Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-24104

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 29 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of animal cruelty were dealt with through the children’s hearings system in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S3W-23949

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-12020 by Fergus Ewing on 18 April 2008, for what reasons it does not hold information centrally on how much each local authority spends on the provision of CCTV facilities and whether it intends to hold this information in the future.

It is the responsibility of each local authority, in conjunction with their Community Planning Partners, to allocate funding on the basis of their local needs and priorities “ having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities, including the Scottish Government''s key strategic objectives and manifesto commitments.

I have recently received the completed Strategic Review of Public Space CCTV in Scotland. While it is too early to indicate what our intentions might be, we will look to build upon the output of the review.

Question reference: S3W-23931

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children aged (a) 12 to 15 and (b) under 12 have been proceeded against in the criminal courts in each year since 1999, broken down by (i) age and (ii) offence.

The available information in given in the following table:

Persons Aged 15 and Under Proceeded Against in Scottish Courts¹, 1999-2000 to 2007-08

Age	Main Offence	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
9	Motor vehicle offences	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
11	Crimes of dishonesty	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Miscellaneous offences	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	Non-sexual crimes of violence	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-
	Fire-raising, vandalism, etc	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
	Other crimes	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Miscellaneous offences	-	-	1	1	-	1	-	1	-
	Motor vehicle offences	1	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-
13	Non-sexual crimes of violence	2	1	1	-	1	1	-	-	4
	Crimes of indecency	-	-	-	1	2	-	-	-	-
	Crimes of dishonesty	-	-	1	2	2	-	-	-	-
	Fire-raising, vandalism, etc	-	-	2	1	1	-	1	-	3
	Other crimes	-	1	1	1	1	2	-	-	-
	Miscellaneous offences	-	-	2	1	2	-	-	-	1
	Motor vehicle offences	-	2	-	-	-	-	3	1	1
14	Non-sexual crimes of violence	1	5	5	2	6	4	9	5	8
	Crimes of indecency	4	2	2	1	-	2	3	2	1
	Crimes of dishonesty	4	2	5	2	3	3	2	-	2
	Fire-raising, vandalism, etc	3	-	3	6	1	4	-	1	3
	Other crimes	2	1	-	2	2	-	7	5	3
	Miscellaneous offences	7	5	1	1	3	6	3	2	4
	Motor vehicle offences	1	-	1	2	1	1	1	1	-
15	Non-sexual crimes of violence	13	16	11	24	18	22	19	20	21
	Crimes of indecency	1	4	3	4	4	6	5	4	8
	Crimes of dishonesty	24	22	15	27	19	20	33	24	20
	Fire-raising, vandalism, etc	8	2	8	6	14	7	8	9	12
	Other crimes	5	7	14	18	17	24	16	24	31
	Miscellaneous offences	14	10	22	16	13	29	33	28	42
	Motor vehicle offences	7	9	15	33	16	21	29	20	23

Note: 1. The source of this information is the Scottish Government Court Proceedings database, which is derived from data held on the Criminal History System. The Criminal History System is not designed for statistical purposes. The figures given reflect the details of court proceedings as made available to and recorded at SPSA, and as provided to the Scottish Government by the end of August 2008. These figures do not include young people who are referred to the reporter.

Question reference: S3W-23932

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children aged (a) 12 to 15 and (b) under 12 have been convicted of an offence in each year since 1999, broken down by (i) age and (ii) offence.

The available information in given in the following table:

Persons Aged 15 and Under with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts¹, 1999-2000 to 2007-08

