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: S3W-36294

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 September 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 23 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what bodies the Scottish Policing Board will consult in its work exploring police force structural reform options

Question reference: S3W-36293

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 September 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 23 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Scottish Policing Board will complete its work exploring police force structural reform options.

Information presented to the Scottish Policing Board on 13 September 2010 showed that efficiency savings alone are unlikely to be sufficient to meet the scale of financial challenges beyond 2012-13. The board decided that further work should be done to explore options for releasing additional cost savings, and initial findings reported to the next meeting of the Scottish Policing Board on 6 December 2010. At that stage, the board will consider whether further work is required.

Question reference: S3W-36127

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 September 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 16 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of crime is committed by offenders who have previous convictions.

Question reference: S3W-36126

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 September 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 16 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average cost is to the criminal justice system of each incident of reoffending that leads to reconviction.

Precise cost estimates for Scotland are not currently available. Estimating such costs is not straightforward, as it is not possible to directly attribute all crimes and offences to individual offenders or reoffenders.

However, a social exclusion unit report on Reducing reoffending by ex-prisoners (2002) noted that:

Home Office researchers estimate that each offence leading to reconviction costs the criminal justice system on average £13,000. It is also estimated that five recorded offences are committed for each reconviction, meaning that, during their time at liberty, a re-offending ex-prisoner is likely to be responsible for crime costing the criminal justice system an average of £65,000.

Scottish Government officials are in the process of developing similar estimates for Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-36128

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 September 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 16 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average cost is of processing an offender on (a) arrival and (b) release from prison.

Question reference: S3W-36125

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 September 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 16 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual cost of reoffending is to the criminal justice system.

However, a social exclusion unit report on Reducing reoffending by ex-prisoners (2002) noted that:

It is possible to estimate the cost of re-offending by ex-prisoners from the overall costs of crime calculated by the Home Office:

· this analysis looked at notifiable offences “ a subset of crime that excludes some crimes such as drug trafficking and possession, handling stolen goods, public order offences, low level disorder, fare evasion, motoring offences, and other summary offences;

· it put the total costs of these crimes at around £60 billion, counting costs incurred in anticipation of crime (for example, insurance), costs as a consequence of crime (for example, health services, repairing damage) and the costs of the criminal justice system, and

· it is estimated that re-offending by recent ex-prisoners accounts for at least 18 per cent of total crime, so at least £10.8 billion, and probably much more.

Scottish Government officials are in the process of developing similar estimates for Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-36044

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, in view of recent findings on the loss and theft of personal data by public bodies, when it expects to publish its guidelines on identity management and privacy principles.

The analysis report for the consultation of the draft identity management and privacy principles is due to be published in September 2010. After considering the analysis report, we expect to publish the final text during autumn 2010.

It remains the responsibility of individual police forces, local authorities and NHS boards to ensure that personal or sensitive information is stored securely and they are bound by legal requirements set out in the Data Protection Act and the Human Rights Act.

Question reference: S3W-36032

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 13 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide greater detail on the likely capacity of the third Paisley Corridor Improvement (PCI) track, in light of claims that it is likely to have an extra four trains per hour in comparison with the original Glasgow Airport Rail Link’s (GARL) proposal of an extra 6 trains per hour.

The original proposal for the GARL passenger service, as envisaged in the Glasgow Airport Rail Link Bill - Promoters Memorandum was as follows:

DETAILS OF THE PROPOSED SCHEME

14. The proposed scheme is shown schematically in Figure 1. The scheme (referred to hereafter as GARL) will provide a new rail service between Glasgow Central Station and a new station to be provided at Glasgow Airport. This will allow air passengers, airport employees and other travellers to reach the airport in a fast (16 minute journey time), frequent (4 trains per hour), reliable, high capacity and modern service. It will bring the airport within 1 interchange stop of 143 rail stations in west Scotland and via Glasgow Central and Paisley Gilmour Street bring the benefit of good airport accessibility and related economic benefit to the whole region.

The winter 2011 timetable revisions resulting from the West of Scotland railway investment programme, which includes the PCI project, will future proof the Paisley corridor in terms of capacity provision. The extent to which that additional capacity will be utilised incrementally over the coming years forms part of the current timetable development activity.

Question reference: S3W-36028

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 13 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what the current position is regarding the Paisley Corridor Improvement (PCI) works.

Works on the PCI project continue on schedule and budget. Key delivery milestones which have been reached are:

1. The commissioning and bringing in to use of two new platforms (platforms 12 and 13) at Glasgow Central Station in May 2010. The introduction of these two new platforms had an immediate positive impact upon reliability and capacity at what is Scotland''s busiest railway station.

2. Award of the three main contracts for the delivery of the PCI project by Network Rail:

a. Invensys “ signalling and telecommunications

b. Balfour Beatty “ main line design and build

c. Invensys “ signalling controls.

Question reference: S3W-36029

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 13 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has undertaken, or plans to undertake in the near future, the consultation on the future use of the new third track between Glasgow and Paisley as the major part of the Paisley Corridor Improvement (PCI) works, as reported in The Herald on 15 March 2010 and, if not, for what reason.