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-11854

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 12 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to appoint an inspectorate for the judiciary; if not, how it intends to monitor the performance of judges and sheriffs, and what the reasons are for its position on the matter.

Question reference: S2W-11861

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 12 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive when it received the Scottish Law Commission report, Title to Sue for Non-Patrimonial Loss; what action it has taken in relation to the report; what proposals it has to implement it, and what the reasons are for its position on the matter.

The Scottish Law CommissionReport on Title to Sue for Non-Patrimonial Loss (SLC 187) waspublished on 8 August 2002. It made a number of recommendations for changes tothe categories of persons who are able to sue for non-patrimonial loss.

Recommendation10 of the Report was that the Damages(Scotland) Act 1976 shouldbe amended to provide that:

“(a)any person who, immediately before the deceased's death, was the same-sex cohabitantof the deceased should be entitled to sue for patrimonial and non-patrimonial loss;and

(b)"same-sex cohabitant" (for the purposes of title to sue fornon-patrimonial and patrimonial loss) should mean any person who was livingwith the deceased in a relationship which had the characteristics, other thanthat the persons are of the opposite sex, of the relationship between husbandand wife.”

The Scottish Executive hasagreed that this recommendation should be implemented and that is being donethrough provisions contained in Schedule28, Part 4 of the Civil Partnership Bill which is presently before theUnited Kingdom Parliament.

The other recommendations forchange contained in the report are still under consideration, and no decisionshave yet been taken as to their implementation.

Question reference: S2W-11872

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 12 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what land acreage was available to the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) on the site of HM Prison Low Moss; what the acreage is of the existing site development at Low Moss; what consideration has been given to a new build prison on SPS-owned land adjacent to the site, and what the reasons are for its position on the matter.

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

The Scottish Prison Servicesite is about 15 hectares of which the existing prison occupies about onethird.

The SPS-owned land adjacentto the existing prison was considered to be too small for the proposed newprison. The site needs to be used to create the most effective establishmentoperationally so that value for money is maximised. The SPS consider that thisneeds to include the part already occupied.

Question reference: S2W-11871

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 12 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the pension rights will be of new prison officers at any new build prison on the Low Moss site.

Question reference: S2W-11873

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 12 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total annual value is of work carried out for it and its agencies by The Stationery Office (TSO), broken down by contract, and whether it has any powers of direction over TSO and, if so, what these are.

Question reference: S2W-11869

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 12 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to capitalise and build upon the world city of literature status awarded to Edinburgh and what funds have been (a) earmarked for this purpose and (b) allocated to relevant organisations.

The Scottish Executivewelcomes Edinburgh’s success in being granted the title: City of Literaturein the UNESCO Creative Cities Global Alliance. The Edinburgh World City ofLiterature project aims to work with UNESCO to identify potential partnercities in the developed and developing world. Through a network of world citiesof literature, Edinburgh will set out to promote international exchangebetween writers, readers, literature organisations and publishers. Scotlandwill benefit from these exchanges in the resulting higher profile for Scottishliterature and the potential increase in cultural tourism. In addition, the project aims to provide a focus and co-ordinationfor literary activity, to encourage greater participation at all levels ofScottish society, and to attract new initiatives to Scotland.

The Scottish Executive hasawarded the project £20,000, but, as yet, no decision has been taken on futurefunding.

The UK Delegation to UNESCOis discussing a possible contribution of up to £50,000 to UNESCO's newCreative Cities Fund, to enable developing countries to benefit from Edinburgh's initiative.

Question reference: S2W-11856

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 12 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-10861 by Cathy Jamieson on 8 October 2004, how many of the safeguarders referred to have been instructed in the last (a) year and (b) two years and whether safeguarders are withdrawn from Sheriff Clerks’ lists if they are no longer carrying out their responsibilities.

Question reference: S2W-11331

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 11 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it has allocated for (a) judicial pay and (b) increasing the judicial complement in each year since 1999.

The information is given in thefollowing table:

Financial Year	Judges	Sheriffs	Total Pay Bill for Judges and Sheriffs (£ Million)
1999-2000	27	122	16.346
2000-01	32	129	18.919
2001-02	32	136	19.757
2002-03	32	136	21.414
2003-04	32	136	23.496
2004-05	34^ø	140	23.788

Note: ^øIncrease of two subject to approval ofan Order currently before Parliament.

Question reference: S2W-11868

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 11 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Her Majesty’s Government regarding the proposed new gambling legislation; what representations it has made in respect of Scotland; what the procedures will be for implementing any UK legislation, and what steps it will take to ensure that Scotland’s distinct position is acknowledged and that the Parliament is involved in the process.

The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues,including the proposed new gambling legislation. Scottish ministers will have a wider range of controls under the new systemincluding power to set licence fees and licence conditions.

Scottish ministers will be fullyinvolved in procedures for implementation of the new regime and will be consultedprior to the UK Government deciding whento commence the new arrangements.

A Sewel motion on the devolvedaspects of the bill will be presented to the Scottish Parliament in due course.

Question reference: S2W-11292

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 10 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many criminal networks were disrupted in each year since 1999, broken down by police board area.

It is not possible to provide a break down of disruptions to criminal networks by police board or police force areas as many networks, by their very nature, tend to operate on a national or international basis.

The Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency (SDEA) publishes Scotland-wide figures in its annual reports. Since its launch in 2000, operations involving the SDEA and the Scottish police service have led to the disruption of the following numbers of criminal networks.

	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05*
Criminal Networks Disrupted	50	73	114	96	48

Note: *Figure for 2004-05 is for the period up to end-September 2004 taken from the SDEA’s Interim Report.

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

Chamber and committees

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