Questions and answers

Question reference: S2W-13958

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 15 February 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-88 by Cathy Jamieson on 5 June 2003, what the value of fines, forfeitures and fixed penalties sent to HM Treasury was in each year since 1999.

The relevant information from the accounts of the Scottish consolidated fund, on the value of surrendered designated receipts for Justice and the Crown Office, is given in the table.

The figure of £23,301,000 given in the answer given to question S2W-88, answered on 5 June 2003, for the value of fines, forfeitures and penalties was estimated from the £11,716,000 received by the Crown Office from district courts for fixed fines and penalties and £11,584,000 remitted to the Exchequer by the Scottish Court Service, as these were the most readily available sources of information at the time. The figures extracted from the accounts of the Scottish consolidated fund, as given in the table, are considered to provide a more accurate basis of information relating to the value of fines, forfeitures and fixed penalties sent to HM Treasury over the last 5 years – although it should be noted that the value remitted in a given year does not directly relate to the value of fines imposed in that year – as most fines are paid over a period of time.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at:

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

Surrendered Designated Receipts, 1999-2000 to 2003-04

Year	Value (£000)
1999-2000	13,000
2000-01	14,482
2001-02¹	27,082
2002-03	20,852
2003-04	31,111

Source: Accounts of the Scottish Consolidated Fund.

Note: 1. Includes £3.8million which was applicable to 2000-01.

Question reference: S2W-14084

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 14 February 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) motoring and (b) speeding offences have been committed by foreign nationals in each year since 1999 and, of these, how many were prosecuted successfully.

Question reference: S2W-13924

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 11 February 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2O-4935 by Patricia Ferguson on 20 January 2005, where the artificial pitches are being developed; what size these pitches will be; what the manufacturing details are of the turf to be used, and what the timescale is for the completion of each pitch.

Under the Building for Sport programme, there has only been one award made, to Argyll and Bute Council for a third generation synthetic pitch at Oban High School. Work on the pitch, which will measure 106m by 66m, should commence during the school summer holidays. Until a contractor is appointed, it is not possible to give details of the actual turf to be used or the completion date.

Information on synthetic pitches being developed through the NOPES programme is not held centrally, but information on specific projects can be obtained from the Big Lottery Fund.

Question reference: S2W-13875

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 10 February 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration has been given to the possibility of an increase in people-trafficking as a result of prostitution tolerance zones.

Question reference: S2W-13871

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 10 February 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many recorded convictions there have been for trafficking cocaine in (a) Scotland, (b) Aberdeen, (c) Dundee, (d) Edinburgh, (e) Glasgow and (f) Stirling in each year since 1999.

The available information is given in the table.

The Number of Persons Found Guilty, Cautioned or Given a Fiscal Fine for Trafficking (1) in Cocaine by Police Force Area, Scotland 1999-2002

Police Force	1999	2000	2001	2002
Central	4	0	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	3	0	1	2
Fife	0	0	2	0
Grampian	15	11	11	18
Lothian and Borders	6	6	2	3
Northern	1	0	0	1
Strathclyde	36	39	36	29
Tayside	7	7	7	7
Total	72	63	59	60

Source: Home Office.

Note: Trafficking is the combination of unlawful production, unlawful supply,possession with intent to supply unlawfully and unlawful import and export.

Question reference: S2W-13959

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 February 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-89 by Cathy Jamieson on 3 June 2003, how many, and what value of, sheriff court fines were outstanding on 31 March (a) 2003 and (b) 2004, in total and broken down by sheriff court district.

The information is provided in the following tables. It should be noted that the outstanding balances for each year are not cumulative. Not all of the balance currently outstanding is due to default in payment - over half the accounts are within their valid payment period and should be paid within that period. Collection levels have been steadily improving over recent years, with over 80% of all financial penalties imposed in the sheriff and High Court in 2001-02 (the most recent year in which the majority of fine accounts are now closed)collected in full.

