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: S2W-15078

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 16 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) personal and (b) company bankruptcies there were in each year since 1997, broken down by local authority area.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy maintains the Register of Insolvencies in Scotland. Details of bankruptcies are held by sheriffdoms rather than local authority areas and are compiled by financial year. The following tables give the number of bankruptcies for the financial years 1996-97 to 2002-03 and by quarters for the whole of 2003. Further information on bankruptcies is available in the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s Annual Report, which is available at www.aib.gov.uk

Sheriffdom	Sheriff Court	Financial Year (1st April to 31st March)
		1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Glasgow and Strathkelvin	Glasgow	305	309	281	275	324	306	340	322
Lothians and Borders	Duns	12	6	15	12	6	8	6	5
	Edinburgh	228	251	268	252	234	197	234	262
	Haddington	42	49	48	65	33	64	86	105
	Jedburgh	14	21	28	28	31	18	28	28
	Linlithgow	77	100	74	123	98	118	87	124
	Peebles	3	11	7	9	10	6	8	6
	Selkirk	14	23	12	12	14	20	14	17
		390	461	452	501	426	431	463	547
Grampian, Highland	Aberdeen	143	177	172	187	188	211	187	202
and Islands	Banff	8	6	25	15	12	16	19	19
	Dingwall	10	12	13	16	21	17	10	25
	Dornoch	9	5	6	9	4	11	11	5
	Elgin	48	35	51	49	47	46	42	60
	Fort William	1	12	18	12	21	18	31	13
	Inverness	36	26	37	72	41	46	59	38
	Kirkwall	8	5	4	9	10	6	8	10
	Lerwick	6	12	6	10	15	10	5	12
	Lochmaddy	4	2	2	1	0	1	2	2
	Peterhead	19	32	54	45	28	45	29	68
	Portree	4	6	9	7	5	2	12	4
	Stonehaven	24	18	29	23	25	24	34	29
	Stornoway	12	6	8	5	4	2	5	10
	Tain	7	7	10	7	7	12	11	6
	Wick	14	14	12	11	14	8	9	17
		353	375	456	478	442	475	474	520
North Strathclyde	Campbeltown	10	12	12	23	13	23	15	7
	Dumbarton	67	46	52	67	83	69	99	95
	Dunoon	15	12	18	24	18	13	26	13
	Greenock	27	29	44	43	34	35	49	49
	Kilmarnock	97	136	133	156	162	160	136	158
	Oban	9	10	18	28	23	25	42	22
	Paisley	97	139	168	181	171	212	127	120
	Rothesay	10	3	9	2	4	4	3	5
		332	387	454	524	508	541	497	469
South Strathclyde,	Airdrie	127	90	141	129	162	173	166	103
Dumfries and Galloway	Ayr	89	61	96	114	83	98	113	89
	Dumfries	45	45	51	48	44	55	43	51
	Hamilton	173	181	199	212	159	212	214	232
	Kirkcudbright	7	15	17	16	24	20	23	19
	Lanark	15	27	54	34	30	35	36	39
	Stranraer	21	13	12	16	15	12	12	15
		477	432	570	569	517	605	607	548
Tayside, Central and Fife	Alloa	35	36	50	34	24	31	40	35
	Arbroath	20	30	35	37	35	29	29	43
	Cupar	41	42	55	58	41	51	50	58
	Dundee	57	69	108	115	105	139	135	162
	Dunfermline	98	104	123	121	102	119	91	128
	Falkirk	113	113	153	129	110	126	108	125
	Forfar	20	19	36	20	31	27	30	31
	Kirkcaldy	138	148	152	166	151	149	171	164
	Perth	99	128	139	114	71	116	149	107
	Stirling	56	48	46	44	51	48	44	50
		677	737	897	838	721	835	847	903
Totals		2,534	2,701	3,110	3,185	2,938	3,193	3,228	3,309

Note:The above figures include awards made in the Court of Session and remitted tothe appropriate sheriff court.

Statistics on company bankruptciesare not available by local authority or sheriff court district. The total numbersfor the years for which records are available are:

	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Notified Company Insolvencies:
Liquidations	753	568	853	794
Receiverships	111	68	114	99
	864	636	967	893

Question reference: S2W-14931

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 16 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether contracts into which it enters have a requirement that any personal data recorded as part of the contract conform to the standards adopted as to name lengths and numbers of names in the Register of Births, Deaths and Marriages and whether it will indicate what other requirements it makes in this respect.

Question reference: S2W-14992

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Elish Angiolini on 16 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of assault victims reported their attacker to have been under the influence of alcohol in each year since 1997, broken down by type of assault.

The question of whether or not a person accused of assault was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the alleged offence can be a relevant evidential matter to be considered during a trial and is therefore generally included in a police report to the Procurator Fiscal as part of the description of the circumstances of the offence.

