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-12217

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many people convicted of serious assault have received as their main penalty a (a) Sheriff Court fine, (b) Justice of the Peace Court fine, (c) fiscal fine, (d) fiscal compensation order, (e) fiscal combined offer and (f) police antisocial behaviour penalty in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S4W-12220

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many people convicted of robbery have received as their main penalty a (a) Sheriff Court fine, (b) Justice of the Peace Court fine, (c) fiscal fine, (d) fiscal compensation order, (e) fiscal combined offer and (f) police antisocial behaviour penalty in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S4W-12221

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many people convicted of common assault have received as their main penalty a (a) Sheriff Court fine, (b) Justice of the Peace Court fine, (c) fiscal fine, (d) fiscal compensation order, (e) fiscal combined offer and (f) police antisocial behaviour penalty in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S4W-12218

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many people convicted of (a) rape and (b) attempted rape have received as their main penalty a (i) Sheriff Court fine, (ii) Justice of the Peace Court fine, (iii) fiscal fine, (iv) fiscal compensation order, (v) fiscal combined offer and (vi) police antisocial behaviour penalty in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S4W-12216

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many people convicted of attempted murder have received as their main penalty a (a) Sheriff Court fine, (b) Justice of the Peace Court fine, (c) fiscal fine, (d) fiscal compensation order, (e) fiscal combined offer and (f) police antisocial behaviour penalty in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S4W-12215

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many people convicted of homicide have received as their main penalty a (a) Sheriff Court fine, (b) Justice of the Peace Court fine, (c) fiscal fine, (d) fiscal compensation order, (e) fiscal combined offer and (f) police antisocial behaviour penalty in each year since 2007.

Decisions on sentencing in individual cases for people convicted of offences are taken entirely independently by the court. Also, decisions in individual cases on the use of alternatives to prosecution such as fiscal fines for offences are taken entirely independently by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

The available information is given in the following tables. As police ASB FPNs cannot be issued for these crimes, they are not included in the table as none were issued.

People convicted in Scottish Courts receiving a fine, 2006-07 to 2011-12

Crime/offence¹ and Court²	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
Homicide:
Murder:
High Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sheriff Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Justice of the Peace Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
District Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Stipendiary Magistrate Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Causing death by careless driving:
High Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sheriff Court	0	0	0	5	5	5
Justice of the Peace Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
District Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Stipendiary Magistrate Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Causing death by dangerous driving:
High Court	0	0	0	0	1	0
Sheriff Court	1	1	0	0	0	0
Justice of the Peace Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
District Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Stipendiary Magistrate Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Death by careless driving when under influence of drink/drugs:
High Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sheriff Court	1	0	0	0	0	0
Justice of the Peace Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
District Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Stipendiary Magistrate Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Culpable homicide (common law):
High Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sheriff Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Justice of the Peace Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
District Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Stipendiary Magistrate Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Illegal driver, disqualified/unlicensed etc involved in fatal accident:
High Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sheriff Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Justice of the Peace Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
District Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Stipendiary Magistrate Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Attempted murder:
High Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sheriff Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Justice of the Peace Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
District Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Stipendiary Magistrate Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Serious assault:
High Court	0	1	0	0	0	0
Sheriff Court	138	187	176	100	93	69
Justice of the Peace Court	0	0	0	1	0	0
District Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Stipendiary Magistrate Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Robbery:
High Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sheriff Court	20	23	18	20	10	18
Justice of the Peace Court	0	0	0	1	0	0
District Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Stipendiary Magistrate Court	0	0	1	0	0	0
Rape and attempted rape:
High Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sheriff Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Justice of the Peace Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
District Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Stipendiary Magistrate Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sexual assault:
High Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sheriff Court	10	6	2	2	4	7
Justice of the Peace Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
District Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Stipendiary Magistrate Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Housebreaking:
High Court	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sheriff Court	248	237	232	148	134	96
Justice of the Peace Court	0	0	4	4	0	2
District Court	3	1	2	1	0	0
Stipendiary Magistrate Court	5	4	7	11	16	15
Handling an offensive weapon:
High Court	0	0	1	0	0	0
Sheriff Court	938	897	839	618	455	369
Justice of the Peace Court	0	0	2	0	2	9
District Court	9	2	2	0	0	0
Stipendiary Magistrate Court	73	29	10	35	41	30
Drugs:
High Court	1	2	0	0	1	0
Sheriff Court	3,213	3,167	2,734	2,945	2,583	2,341
Justice of the Peace Court	0	4	271	622	819	657
District Court	2,259	1,872	689	218	2	0
Stipendiary Magistrate Court	102	55	128	346	366	404
Unknown court	0	0	1	0	0	0
Common assault:
High Court	2	0	3	1	2	0
Sheriff Court	5,526	5,416	4,853	4,420	3,987	3,724
Justice of the Peace Court	0	1	390	656	779	767
District Court	1,151	1,084	542	170	10	1
Stipendiary Magistrate Court	442	417	358	362	286	319
Unknown court	0	0	2	1	0	0