Age	Main Offence	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
9	Motor vehicle offences	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	Non-sexual crimes of violence	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-
	Fire-raising, vandalism, etc	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
	Other crimes	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Miscellaneous offences	-	-	1	1	-	1	-	-	-
	Motor vehicle offences	1	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-
13	Non-sexual crimes of violence	1	-	1	-	1	-	-	-	2
	Crimes of indecency	-	-	-	1	2	-	-	-	-
	Crimes of dishonesty	-	-	1	2	2	-	-	-	-
	Fire-raising, vandalism, etc	-	-	2	1	-	-	1	-	2
	Other crimes	-	1	1	1	1	2	-	-	-
	Miscellaneous offences	-	-	2	-	2	-	-	-	1
	Motor vehicle offences	-	2	-	-	-	-	3	-	1
14	Non-sexual crimes of violence	1	3	3	2	6	2	5	4	5
	Crimes of indecency	2	2	2	-	-	1	2	2	-
	Crimes of dishonesty	3	2	5	2	3	3	2	-	2
	Fire-raising, vandalism, etc	2	-	2	4	1	4	-	1	3
	Other crimes	2	1	-	2	2	-	7	4	2
	Miscellaneous offences	5	4	-	1	3	6	2	1	4
	Motor vehicle offences	1	-	1	2	1	1	1	1	-
15	Non-sexual crimes of violence	11	9	7	22	16	20	15	15	15
	Crimes of indecency	-	4	3	3	3	4	5	4	6
	Crimes of dishonesty	23	17	11	23	15	17	30	22	17
	Fire-raising, vandalism, etc	7	2	7	5	13	7	7	9	12
	Other crimes	3	5	9	16	14	19	15	23	27
	Miscellaneous offences	10	8	12	15	11	17	22	27	36
	Motor vehicle offences	7	6	12	31	15	21	24	17	22

Note: 1. The source of this information is the Scottish Government Court Proceedings database, which is derived from data held on the Criminal History System. The Criminal History System is not designed for statistical purposes. The figures given reflect the details of court proceedings as made available to and recorded at SPSA, and as provided to the Scottish Government by the end of August 2008. These figures do not include young people who are referred to the reporter.

Question reference: S3W-24056

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been diverted into diversion from prosecution schemes in each year since 2005, broken down by local authority area.

Social work diversion schemes aim to provide persons accused of minor offences with support and advice in relation to problems associated with their offending. In such cases, prosecution is deferred, subject to successful completion of the scheme.

Full tables giving details of the operation of these schemes from 2003-04 to 2007-08 by local authority area are published on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/DPLA0708

The information provided includes the number of referrals, assessments, cases commenced and successfully completed.

Figures for 2008-09 are scheduled to be published toward the end of 2009.

Question reference: S3W-23948

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been provided for the installation of CCTV in town centres in each of the last five years, broken down by funding stream.

Funding has been made available to all local authority Community Safety Partnerships over the period 2005-08 to identify and address local community safety priorities, which can include CCTV. Funding has also been provided under the Safe Cities and Towns initiative, details of which can be found on the Scottish Government website at www.scotland.gov.uk.

Under the concordat agreed between Scottish ministers and COSLA, funding for community safety and antisocial behaviour has been absorbed into the main local government settlement since 1 April 2008.

It is the responsibility of each local authority, in conjunction with their Community Planning Partners, to allocate funding on the basis of their local needs and priorities having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities, including the Scottish Government''s key strategic objectives and manifesto commitments.

Question reference: S3W-23947

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-18668 by Fergus Ewing on 8 December 2008, whether it will issue the instruction to hold central data records of the number of public space CCTV cameras.

The strategic review of public space CCTV in Scotland includes a landscaping element which provides us with the figures for public space CCTV in Scotland covering a single year.

This is the first time that such information has been gathered. Alongside the other areas of the review it will help identify where the effectiveness of public space CCTV in Scotland can be improved.

While it is too early to indicate what our intentions might be, we will look to build upon the output of the review.

Question reference: S3W-23944

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how it ensures that all images captured by public space CCTV are stored securely.

Question reference: S3W-23945

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive for how long images captured by public space CCTV are stored.

Question reference: S3W-23933

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children under 16 have been held in (a) prison establishments, (b) young offenders institutions and (c) secure accommodation in each year since 1999, broken down by age.

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

The information requested is shown in the following table.

Number of children under 16 held in Scottish prisons or young offender institutions: 1999 to 2008

	Numbers held in		Number of Individuals
	Prisons	In Young Offender Institutions	Number of Individuals
1999	6	11	12
2000	14	11	15
2001	14	11	19
2002	20	21	26
2003	18	17	22
2004	18	18	23
2005	3	17	17
2006	4	25	26
2007	1	15	15
2008	3	12	15

Notes:

1. The total number of individuals is given in the third column since an individual may have been held both in prison and a young offenders institution during the reporting period. In this case, they will be counted twice in the table.

2. Data for 2008 are provisional.

The number of children admitted to secure accommodation is published in Secure accommodation statistics 2007-08 (table 2). This is available on the Scottish Government website at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/09/09105012/0.

Chamber and committees