As at 31 March 2003

Sheriff Court	Number of Open Fine Accounts	Outstanding Balance (£)
Aberdeen	2020	521,298.95
Airdrie	1361	340,921.11
Alloa	451	189,082.86
Arbroath	445	101,204.38
Ayr	1152	256,497.93
Banff	145	50,775.67
Campbeltown	126	30,605.50
Cupar	229	46,796.15
Dingwall	202	61,164.58
Dornoch	76	31,497.39
Dumbarton	994	222,811.36
Dumfries	827	235,567.96
Dundee	1785	428,355.06
Dunfermline	1268	300,120.43
Dunoon	224	49,592.33
Duns	158	58,635.79
Edinburgh	4957	2,615,487.83
Elgin	629	243,445.47
Falkirk	1692	523,930.58
Forfar	298	74,163.18
Fort William	144	51,569.67
Glasgow	5966	1,682,539.52
Greenock	976	240,661.56
Haddington	423	115,537.12
Hamilton	2839	704,369.67
Inverness	810	205,157.57
Jedburgh	423	97,722.94
Kilmarnock	1801	510,197.78
Kirkcaldy	1423	338,723.34
Kirkcudbright	229	83,353.33
Kirkwall	110	36,834.03
Lanark	376	90,418.05
Lerwick	157	35,425.77
Linlithgow	1555	384,130.70
Lochmaddy	18	7,215.00
Oban	136	43,850.69
Paisley	1900	628,463.14
Peebles	96	29,735.90
Perth	898	319,689.48
Peterhead	451	124,980.75
Portree	38	10,273.53
Rothesay	60	11,573.75
Selkirk	337	112,506.30
Stirling	745	187,518.66
Stonehaven	169	38,127.40
Stornoway	140	43,425.32
Stranraer	456	230,102.86
Tain	282	80,792.84
Wick	197	77,516.69
Scotland	42194	12,904,367.87

As at 31 March 2004

Sheriff Court	Number of Open Fine Accounts	Outstanding Balance (£)
Aberdeen	2418	640,532.64
Airdrie	1250	319,252.99
Alloa	635	222,764.03
Arbroath	525	140,521.27
Ayr	1297	299,286.97
Banff	194	56,370.44
Campbeltown	147	34,681.17
Cupar	223	54,503.43
Dingwall	281	72,941.99
Dornoch	86	37,895.89
Dumbarton	1148	247,815.11
Dumfries	842	238,104.35
Dundee	2093	487,527.77
Dunfermline	1391	336,085.55
Dunoon	176	44,033.97
Duns	201	69,710.47
Edinburgh	4658	2,556,129.89
Elgin	816	338,194.30
Falkirk	1823	537,528.16
Forfar	306	80,950.37
Fort William	170	65,431.94
Glasgow	5655	1,639,305.30
Greenock	881	228,833.35
Haddington	420	123,945.33
Hamilton	2899	733,287.69
Inverness	909	317,621.05
Jedburgh	420	101,478.48
Kilmarnock	2093	554,213.16
Kirkcaldy	1538	461,032.52
Kirkcudbright	225	83,892.93
Kirkwall	109	37,882.42
Lanark	354	90,454.01
Lerwick	170	54,330.01
Linlithgow	1422	353,763.39
Lochmaddy	21	7,251.94
Oban	174	68,860.86
Paisley	1601	569,964.88
Peebles	97	33,560.68
Perth	921	345,540.84
Peterhead	476	118,816.77
Portree	39	11,278.68
Rothesay	66	11,006.84
Selkirk	352	106,764.51
Stirling	816	205,349.78
Stonehaven	171	39,161.58
Stornoway	134	62,498.05
Stranraer	440	161,556.41
Tain	357	103,894.09
Wick	230	88,644.63
Scotland	43670	13,594,452.88

Question reference: S2W-13957

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 February 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-86 by Cathy Jamieson on 3 June 2003, how many, and what value of, district court fines were remitted (a) fully or (b) in part in each year since 1999, broken down by sheriff court district.

The information available relates to the number of district court fines remitted and is given in the table. Data on the value of district court fines remitted is not held centrally. As district courts are operated by Local Authorities the information is provided by local authority area. Yearly totals for Scotland are not comparable due to data being unavailable in different courts in different years.