It is not, however, recorded as part of the case data which can be extracted from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal database and the information sought could not therefore be obtained without a manual search of all case papers, where these have been retained, which would involve disproportionate cost.

Question reference: S2W-14989

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 15 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the life expectancy is of (a) males and (b) females who (i) drink alcohol above recommended levels, (ii) drink alcohol at recommended levels, (iii) drink alcohol below recommended levels and (iv) abstain from alcohol.

Question reference: S2W-14990

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 14 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many females were convicted of drink-driving offences in each year since 1997, broken down by police force area.

The available information is given in the table.

Females with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts for Drink-Driving¹, 1997-2002

Police Force Area	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Central	32	34	39	46	31	85
Dumfries and Galloway	24	16	18	22	26	19
Fife	52	42	37	49	47	97
Grampian	102	93	73	104	112	117
Lothian and Borders	165	153	122	128	125	196
Northern	46	59	51	47	69	77
Strathclyde	305	245	208	217	242	389
Tayside	70	72	61	74	73	84
Total	796	714	609	687	725	1,064

Note: 1. Where main offence.

Question reference: S2W-14991

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 14 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many drink-driving convictions there were in (a) 1997 and (b) 1998, broken down by police force area.

The available information is given in the table.

Persons with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts for Drink Driving¹, 1997–98

Police Force Area	1997	1998
Central	424	383
Dumfries and Galloway	214	189
Fife	488	424
Grampian	948	895
Lothian and Borders	1,437	1,366
Northern	645	544
Strathclyde	3,710	2,869
Tayside	653	617
Total	8,519	7,287

Note: 1. Where main offence.

Question reference: S2W-14930

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 14 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the legal implications are of a name being recorded in the criminal justice system in a different form from the name registered in the Register of Births, Deaths and Marriages or from any name, or combination of names, commonly used by the individual concerned.

The Data Protection Act 1998 requires that information recorded on computer databases is accurate. The act acknowledges, however, that data subjects must take some responsibility for providing accurate data in the first instance. In police work, people who are apprehended sometimes do not give accurate information. It is the policy of Scottish police forces to use the name given by an individual as the basis for creating a new record on the Scottish Criminal Record Office Criminal History System if a record for the subject does not already exist. The police take steps to verify information and if the namegiven is found to be false, the subject’s real name will be also be retained onthe record. The name given in the first instance also stays on the record in casethe individual seeks to use the same false details again.

The police do not rely on name alone for the purposes of identifying a subject as there are numerous people born in the United Kingdom with identical names and dates of birth. As such, emphasis is put on recording identifying information such as fingerprints, DNA, photographs and other descriptive features.

Question reference: S2W-14547

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 14 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers have been deployed to the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency in each year since it was established.

All police officers with the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency are seconded from Scottish police forces. Numbers may fluctuate throughout the year as officers join or are released back to their force. The table provides details of the number of officers with the agency at 1 April in each year since the agency was established.

Year	Number of Officers
2001	107
2002	129
2003	175
2004	192
2005 (1 March)	200

Question reference: S2W-14549

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 14 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual attendance rate for pupils was in (a) primary, (b) secondary, (c) special and (d) all schools in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

Statistics on attendance rates in primary and secondary schools are published on the Executive’s website and are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre. Data up to 2002-03 is at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00304-00.asp (Bib. number 30245).Data for 2003-04 is at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00382-00.asp or (Bib. number 34761).

Rates for 2003-04 are not directly comparable with previous years due to changes in definitions.

Data for special schools was not collected fully prior to 2003-04. Information for all schools is therefore only available for 2003-04 and is shown in the following table.

Attendance Rates for All Schools, 2003-04

	Attendance Rate
Aberdeen City	93.85%
Aberdeenshire	95.30%
Angus	93.88%
Argyll and Bute	93.79%
Clackmannanshire	91.91%
Dumfries and Galloway	94.36%
Dundee City	91.60%
East Ayrshire	92.36%
East Dunbartonshire	93.95%
East Lothian	94.19%
East Renfrewshire	95.15%
Edinburgh, City of	93.18%
Eilean Siar	93.35%
Falkirk	92.79%
Fife	93.32%
Glasgow City	90.54%
Highland	93.18%
Inverclyde	92.86%
Midlothian	93.08%
Moray	94.28%
North Ayrshire	92.03%
North Lanarkshire	92.02%
Orkney Islands	95.15%
Perth and Kinross	93.71%
Renfrewshire	93.02%
Scottish Borders	94.76%
Shetland Islands	94.38%
South Ayrshire	92.87%
South Lanarkshire	92.70%
Stirling	93.14%
West Dunbartonshire	92.55%
West Lothian	93.39%

Question reference: S2W-14550

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 14 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it will spend on schools in respect of (a) backlog repairs and (b) future maintenance work in the next five years, broken down by local authority.