 2005 two European Arrest Warrants have been issued.

Of those issued in 2004, eight have been executed and two were withdrawn by Crown Office before they were executed, as the fugitives returned voluntarily to Scotland. Four remain outstanding.

Seven European Arrest Warrants were issued to Spain. Two of these were in respect of the fugitives who returned voluntarily to Scotland. The remaining five were in relation to offences of assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement, attempt to defeat the ends of justice, a contravention of Section 27(7) Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, embezzlement, a contravention of Sex Offenders Act 1997 Section 2(6E)(A), theft, a contravention of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993 Section 17(5). All of these warrants were executed in Spain, and the fugitives returned to Scotland.

One warrant was issued to Portugal in relation to an allegation of a contravention of the Road Traffic Act 1998 Section 1, attempting to defeat the ends of justice and a contravention of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) 1995 Section 27(7). The EAW was executed and the fugitive was returned to Scotland.

Two European Arrest Warrants were executed in The Netherlands for a contravention of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1995 Section 67(2) and Section 67(9) together with a charge of attempting to defeat the ends of justice. Both EAW were executed (in respect of the same individual) and the fugitive was returned to Scotland.

It would be inappropriate for operational reasons to give details of the European Arrest Warrants issued in 2005 which both remain outstanding.

Question reference: S2W-16299

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 12 May 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any of the European Arrest Warrants received have been for acts that are not offences in Scots law.

Question reference: S2W-16300

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 12 May 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, for each offence listed in Article 2(2) of Council Framework Decision 2002/584/SHA on the European Arrest Warrant and the surrender procedures between member states, for which offences in Scots law it considers a European Arrest Warrant could be issued without verification of double criminality by the receiving member state.

Scots Criminal Law is largely based on the common law. As a result there is a wide variety of offences and aggravations available to meet a very large number of circumstances. It is not possible to compile an exhaustive list of the offences in Scots Law and it would not be practical or helpful to do so. Where consideration is given to the issuing of a European Arrest Warrant, in all cases the list of offences in Article 2.2 of the Council Framework Decision would be examined to see whether the offence involved would be covered by one of the offences on that list.

Question reference: S2W-16210

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 April 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 11 May 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers from England or Wales will be deployed in Scotland during the G8 summit in July 2005.

Chief Constables can call on mutual aid from other forces in Scotland and in the rest of the UK as appropriate and planning for this is in hand.

Decisions on the number and deployment of such officers are operational matters for the Chief Constable of Tayside Police. It is too early to be precise about how many such officers may be needed. That will depend on operational decisions to be taken in due course by the Scottish Police Service.

Question reference: S2W-16209

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 April 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 11 May 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many bed spaces in Edinburgh are estimated to have been block-booked by countries or individuals attending or participating in the G8 summit.

Question reference: S2W-16100

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 April 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 11 May 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-25983, S1W-32815 and S2W-1871 by Mr Jim Wallace, Hugh Henry and Cathy Jamieson on 29 May 2002,13 January 2003 and 19 August 2003 respectively, what information it has on the investigation by the police and whether the operators of HM Prison Kilmarnock are likely to accrue performance points in respect of the incident.

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

Points were applied in Year 6 Period 1 to be carried back to Year 4 Period 2 when the assault took place. The establishment informed us that the prisoner was found guilty on 5 November 2003 and sentenced to five months imprisonment. Upon receipt of this information the appropriate performance measure was applied.

Question reference: S2W-16069

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 April 2005
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 10 May 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hospital admissions due to alcohol-related liver disease there have been in each year since 1997, broken down by NHS board.

Information on all alcohol-related liver disease admissions to general acute hospitals during 1997-98 to 2003-04 is shown in table 1.

1 Scottish General Acute Hospital^1,2 Discharge Records With An Explicit Diagnosis of Alcoholic Liver Disease³; 1997-98 to 2003-04

Area of Residence	Discharge Period
	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04^P
Total	5,005	5,156	5,576	6,217	7,109	7,429	8,291
Scotland Residents	4,973	5,118	5,554	6,166	7,057	7,374	8,261
Argyll and Clyde	523	458	503	536	628	691	655
Ayrshire and Arran	244	324	285	332	428	466	582
Borders	64	80	87	88	100	77	52
Dumfries and Galloway	88	100	118	123	165	176	178
Fife	257	258	390	427	465	413	440
Forth Valley	272	272	217	257	325	303	301
Grampian	320	345	372	404	433	409	518
Greater Glasgow	1,321	1,335	1,468	1,719	1,787	1,926	2,266
Highland	157	161	185	133	211	281	349
Lanarkshire	406	531	594	614	761	965	1,089
Lothian	1,057	979	969	1,151	1,333	1,202	1,249
Tayside	220	227	330	318	366	411	519
Islands⁴	44	48	36	64	55	54	63
Other⁵	32	38	22	51	52	55	30

Source: SMR01 (valid records only).

Date: 21 April 2005.

Ref: 20051133.

^PProvisional.

Notes:

1. Includes acute hospitals (excludes maternity hospitals, mental illness hospitals and psychiatric units).

2. Information on hospital discharges relates to episodes of in-patient or day case care rather than individual patients. The same patient may account for several hospital admissions during the course of a year (or across years) and will be counted each time in the attached table. Transfer cases have been included.

3. Diagnostic information is defined by using the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD10).

Alcoholic Liver Disease : K70.

4. Orkney, Shetland and Western Isles.

5. Patients resident outwith Scotland and patients where the area of residence is not known.

Question reference: S2W-15184

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 10 May 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive which persons or bodies it has designated as Scottish public authorities under section 5 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.