Questions and answers

Question reference: S2W-15855

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 April 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 21 April 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many persons had a charge proved for the miscellaneous offences (a) common assault, (b) breach of the peace, (c) drunkenness, (d) breach of social work orders and (e) other offences in each year since 1997, broken down by police force area.

The available information is given in the following table.

Persons with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts for Selected Offences¹, by Police Force Area, 1997- 2003

Offence/Police Force Area	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003³
Common assault
Central	634	550	539	604	628	721	728
Dumfries and Galloway	357	301	337	270	289	309	400
Fife	703	586	574	488	684	633	625
Grampian	1,309	1,317	1,100	966	1,085	1,165	1,320
Lothian and Borders	2,015	2,005	1,727	1,683	1,592	1,868	1,786
Northern	717	672	648	572	653	685	821
Strathclyde	5,820	5,548	4,923	4,671	4,828	4,726	5,153
Tayside	900	973	1,038	988	1,086	1,190	1,199
Total	12,455	11,952	10,886	10,242	10,845	11,297	12,032
Breach of the peace
Central	946	827	626	664	750	798	809
Dumfries and Galloway	451	411	438	340	347	301	372
Fife	851	768	610	564	582	626	585
Grampian	1,427	1,433	1,091	950	974	952	1,075
Lothian and Borders	2,365	2,344	1,820	1,656	1,712	1,886	1,653
Northern	1,124	1,078	843	793	835	831	920
Strathclyde	10,772	9,759	7,548	6,911	7,097	7,252	7,704
Tayside	1,480	1,489	1,422	1,348	1,478	1,478	1,615
Total	19,416	18,109	14,398	13,226	13,775	14,124	14,733
Drunkenness
Central	22	12	6	7	2	4	4
Dumfries and Galloway	21	-	3	-	-	-	1
Fife	18	8	7	2	5	3	10
Grampian	39	38	22	22	13	8	17
Lothian and Borders	51	41	20	18	26	28	22
Northern	246	224	159	138	104	140	135
Strathclyde	514	383	246	227	191	184	203
Tayside	17	19	15	20	30	17	19
Total	928	725	478	434	371	384	411
Breach of social work orders
Central	138	184	175	194	316	345	351
Dumfries and Galloway	105	111	126	161	180	152	267
Fife	509	500	480	386	467	499	530
Grampian	329	355	411	518	408	416	124
Lothian and Borders	437	511	552	615	636	724	895
Northern	149	187	154	147	82	211	256
Strathclyde	1,501	1,748	2,033	2,110	1,675	1,931	865
Tayside	386	584	633	560	677	696	697
Total	3,554	4,180	4,564	4,691	4,446²	4,974	3,985
Other offences
Central	301	226	136	290	316	288	454
Dumfries and Galloway	181	158	115	62	66	71	64
Fife	242	153	104	198	180	145	234
Grampian	829	553	325	444	378	335	428
Lothian and Borders	1,097	736	345	397	340	446	672
Northern	754	420	222	235	280	302	302
Strathclyde	5,015	4,039	2,557	2,684	2,977	3,062	4,516
Tayside	730	331	372	538	430	573	560
Total	9,149	6,616	4,176	4,849²	4,967	5,222	7,230

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Includes a small number of cases where force is unknown.

3. Includes estimated data.

Question reference: S2W-15724

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 April 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 April 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) recorded offences and (b) convictions there have been under section 51 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 for physical punishment of children, in each year since 2003.

Section 51 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 does not create any offences but lists the factors that may be considered where a person claims that something done to a child was a physical punishment carried out in exercise of a parental right or of a right derived from having charge or care of the child. In consequence there can be no recorded crime or convictions resulting from this section of the act.

Question reference: S2W-15723

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 April 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 April 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) recorded offences and (b) convictions there have been under section 12 of the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937 for cruelty to persons under 16, in each year since 1997.

The available information on crimes recorded by the police of cruelty and unnatural treatment of persons under 16 is given in the following table. The recorded crime statistics collected centrally do not distinguish legislation at the level of detail requested. In consequence the figures given in the table include all crimes of cruelty and unnatural treatment of persons under 16, including crimes recorded under legislation other than that specified in the question or under Common Law.