1. Where main offence.

2. Sheriff court includes sheriff solemn, sheriff summary and sheriff summary youth courts.

People receiving Non Court Disposals^2,3, 2008-09 to 2011-12

Crime/offence¹	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
Homicide:
Murder	0	0	0	0
Causing death by careless driving	0	0	0	0
Causing death by dangerous driving	0	0	0	0
Culpable homicide (common law)	0	0	0	0
Death by careless driving when under influence of drink/drugs	0	0	0	0
Illegal driver, disqualified/unlicensed etc involved in fatal accident	0	0	0	0
Attempted murder:	0	0	0	0
Serious assault:
Fiscal Compensation	1	0	0	0
Fiscal Fine	1	0	0	0
Robbery:	0	0	0	0
Rape and attempted rape:	0	0	0	0
Sexual assault:	0	0	0	0
Housebreaking:
Fiscal Compensation	9	4	5	0
Handling an offensive weapon:
Fiscal Compensation	1	0	0	0
Fiscal Fine	1	0	0	0
Drugs:
Fiscal Combined Fine with Compensation	3	0	0	1
Fiscal Compensation	1	1	2	0
Fiscal Fine	7,894	7,933	8,736	11,174
Common assault:
Fiscal Combined Fine with Compensation	206	151	119	82
Fiscal Compensation	391	330	270	147
Fiscal Fine	2,604	2,120	1,799	1,644

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.

1. Where main offence.

2. Table covers Fiscal Fines, Fiscal Compensation and Fiscal Combined Fine with Compensation which have been accepted or deemed accepted.

3. The information held centrally on non-court disposals is only available from the financial year 2008-09.

Question reference: S4W-12384

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many custodial sentences of less than six months have been imposed in each sheriffdom in each month since May 2007.

The available information is given in the following table.

People given a custodial sentence of six months or less in Scottish Courts, 2007-08 to 2011-12

Sheriffdom¹	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
Glasgow and Strathkelvin	2,482	2,245	2,100	2,087	2,181
Grampian, Highland and Islands	1,513	1,350	1,146	1,176	1,189
Lothian and Borders	1,647	1,807	1,422	1,424	1,263
North Strathclyde	1,933	1,747	1,741	1,640	1,685
South Strathclyde Dumfries and Galloway	2,206	2,120	1,959	1,563	1,726
Tayside, Central and Fife	2,874	2,858	2,497	2,663	2,606
Scotland²	12,664	12,142	10,874	10,561	10,665

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings Database.

Notes:

1. Includes an approximate mapping of District courts to Sheriffdoms.

2. Includes a small number of cases relating to the High Court, or where court location is not known

By way of context, the table below shows information on the number of people with a charge proved in Scottish courts over the same period.

People with a charge proved in Scottish Courts, 2007-08 to 2011-12

	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
Scotland	133,608	125,889	121,028	115,564	108,336

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings Database.

Question reference: S4F-01178

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 February 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 February 2013

To ask the First Minister who will administer any fund established from the proceeds of a victims’ surcharge on offenders.

Question reference: S4W-12386

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 31 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many hours of community payback orders have (a) been completed in (i) full and (ii) part and (b) not been completed since February 2011, broken down by community justice authority area.

Question reference: S4W-12383

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 31 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many hours of community payback orders have been imposed in each community justice authority area in each month since February 2011.

Information from local authorities on the number of hours which have been imposed as part of unpaid work or other activity requirements given with community payback orders in 2011-12 is published at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Datasets/SocialWork/CPOs (worksheet entitled “CPOs - ave len UPW”).

Information is not held centrally on the number of hours imposed in February and March 2011.