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-24068

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 17 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many social workers are employed by each local authority; what full-time equivalent shortages exist in each local authority; how many social workers are due to retire in the next five years; how many individuals are currently training to become social workers, and what action the Executive is taking to promote social work positively as a profession.

The number of social workersemployed by local authorities and the number of vacancies as at January 2006 isavailable at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/02/06165620/0.It is not possible to state how many social workers will retire over the next fiveyears as this is a matter for employers and individual employees. Latest figuresfor the age profile of social workers are available in table 14 of the followingpublication http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/06/22115335/53364.Latest figures indicate there are currently 2200 people studying for a social workqualification in Scotland. The Executive has been promoting social work as partof the Care in Scotland recruitment and profile raising campaign since 2002.It is also funding a Social Work Fast Track Graduate Scheme which will produce around380 new social workers between 2005 and 2008.

Question reference: S2W-24071

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 17 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many households are currently in fuel poverty and how many it estimates will be in fuel poverty in (a) 2007 and (b) 2008.

Question reference: S2W-23685

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 17 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the Health and Safety Executive on whetherovercrowding on FirstScotrail trains is a breach of health and safety regulations.

Question reference: S2W-23683

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 17 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what requirements there are in respect of passenger limits within the FirstScotrail franchise, and what the reasons are for the position on this matter, given that other forms of public transport have such limits and, if there are no such criteria, whether it plans to include them in the franchise.

There are no specific limitson passenger loads for trains. Carriages are designed to rigorous safety standardsand standing on a train is not seen as a significant safety risk in its own right.

Current and anticipated passengerloadings are not considered to be a significant safety issue, therefore the ScottishExecutive does not have any plans to impose additional requirements over and abovethe existing measures First ScotRail take to manage them.

Question reference: S2W-23684

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 17 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any audits of overcrowding are carried out on heavily used FirstScotrail routes, such as Edinburgh to Glasgow, the Fife circle and Dundee routes at peak commuter times and other peak times, such as Edinburgh Festival Saturday nights, Hogmanay and the days of Murrayfield fixtures.

Question reference: S2W-23805

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 15 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether deaths recorded as a result of drug overdose or misuse are legally registered as drug-related.

The General Register Office forScotland (GROS) classifies all deaths registered in Scotland usingthe Tenth Revision of the World Health Organisation’s International StatisticalClassification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD10). This classificationclearly identifies all deaths resulting from drug overdose or misuse.

Each year GROS publishes a shortpaper entitled Drug-Related Deaths in Scotland. This paper uses an agreedUKdefinition of drug-related deaths which includes all deaths coded to drug misusetogether with other deaths involving drugs listed under the Misuse of Drugs Act.The latest issue of this paper, which includes further information on the definitionused, may be found on the GROS website using the following link:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/library/drug-related-deaths/04drug-related-deaths.html.

Question reference: S2W-23806

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 15 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the definition of culpable homicide is within Scots Law.

Under the existing common law,an individual can be found guilty of the crime of culpable homicide in a varietyof circumstances and, consequently, there is no single, all-encompassing definitionof this crime. However, generally speaking, there are two forms of culpable homicide:involuntary culpable homicide and voluntary culpable homicide.

Involuntary culpable homicidecan occur where an unintended death occurs either as a result of a criminal act(such as an assault), or as a result of culpable negligence. Voluntary culpablehomicide applies to cases where death is caused by an intentional or wickedly recklessact but there are certain mitigating factors present which result in the offencebeing culpable homicide rather than murder.

Question reference: S2W-23854

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 15 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to change the recording of certain drugs-related deaths to culpable homicide.

Question reference: S2W-23804

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 15 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many deaths have been recorded as a result of drug overdose or misuse in each of the last five years.

The information requested isgiven in the following table.

Deaths Resulting from DrugOverdose or Misuse, Scotland

2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
495	551	566	493	546

The figures given in the tableinclude all deaths coded to drug misuse together with accidental deaths, suicides,assaults, and events of undetermined intent caused by drug overdose. Each year theGeneral Register Office for Scotland (GROS) publishes a short paper entitled Drug-RelatedDeaths in Scotland. This paper uses a narrower definition of drug-related deathswhich includes all deaths coded to drug misuse together with other deaths involvingdrugs listed under the Misuse of Drugs Act. The latest issue of this paper, whichincludes further information on the definition used, may be found on the GROS websiteusing the following link:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/library/drug-related-deaths/04drug-related-deaths.html.

Question reference: S2W-23807

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 15 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many drug-related deaths in the last five years have been recorded as culpable homicide.

The available information isgiven in the table.

Victims in Homicide Cases Currently¹Recorded as Culpable Homicide²:

Number Recorded as Being onDrugs, 2000-01 to 2004-05

Year	Number
2000-01	6
2001-02	11
2002-03	15
2003-04	19
2004-05	12

Notes:

1. As at November 2005.

2. Includes homicide cases recordedby the police where the victim was recorded as being on drugs, and drug-relatedcases which the police did not initially record as homicide, e.g. suspected drugsoverdose, but which the procurator fiscal subsequently determined a charge of culpablehomicide was appropriate.