Number of Crimes Recorded by the Police of Cruel and Unnatural Treatment of Persons Under 16, Scotland, 1997-2003

Year	Number of Crimes Recorded by the Police
1997	1,264
1998	1,263
1999	1,351
2000	1,124
2001	1,301
2002	1,407
2003	1,488

The available information on convictions for cruel and unnatural treatment of persons under 16 is given in the following table.

Number of Persons with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts for Cruel and Unnatural Treatment of Persons Under 16¹, Scotland, 1997-2003

Year	Number
1997	144
1998	154
1999	142
2000	138
2001	132
2002	156
2003²	194

Notes:

1. Where main offence. All cases involved an offence under section 12 of the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937 apart from two cases in 1997 and one in 2000 where the main offence involved was the common law offence of cruel and unnatural treatment.

2. Includes estimated data.

The statistics dealing with recorded crime and court proceedings are not directly comparable as a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime involving more than one victim and there is the possibility that the crime recorded by the police may be altered in the course if judicial proceedings. Also a crime may be recorded by the police in one year and court proceedings concluded in a subsequent year.

Question reference: S2W-15722

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 April 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 April 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) recorded offences and (b) convictions there have been under section 161 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 for possession of indecent photographs of children, in each year since 1991.

The available information on offences recorded by the police is given in the following table. The recorded crime statistics collected centrally do not distinguish legislation at the level of detail requested. In consequence the figures given in the table include all offences of handling obscene material, including offences relating to indecent photographs of adults or offences involving obscene material other than photographs.

Offences Recorded by Police of Handling Obscene Material, Scotland, 1991–2003

Year	Number of Offences Recorded
1991	391
1992	515
1993	514
1994	248
1995	240
1996	187
1997	108
1998	110
1999	89
2000	157
2001	169
2002	198
2003	402

The available information on convictions for handling obscene material is given in the following table.

Persons with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts for Handling Obscene Material¹, 1991-2003

Year	Total	Of which Involving an Offence Under Section 52A of Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982³
1991	10	-
1992	8	2
1993	6	-
1994	8	-
1995	8	-
1996	14	1
1997	8	-
1998	17	1
1999	13	1
2000	22	3
2001	21	3
2002	29	8
2003²	70	11

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Includes estimated data.

3. Offence introduced by section 161 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.

The statistics dealing with recorded crime and court proceedings are not directly comparable as a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime involving more than one victim and there is the possibility that the crime recorded by the police may be altered in the course if judicial proceedings. Also a crime may be recorded by the police in one year and court proceedings concluded in a subsequent year.

Question reference: S2W-15812

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 April 2005
Current Status: Answered by Elish Angiolini on 20 April 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-7842 by Elish Angiolini QC on 25 February 2005, whether it will publish an updated version of the answer reconciling the totals with the data in the table.

The original answer to question S2W-7842 has been corrected to remove the error in the final column. A copy of the corrected table is as follows:

Financial Year 2002-03

Police Force	Number of Cases	No Proceedings on Account of Delay by Reporting Agency	Proceeded to Trial: Evidence led from Witnesses	Reports Resulting in a Conviction	Pending Cases
Central Scotland Police	14,879	264	407	6,547	647
Dumfries and Galloway Police	7,640	60	189	3,718	319
Fife Constabulary	14,776	221	386	6,135	1,173
Grampian Police	18,019	213	552	10,365	1,316
Lothian and Borders Police	34,934	1,482	1,484	15,485	1,664
Northern Constabulary	13,437	142	464	6,534	556
Strathclyde Police	148,175	12,921	5,674	46,661	13,071
Tayside Police	23,115	97	970	11,908	1,527
British Transport Police	1,692	9	40	466	134
Other	64	2	8	10	8
Total	276,731	15,411	10,174	107,829	20,415

Notes:

1. Delay by reporting agency figures now also include those marked no-pro time-bar as being time-barred upon receipt.

2. “Reports Resulting in a Conviction” includes cases where accused pleaded guilty before trial.

