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-22948

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 7 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it was consulted on the decision to allow Strathclyde Police Armed Response Unit to operate covertly and in plain clothes.

The deployment of police armed response units, including covertly and in plain clothes, is an operational matter for the relevant Chief Constable and as such it would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to be involved. Armed response units in Scotland are deployed in accordance with strict operational guidance contained in the Manual of Guidance on Police Use of Firearms agreed by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-22953

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 7 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of the Cardiff Model, which was established to collect data on violent incidents from accident and emergency units, and whether it has carried out an assessment of any potential benefits from adopting this model.

A key element of the Scottish Government''s approach to tackle violence is to work closely with the national Violence Reduction Unit and other partners in order to better understand the nature and true extent of the problem. Injury surveillance systems at accident and emergency departments help us do so and, building on the success of the Cardiff model, there are now injury surveillance projects running in Edinburgh and Fife, with another due to begin shortly in Lanarkshire which we are helping fund. The information gathered through these schemes is shared with the police to inform their tasking and coordinating meetings in an attempt to prevent future incidents and we hope that it can have a positive impact. All of the schemes will be evaluated in due course and we hope that successful systems can be replicated in other parts of Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-22952

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 7 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what legislation authorises the operation of police armed response units.

Question reference: S3W-22954

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 7 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether findings from the injury surveillance projects in accident and emergency units in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Fife will be made public and, if so, when.

Question reference: S3W-22951

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 7 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive which police forces allow armed response units to operate covertly and in plain clothes.

Question reference: S3W-22949

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 7 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether guidelines are in place concerning when Strathclyde Police Armed Response Unit can operate covertly and in plain clothes.

Question reference: S3W-22950

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 7 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive at what level any decisions are made allowing Strathclyde Police Armed Response Unit to operate covertly and in plain clothes.

Question reference: S3W-22819

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 5 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many on-sales premises had their licence to sell alcohol (a) suspended or (b) revoked in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

The information requested is given in the following table.

Suspensions of On-Sales Liquor Licences: 2003-07

	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Aberdeen City	2	-	-	-	-
Aberdeenshire	2	2	-	-	-
Angus	1	1	1	2	1
Clackmannanshire	-	-	-	2	-
Dumfries and Galloway	-	-	1	-	-
Dundee City	2	-	1	1	-
East Ayrshire	-	2	-	1	1
East Renfrewshire	1	-	-	-	-
Edinburgh, City of	-	3	-	-	-
Falkirk	-	-	-	2	-
Fife	-	1	1	-	5
Glasgow City	-	-	4	-	1
Highland	-	1	-	-	1
Moray	-	-	-	2	1
North Ayrshire	2	-	-	-	-
North Lanarkshire	1	1	1	-	1
Orkney Islands	-	-	-	1	-
Perth and Kinross	-	1	-	-	2
Scottish Borders	-	-	1	-	-
South Lanarkshire	1	1	-	-	-
West Dunbartonshire	-	1	1	-	-
West Lothian	-	-	-	1	1
Scotland	12	14	11	12	14

Source: data provided by local authority licensing boards to Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services.

Notes:

1. In this table, - denotes nil.

2. The legislation under which these licences were granted does not make provision for the revocation of a licence. Legislation has recently been passed which does make such a provision and will come fully into force on 1 September 2009.

3. Transitional arrangements have been in place since February 2008 pending the full implementation of new legislation and therefore figures for 2008 are not available on a consistent basis.

Question reference: S3W-22818

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 5 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many on-sales licence holders were prosecuted for selling alcohol to underage customers in (a) 2006, (b) 2007 and (c) 2008, broken down by (i) police force and (ii) local authority area and showing the fines in each case.

On-sales cannot be identified separately from other types of licence holders in the information held centrally on court proceedings. I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-22817 on 5 May 2009, which gives the total numbers proceeded against for selling alcohol to underage persons. 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.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Question reference: S3W-22822

Asked by: Robert Brown, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 5 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many individuals were prosecuted for purchasing excisable liquor for consumption by a person under 18 in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) police force and (b) local authority area and showing the fines in each case.

