Chamber and committees

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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

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Question reference: S2W-32280

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prosecutions for (a) vehicle theft, (b) theft, (c) sexual offences, (d) robbery, (e) racially aggravated offences, (f) breach of the peace, (g) domestic burglary, (h) non-domestic burglary, (i) motoring offences, (j) fraud and forgery, (k) drug offences, (l) causing death by dangerous driving, (m) causing injury by reckless driving, (n) criminal damage, (o) breach of bail, (p) arson and (q) violence against the person were brought against young people aged 18 and under that resulted in (i) acquittal and (ii) conviction in each year since 2001.

The available information isgiven in the following table. Causing injury by reckless driving is not an identifiableoffence in the available statistics.

Persons Aged 18 and UnderProceeded Against in Scottish Courts for Selected Offences¹, 2001-02to 2005-06

Main Offence	Charge not proved⁴	Charge proved	Total
Theft of a motor vehicle
2001-02	226	596	822
2002-03	115	569	684
2003-04	138	527	665
2004-05	109	403	512
2005-06	120	353	473
Other theft
2001-02	325	1,745	2,070
2002-03	187	1,577	1,764
2003-04	183	1,377	1,560
2004-05	184	1,299	1,483
2005-06	167	1,128	1,295
Crimes of indecency
2001-02	13	66	79
2002-03	5	41	46
2003-04	14	73	87
2004-05	20	69	89
2005-06	21	83	104
Robbery
2001-02	28	130	158
2002-03	22	159	181
2003-04	34	127	161
2004-05	22	142	164
2005-06	25	97	122
Racially Aggravated Conduct and Harassment²
2001-02	29	77	106
2002-03	16	96	112
2003-04	33	116	149
2004-05	41	132	173
2005-06	44	131	175
Breach of the Peace
2001-02	334	1,863	2,197
2002-03	238	1,804	2,042
2003-04	311	1,952	2,263
2004-05	349	1,992	2,341
2005-06	377	2,146	2,523
Housebreaking²
2001-02	128	507	635
2002-03	78	542	620
2003-04	99	443	542
2004-05	100	426	526
2005-06	73	377	450
Motor vehicle Offences
2001-02	214	2,472	2,686
2002-03	158	3,051	3,209
2003-04	162	2,982	3,144
2004-05	156	2,507	2,663
2005-06	143	2,439	2,582
Fraud and Forgery
2001-02	18	96	114
2002-03	12	85	97
2003-04	15	74	89
2004-05	15	63	78
2005-06	10	56	66
Drug Offences
2001-02	91	531	622
2002-03	40	556	596
2003-04	41	650	691
2004-05	60	665	725
2005-06	67	628	695
Causing Death by Dangerous Driving
2002-03	-	2	2
2003-04	-	1	1
2004-05	-	2	2
2005-06	-	1	1
Vandalism, Reckless Damage and Malicious Mischief
2001-02	165	961	1,126
2002-03	92	994	1,086
2003-04	129	1,146	1,275
2004-05	148	1,227	1,375
2005-06	164	1,257	1,421
Bail offences
2001-02	102	478	580
2002-03	52	449	501
2003-04	71	536	607
2004-05	66	662	728
2005-06	65	646	711
Fire-Raising
2001-02	11	39	50
2002-03	9	35	44
2003-04	8	46	54
2004-05	19	72	91
2005-06	13	55	68
Violence Against Person³
2001-02	103	334	437
2002-03	77	431	508
2003-04	87	422	509
2004-05	81	437	518
2005-06	85	367	452

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Domestic and non-domestichousebreakings are not separately identified in the statistics available on prosecutions.

3. Includes JusticeDepartment crime non-sexual crimes of violence and common assault.

4. May be underestimates dueto recording delays.

Question reference: S2W-32278

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many offenders in young offender institutions are held more than 50 miles from their home.

I have asked Tony Cameron,Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is asfollows:

We currently publishinformation on the Community Justice Authority home area of prisoners incustody. The information last published for Young Offenders is given in the followingtable:

Community Justice Authority	Male	Female
Tayside	59	6
South West Scotland	99	6
Fife and Forth Valley	83	2
Glasgow	198	2
Northern	70	2
Lothian and Borders	98	7
Lanarkshire	95	4
Northern Strathclyde	119	2
Outwith Scotland	8	1
No Fixed Abode	5	0
Unidentifiable Address	12	2

We do not have the informationto determine the proximity of home addresses to young offender institutions.