3. ”Pending Cases” includes cases which do not have a status of “closed” in our case management system as at 1 June 2004. It includes cases where criminal proceedings have started but not yet concluded, cases where there is an outstanding warrant and cases which have resulted in conviction but the sentence has been deferred or proceedings have been re-activated because of a breach of community order or a current appeal. It is therefore possible that a case will also be recorded in another column in this table.

Question reference: S2W-15852

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 April 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 April 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many persons had a charge proved for the crimes of dishonesty (a) housebreaking, (b) theft by opening a lockfast place, (c) theft of a motor vehicle, (d) shoplifting, (e) other theft, (f) fraud and (g) other offences in each year since 1997, broken down by police force area.

The available information is given in the following tables.

Persons with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts for Selected Offences¹, by Police Force Area, 1997- 2003

Offence/Police Force Area	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003²
Housebreaking
Central	159	102	139	109	160	154	150
Dumfries and Galloway	99	118	105	109	104	97	86
Fife	347	297	330	292	334	268	275
Grampian	497	469	470	429	415	351	363
Lothian and Borders	486	369	331	388	347	416	353
Northern	125	106	104	71	102	76	103
Strathclyde	1,288	1,293	1,358	1,096	1,075	1,122	1,004
Tayside	274	223	184	192	174	251	198
Total	3,275	2,977	3,021	2,686	2,711	2,735	2,532
Theft by Opening a Lockfast Place
Central	113	91	81	55	66	73	73
Dumfries and Galloway	26	23	18	28	25	17	39
Fife	192	159	158	147	135	134	120
Grampian	182	192	141	171	137	134	122
Lothian and Borders	320	269	228	175	242	202	171
Northern	42	39	33	40	28	37	30
Strathclyde	1,075	928	892	768	765	757	633
Tayside	142	101	107	113	103	118	101
Total	2,092	1,802	1,658	1,497	1,501	1,472	1,289
Theft of a Motor Vehicle
Central	89	85	67	77	60	72	55
Dumfries and Galloway	34	28	24	24	31	54	64
Fife	119	126	112	114	148	106	100
Grampian	169	178	168	172	137	113	124
Lothian and Borders	349	290	223	218	217	261	222
Northern	46	40	48	56	65	57	78
Strathclyde	1,135	948	858	692	594	635	568
Tayside	205	158	142	96	124	128	84
Total	2,146	1,853	1,642	1,449	1,376	1,426	1,295
Shoplifting
Central	270	257	391	477	641	595	481
Dumfries and Galloway	93	109	135	195	176	212	234
Fife	306	384	451	480	518	446	424
Grampian	947	1,133	803	814	894	969	852
Lothian and Borders	1,286	1,258	1,166	1,194	1,172	1,335	1,173
Northern	217	213	216	163	208	254	239
Strathclyde	3,185	3,586	3,777	3,412	3,728	4,311	3,802
Tayside	890	671	710	684	786	809	788
Total	7,194	7,611	7,649	7,419	8,123	8,931	7,993
Other Theft
Central	385	292	281	245	260	271	212
Dumfries and Galloway	224	243	201	184	180	199	140
Fife	348	311	335	270	273	253	242
Grampian	558	552	457	468	441	363	397
Lothian and Borders	847	828	638	637	636	629	525
Northern	284	209	176	172	169	175	194
Strathclyde	2,899	2,927	2,819	2,198	2,019	1,681	1,435
Tayside	415	339	353	319	306	305	342
Total	5,960	5,701	5,260	4,493	4,284	3,876	3,487
Fraud
Central	77	75	81	66	76	88	106
Dumfries and Galloway	85	65	78	48	46	52	53
Fife	152	106	90	108	110	80	80
Grampian	213	234	151	171	156	134	132
Lothian and Borders	395	435	292	270	288	378	335
Northern	76	92	103	69	60	71	71
Strathclyde	870	829	726	581	619	528	525
Tayside	142	138	114	145	135	120	120
Total	2,010	1,974	1,635	1,458	1,490	1,451	1,422
Other Dishonesty Offences
Central	103	137	100	82	120	117	91
Dumfries and Galloway	82	62	61	34	46	53	51
Fife	141	109	106	87	129	100	98
Grampian	351	353	307	189	196	230	195
Lothian and Borders	412	348	328	310	327	344	258
Northern	95	85	74	51	64	70	80
Strathclyde	1,508	1,474	1,242	925	872	814	730
Tayside	297	242	210	186	207	185	252
Total	2,989	2,810	2,428	1,864	1,961	1,913	1,755

Notes:

1. Were main offence.

2. Includes estimated data.

Question reference: S2W-15851

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 April 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 April 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many persons had a charge proved for the non-sexual crimes of violence (a) homicide, (b) serious assault and attempted murder, (c) robbery and (d) other offences in each year since 1997, broken down by police force area.