Number of District Court Fines Fully Remitted, 1999-2000 to 2003-04

District Court	1999-2000¹	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04²
Aberdeen City	146	33	94	52	157
Aberdeenshire	61	28	79	18	26
Angus	27	6	5	3	20
Argyll and Bute	162	60	54	38	50
Clackmannanshire	12	1	3	2	1
Dumfries and Galloway	28	-	11	9	N/A
Dundee City	38	25	30	52	25
East Ayrshire	116	13	68	-	N/A
East Dunbartonshire	16	6	5	-	2
East Lothian	-	5	2	4	5
East Renfrewshire	-	2	-	-	-
Edinburgh, City of	408	N/A	240	175	107
Eilean Siar	-	19	N/A	N/A	N/A
Falkirk	42	14	11	5	25
Fife	225	117	137	57	N/A
Glasgow City	385	141	43	79	17
Highland	180	125	19	27	74
Inverclyde	31	23	31	28	33
Midlothian	2	5	12	10	16
Moray	2	1	19	4	29
North Ayrshire	59	13	24	24	18
North Lanarkshire	425	250³	645⁴	656⁵	N/A
Perth and Kinross	80	126	79	211⁶	40
Renfrewshire	255	143	49	61	131
Scottish Borders	41	5	5	1	2
South Ayrshire	2	6	44	30	129
South Lanarkshire	106	41	21	24	11
Stirling	32	40	N/A	N/A	N/A
West Dunbartonshire	436	55	22	78	22
West Lothian	36	154	154	37	69
Scotland	3,353	1,457	1,906	1,685	1,078

Notes:

"N/A" denotes data not available.

1. Includes partly remitted fines – a separate breakdown of fully andpartly remitted fines was not collected for 1999-2000.

2. Provisional data.

3. Coatbridge only.

4. Includes fully and partly remitted fines, registered fines andcompensation orders.

5. Includes fully and partly remitted fines; excludes partly remittedfines for Coatbridge; includes remitted registered fines and compensation orders for Motherwell.

6. Includes partly remitted fines.

Number of district court fines partly remitted, 2000-01 to 2003-04¹

District court	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04⁴
Aberdeen City	26	17	21	113
Aberdeenshire	21	31	13	6
Angus	15	10	4	11
Argyll and Bute	25	22	17	21
Clackmannanshire	2	4	-	2
Dumfries and Galloway	12	6	3	N/A
Dundee City	69	-	70	31
East Ayrshire	8	37	-	N/A
East Dunbartonshire	5	2	2	-
East Lothian	1	1	-	-
East Renfrewshire	3	-	-	-
Edinburgh, City of	N/A	38	10	13
Eilean Siar	-	N/A	N/A	N/A
Falkirk	10	6	8	34
Fife	38	42	34	N/A
Glasgow City	40	39	50	23
Highland	103	18	3	39
Inverclyde	9	19	12	18
Midlothian	-	5	6	4
Moray	-	1	-	13
North Ayrshire	36	36	36	30
North Lanarkshire	10²	N/A³	N/A³	N/A
Perth and Kinross	57	N/A	N/A³	26
Renfrewshire	129	57	59	104
Scottish Borders	1	3	3	1
South Ayrshire	2	46	18	114
South Lanarkshire	36	7	12	6
Stirling	7	N/A	N/A	N/A
West Dunbartonshire	26	22	30	12
West Lothian	4	6	25	48
Scotland	695	475	436	669

Notes:

“N/A” denotes data not available.

1. The numbers of fines which were partly remitted in 1999-2000 areincluded with the number of fully remitted fines in the first table – aseparate breakdown of fully and partly remitted fines was not collected forthat year.

2. Coatbridge only.

3. See footnote to corresponding figure of fully remitted fines in thefirst table

4. Provisional data.

Question reference: S2W-13937

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 9 February 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been charged with soliciting or other prostitution related offences in Edinburgh in each year since 1999, showing the number who were (a) resident outwith Edinburgh and (b) non-UK nationals.

Information on persons charged by the police is not held centrally. The available information on persons proceeded against in court is given in the table. A breakdown by residency and nationality is not available for these statistics.

Persons Proceeded Against in Scottish Courts for Offences Related to Prostitution¹, Edinburgh², 1999 to 2002

	1999	2000	2001	2002³
Number	10	3	3	5

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Persons proceeded against in Edinburgh Sheriff Court or City of EdinburghDistrict Court.

3. Figure may be an underestimate due to time taken to record details of some court proceedings.

Question reference: S2W-13960

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 February 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-90 by Cathy Jamieson on 3 June 2003, how many, and what value of, district court fines were outstanding on 31 March (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2003 and (e) 2004, in total and broken down by sheriff court district.