Question reference: S2W-32336

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many crimes were committed in each hospital in each of the last five years for which figures are available, broken down by type of crime.

Question reference: S2W-32036

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of sex offenders in prisons attended the Sex Offender Treatment Programme in each of the last five years.

I have asked Tony Cameron,Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is asfollows:

Improvements made in the SPSPR2 prisoner records system provide accurate information on recorded sexoffenders over the last two years. Based on this information the population ofsex offenders in prisons who attended sex offenders treatment programmes are:

	2004-05	2005-06
Total number of Sex Offenders in prison	755	896
Total number of Sex Offenders that completed STOP programmes	60	76
Proportion (%) of Sex Offenders that completed STOP programme during the year	7.9%	8.5%

Numbers of prisonersentering programmes annually are limited by factors such as sentence length andwillingness to change on the part of individual offenders.

Sex offenders also need toundertake STOP programmes at the right stage in their sentence, therefore somemay have already completed a STOP programme in previous years either duringtheir current sentence or during previous sentences. Some offenders may alsohave undertaken Core STOP and been subsequently assessed as requiring to participatein further STOP programmes such as Extended STOP to address their offendingbehaviour. Some may also require access to other interventions such as mentalhealth support in advance of participation.

Question reference: S2W-32228

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have broken the terms of their bail conditions in each of the last five years, broken down by police force area.

The available information isgiven in the following table. The figures for bail offences exclude reoffendingon bail. To provide context, the tablealso gives figures on the total number of bail offences with a charge provedexpressed as a percentage of the number of bail orders granted in each year.Although this is not strictly a like with like comparison, for example, due todifferent counting bases and reference periods, it does show that thisproportion has remained largely static in recent years.

Bail Offences¹ witha Charge Proved in Scottish Courts, 2001-02 to 2005-06

Police Force	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Central	421	560	500	686	557
Dumfries and Galloway	101	71	106	111	101
Fife	196	171	222	209	192
Grampian	561	614	585	520	476
Lothian and Borders	735	563	507	629	764
Northern	124	181	169	222	241
Strathclyde	2,394	2,452	2,487	2,689	2,564
Tayside	913	922	1,264	1,029	872
Scotland	5,445	5,534	5,840	6,096	5,768
Number of bail orders granted across Scotland	39,959	47,270	50,718	53,438	56,913
Bail offences¹ with a charge proved expressed as a % of bail orders granted	14	12	12	11	10

Note: 1. Excludesreoffending while on bail.

Question reference: S2W-32177

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions each of the three verdicts available to Scottish courts has been used in the last 12 months for which information is available.

The available information isgiven in the following table. The figures for acquittals include an element ofestimation to take account of undercounting due to recording delays.

Persons Proceeded Against inScottish courts, 2005-06: Estimated Number by Type of Verdict¹

Verdict	Estimated number
Guilty	128,400
Acquitted – not guilty^2,3	14,400
Acquitted – not proven²	800

Notes:

1. Excludes persons againstwhom proceedings were started but which are dropped before they reach court.

2. May be an underestimatedue to recording delays.

3. Includes plea not guiltyaccepted or case deserted.

Question reference: S2W-32290

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 22 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on any plans for the implementation of the European Rail Traffic Management System on any part of Scotland’s railway network.

Question reference: S2W-32275

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 22 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients were admitted to NHS hospitals for (a) drug-related and (b) alcohol-related illnesses and injuries in each year from 2002 to 2006, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S2W-32274

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 22 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children under the age of 12 were classified as (a) obese and (b) overweight in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.

The specific information requested is not availablecentrally.

However, the Scottish HealthSurvey gives estimates of the prevalence of obesity and overweight in boysand girls at Scotland level by age group for the years 1998 and 2003. Data atNHS board level are not available from this source.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/11/25145024/50271.

(See Table 5.7 on page 125.)

In addition, all NHS boards in Scotlandprovide a Child Health Surveillance Programme where children are offeredroutine reviews at various stages of their life. The majority of boards recordthese reviews using the electronic child health systems, CHSP-Pre-School andCHSP-School. The latest available information from these systems on levels ofobesity and overweight derived from height and weight measurements collected atroutine health reviews is published for NHS boards participating in CHSP-Schooland CHSP-Pre-School at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/child_obesity.

(Click on obesity statistics to access a list of availabletables and charts).

Question reference: S2W-32289

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 22 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on when the GSM-R communication system will first come into use on any part of the Scottish railway network.