The available information is given in the following tables.

Persons with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts for Selected Offences¹, by Police Force Area, 1997- 2003

Offence/Police Force Area	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003³
Homicide
Central	7	6	6	1	3	5	2
Dumfries and Galloway	2	1	-	-	4	6	1
Fife	9	3	1	1	7	5	2
Grampian	8	2	14	5	11	8	9
Lothian and Borders	12	18	11	10	8	17	10
Northern	5	4	7	6	5	2	6
Strathclyde	62	50	64	64	58	42	47
Tayside	3	4	4	8	5	9	6
Total	108	88	107	95	101	94	83
Serious Assault and Attempted Murder
Central	38	56	64	59	56	85	84
Dumfries and Galloway	33	29	27	25	27	41	34
Fife	55	58	57	51	71	99	60
Grampian	70	75	91	68	71	74	93
Lothian and Borders	184	144	142	169	173	227	228
Northern	22	39	36	57	43	45	67
Strathclyde	552	516	589	526	585	604	744
Tayside	83	85	80	94	95	123	100
Total	1,037	1,002	1,086	1,050²	1,121	1,298	1,410
Robbery
Central	22	17	20	20	27	23	32
Dumfries and Galloway	15	6	12	17	22	19	14
Fife	42	32	42	36	41	38	49
Grampian	34	55	40	33	50	51	70
Lothian and Borders	125	84	96	83	79	102	70
Northern	5	9	9	2	6	6	5
Strathclyde	380	389	425	405	383	356	362
Tayside	41	35	38	29	22	30	29
Total	664	627	682	625	632²	625	631
Other Crimes of Violence
Central	4	4	3	6	6	9	8
Dumfries and Galloway	4	9	2	4	4	1	1
Fife	9	13	12	6	8	10	9
Grampian	27	26	19	14	8	12	15
Lothian and Borders	34	29	25	30	19	32	49
Northern	16	6	12	8	10	8	6
Strathclyde	91	105	105	87	98	123	152
Tayside	33	31	27	33	28	25	23
Total	218	223	205	188	181	220	263

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Includes a small number of cases where force is unknown.

3. Includes estimated data.

Question reference: S2W-15825

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 April 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 April 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-13957 by Cathy Jamieson on 9 February 2005, whether it will publish an updated version of the answer reconciling the totals with the data in the tables.

The following tables have been updated to take account of the finalised data now available for 2003-04. Yearly totals for Scotland are not comparable due to data being unavailable for different courts in different years. The footnotes to the table provide additional information on the limitations of the data.

Number of District Court Fines Fully Remitted, 1999-2000 to 2003-04

District court	1999-2000¹	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Aberdeen City	146	33	94	52	157
Aberdeenshire	61	28	79	18	26
Angus	27	6	5	3	20
Argyll and Bute	162	60	54	38	50
Clackmannanshire	12	1	3	2	1
Dumfries and Galloway	28	-	11	9	N/A
Dundee City	38	25	30	52	25
East Ayrshire	116	13	68	-	N/A
East Dunbartonshire	16	6	5	-	2
East Lothian	-	5	2	4	5
East Renfrewshire	-	2	-	-	-
Edinburgh, City of	408	N/A	240	175	107
Eilean Siar	-	19	N/A	N/A	N/A
Falkirk	42	14	11	5	25
Fife	225	117	137	57	N/A
Glasgow City	385	141	43	79	17
Highland	180	125	19	27	74
Inverclyde	31	23	31	28	33
Midlothian	2	5	12	10	16
Moray	2	1	19	4	29
North Ayrshire	59	13	24	24	18
North Lanarkshire	425	250²	645³	656⁴	69 ⁵
Perth and Kinross	80	126	79	211⁶	40
Renfrewshire	255	143	49	61	131
Scottish Borders	41	5	5	1	2
South Ayrshire	2	6	44	30	129
South Lanarkshire	106	41	21	24	11
Stirling	32	40	N/A	N/A	N/A
West Dunbartonshire	436	55	22	78	22
West Lothian	36	154	154	37	69
Scotland	3,353	1,457	1,906	1,685	1,078

Notes:

"N/A" denotes data not available.