The available information is given in the following tables.

Persons Proceeded Against for Purchasing Excisable Liquor for Consumption by an Underage Person¹, by Police Force Area, 2003-04 - 2007-08

Police Force Area	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Central	4	6	7	7	14
Dumfries and Galloway	3	5	6	3	2
Fife	2	-	1	4	6
Grampian	8	2	1	9	6
Lothian and Borders	9	4	10	14	14
Northern	5	16	6	12	13
Strathclyde	21	18	51	40	45
Tayside	6	4	5	9	10
Scotland	58	55	87	98	110

Note: 1. Where the main offence is under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976 Sections 68(3) and (7).

Persons Proceeded Against for Purchasing Excisable Liquor for Consumption by an Underage Person¹, by Approximate Local Authority Area², 2003-04 - 2007-08

Local Authority Area	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Aberdeen City	1	-	-	2	4
Aberdeenshire	3	-	-	2	-
Angus	2	4	3	2	2
Argyll and Bute	4	2	3	2	1
Clackmannanshire	-	-	2	-	4
Dumfries and Galloway	3	5	6	3	2
Dundee City	2	-	1	5	3
East Ayrshire	3	1	3	1	5
East Dunbartonshire	2	2	2	-	-
East Lothian	1	-	1	4	5
East Renfrewshire	-	-	-	-	1
Edinburgh, City of	2	-	3	1	2
Eilean Siar	-	1	1	2	1
Falkirk	1	3	3	4	7
Fife	2	-	1	4	6
Glasgow City	7	6	12	7	5
Highland	5	11	5	5	8
Inverclyde	-	-	1	-	1
Midlothian	1	-	1	1	-
Moray	4	2	1	5	2
North Ayrshire	1	-	1	2	1
North Lanarkshire	1	1	11	8	10
Orkney Islands	-	2	-	4	2
Perth and Kinross	2	-	1	2	5
Renfrewshire	-	-	4	4	3
Scottish Borders	4	4	5	6	6
Shetland Islands	-	2	-	1	2
South Ayrshire	2	-	7	5	7
South Lanarkshire	1	6	6	9	8
Stirling	3	3	2	3	3
West Dunbartonshire	-	-	1	2	3
West Lothian	1	-	-	2	1
Scotland	58	55	87	98	110

Notes:

1. Where the main offence is under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976 Sections 68(3) and (7).

2. Incorporates an approximate mapping of sheriff courts into local authority areas. Some sheriff courts will deal with cases from more than one local authority area. Four local authority areas, namely East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Midlothian and North Ayrshire, do not contain a sheriff court.

Persons Fined for Purchasing Excisable Liquor for Consumption by an Underage Person¹, by Fine Amount, 2003-04 - 2007-08

Fine Amount (£)	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
25	-	1	-	-	-
30	2	-	-	-	-
35	-	-	-	1	-
40	-	2	1	2	1
50	4	3	4	6	4
60	4	3	4	1	1
65	-	-	1	-	1
70	1	-	2	4	6
75	6	4	5	2	5
80	2	2	8	4	4
85	-	-	-	1	-
90	-	1	-	-	-
100	9	11	19	18	24
120	2	-	2	1	3
125	1	-	1	3	1
130	-	-	1	2	-
135	-	-	-	1	-
140	-	-	-	1	1
150	5	2	5	10	13
160	1	-	2	-	-
170	-	-	-	1	-
175	-	-	-	1	2
180	-	1	-	-	3
200	8	8	7	9	8
210	-	-	-	1	-
225	-	-	-	1	2
230	-	-	1	1	-
240	-	1	-	-	-
250	2	4	2	-	2
265	-	-	-	-	1
300	1	3	3	2	1
320	-	-	-	-	1
335	-	-	-	1	-
350	-	-	1	-	-
400	-	1	1	-	-
500	-	1	1	1	4
550	1	-	-	-	-
750	-	-	-	1	-
Total	49	48	71	76	88

Note: 1. Where the main offence is under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976 Sections 68(3) and (7).