The available information is given in the table by local authority area. Yearly totals for Scotland are not comparable due to data being unavailable in different courts in different years. The figures for outstanding balances are the total values of imposed fines which have not yet been paid plus any remaining balance on fines which are being paid by instalments. It should be noted that theoutstanding balances for each year are not cumulative, collection effortstake place continuously and the data for the most recent year reflects the existing position. Not all of the balance currently outstanding is due to default in payment - a proportion of these fines will be within their valid payment period.

Value (£000s) of Fines Imposed by District Courts Outstanding at 31 March, 1999-2004

District Court	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004¹
Aberdeen City	170	146	174	110	106	104
Aberdeenshire	105	88	57	54	44	41
Angus	61	66	79	70	95	125
Argyll and Bute	19	11	15	24	25	24
Clackmannanshire	25	37	25	23	38	36
Dumfries and Galloway	91	93	74	64	70	N/A
Dundee City	108	141	117	115	116	129
East Ayrshire	N/A	N/A	27	21	N/A	N/A
East Dunbartonshire	19	17	11	11	10	9
East Lothian	23	17	21	24	25	20
East Renfrewshire	10	11	1	8	5	2
Edinburgh, City of	205	168	N/A	55	156	117
Eilean Siar	1	2	3	N/A	N/A	N/A
Falkirk	96	117	140	136	159	174
Fife	13	42	44	19	31	N/A
Glasgow City	N/A	1363	859	873	1,048	2,218
Highland	155	115	115	148	159	174
Inverclyde	33	41	59	46	39	50
Midlothian	35	35	35	22	N/A	N/A
Moray	3	3	18	18	8	21
North Ayrshire	58	58	55	21	20	10
North Lanarkshire	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Perth and Kinross	N/A	99	80	98	21	65
Renfrewshire	137	101	77	48	37	28
Scottish Borders	156	51	70	80	84	71
South Ayrshire	55	74	132	83	79	64
South Lanarkshire	271	235	237	284	238	226
Stirling	N/A	N/A	48	N/A	N/A	N/A
West Dunbartonshire	122	78	78	82	78	75
West Lothian	149	148	85	N/A	104	95
Scotland	2,119	3,358	2,735	2,536	2,796	3,880

Notes:

"N/A" denotes data not available.

1. Provisional data.

Question reference: S2W-13961

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 February 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-91 by Cathy Jamieson on 3 June 2003, how many fines were recovered by civil diligence following the procedure under section 221 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 and what proportion this represents of the total number of all fines imposed in 2004, in total and broken down by sheriff court district.

The available information is given in the table.

2004	Civil Diligence Used	Number of Fines Imposed	% of Civil Diligence to Imposed
Aberdeen	0	2,518	0%
Airdrie	0	1,477	0%
Alloa	0	560	0%
Arbroath	0	704	0%
Ayr	1	1,429	0.3%
Banff	0	296	0%
Campbeltown	0	187	0%
Cupar	0	378	0%
Dingwall	0	363	0%
Dornoch	0	108	0%
Dumbarton	0	1,143	0%
Dumfries	0	1,862	0%
Dundee	0	2,158	0%
Dunfermline	0	1,107	0%
Dunoon	0	223	0%
Duns	0	197	0%
Edinburgh	0	4,340	0%
Elgin	0	954	0%
Falkirk	0	1,592	0%
Forfar	0	621	0%
Fort William	0	297	0%
Glasgow	10	3,630	0.3%
Greenock	2	763	0.3%
Haddington	0	448	0%
Hamilton	0	3,188	0%
Inverness	0	1,429	0%
Jedburgh	0	406	0%
Kilmarnock	0	2,326	0%
Kirkcaldy	0	1,419	0%
Kirkcudbright	0	238	0%
Kirkwall	0	192	0%
Lanark	0	550	0%
Lerwick	4	295	1.4%
Linlithgow	0	1,322	0%
Lochmaddy	0	68	0%
Oban	0	245	0%
Paisley	0	1,630	0%
Peebles	0	147	0%
Perth	0	1,649	0%
Peterhead	1	649	0.2%
Portree	0	87	0%
Rothesay	0	107	0%
Selkirk	0	379	0%
Stirling	0	1,107	0%
Stonehaven	1	341	0.3%
Stornoway	0	199	0%
Stranraer	0	666	0%
Tain	0	344	0%
Wick	0	267	0%
National Totals	19	46,605	0.04%

Note: There Are No Figures Available On The Actual Amounts Recovered.

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