1. Includes partly remitted fines – a separate breakdown of fully and partly remitted fines was not collected for 1999-2000.

2. Coatbridge only.

3. Includes fully and partly remitted fines, registered fines and compensation orders.

4. Includes fully and partly remitted fines; excludes partly remitted fines for Coatbridge; includes remitted registered fines and compensation orders for Motherwell.

5. Motherwell only.

6. Includes partly remitted fines.

Number of District Court Fines Partly Remitted, 2000-01 to 2003-04¹

District Court	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Aberdeen City	26	17	21	113
Aberdeenshire	21	31	13	6
Angus	15	10	4	11
Argyll and Bute	25	22	17	21
Clackmannanshire	2	4	-	2
Dumfries and Galloway	12	6	3	N/A
Dundee City	69	-	70	31
East Ayrshire	8	37	-	N/A
East Dunbartonshire	5	2	2	-
East Lothian	1	1	-	-
East Renfrewshire	3	-	-	-
Edinburgh, City of	N/A	38	10	13
Eilean Siar	-	N/A	N/A	N/A
Falkirk	10	6	8	34
Fife	38	42	34	N/A
Glasgow City	40	39	50	23
Highland	103	18	3	39
Inverclyde	9	19	12	18
Midlothian	-	5	6	4
Moray	-	1	-	13
North Ayrshire	36	36	36	30
North Lanarkshire	10²	N/A³	N/A³	N/A
Perth and Kinross	57	N/A	N/A³	26
Renfrewshire	129	57	59	104
Scottish Borders	1	3	3	1
South Ayrshire	2	46	18	114
South Lanarkshire	36	7	12	6
Stirling	7	N/A	N/A	N/A
West Dunbartonshire	26	22	30	12
West Lothian	4	6	25	48
Scotland	695	475	436	669

Notes:

“N/A” denotes data not available.

1. The numbers of fines which were partly remitted in 1999-2000 are included with the number of fully remitted fines in the first table – a separate breakdown of fully and partly remitted fines was not collected for that year.

2. Coatbridge only.

3. See footnote to corresponding figure of fully remitted fines in the first table.

Question reference: S2W-15626

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 April 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners have been released under the electronic monitoring scheme since May 2002; what the categories of offences were for which such prisoners had been sentenced; how many such prisoners were electronically tagged in each category, and what the average length of sentence received was in each category.

The measures in the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 enabling the Parole Board to impose electronic monitoring as a condition of a release licence came into force on 1 January 2004. To date, one young offender who was sentenced to three years imprisonment for various dishonesty offences and contravention of the Road Traffic Act 1988 has been released with a licence that included a condition to comply with electronic monitoring.

Electronic monitoring is a valuable addition to the licence conditions available to the Parole Board and can help maintain an offender’s risk at an acceptable level. I have urged the Parole Board to consider making greater use of this as an additional safeguard.

Question reference: S2W-15984

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 April 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 April 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many sheriffs there are and, of these, how many have participated in training of any kind within the last (a) 12 months, (b) 24 months, and (c) five years and how many have never participated in training since their appointment.

The responsibility for trainingof the judiciary rests with the independent Judicial Studies Committee, chairedby Lord Wheatley. There are 140 sheriffs in post. Since 1997, all new appointeeshave been required to participate in an induction course of five days duration beforesitting alone. In the last five years, all sheriffs have attended at least one refreshercourse of three days duration. Most sheriffs regularly attend at least one othertraining event each year. In addition, sheriffs attend training events and lecturesrun by outside organisations such as the Scottish Association for the Study of Delinquency.

Chamber and committees