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-30565

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Solidarity Group
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 15 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the refinancing of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary PFI project has changed the contract length from financial close and, if so, what the change has been.

Question reference: S2W-30254

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Solidarity Group
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 18 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the job roles and responsibilities are of all positions within the Scottish Fingerprint Service.

Information about the currentroles and responsibilities of positions in the Scottish Fingerprint Service havebeen placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 41321).

The Scottish Fingerprint Servicewill become part of the Scottish Police Services Authority from 1 April 2007, aspart of the new Scottish Forensic Science Service, with staff transferring on theircurrent terms and conditions of employment.

Question reference: S2W-30253

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Solidarity Group
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 18 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the staffing establishment and structure are of each of the four bureaux of the Scottish Fingerprint Service and to whom each head of bureau reports.

The current staffing establishmentof the Scottish Fingerprint Service is:

	Glasgow	Aberdeen	Dundee	Edinburgh
Head of SFS	1
Head/Deputy of Bureau	1	1	1	1
Quality Assurance Officer	1	1	1	1
Principal Fingerprint Officer	5	1
Senior Fingerprint Officer	6.5		2	1
Training Manager	1
Training Officer	1
Training Coordinator	1
Fingerprint Officers/Trainees	25.5/2	6/3	5/2	5/2
Senior Tenprint Ident Officer	5
Tenprint Ident Officer	15
Fingerprint Clerk	16.5
Administrative Assistant	3	2	1	1
IDENT 1 Project	2
Total	86.5	14	12	11

Note: *Establishment as of November2006.

Diagrams of the current structureof the Scottish Fingerprint Service, including reporting lines, have been placedin the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 41321).

The Scottish Fingerprint Servicewill become part of the Scottish Police Services Authority from 1 April 2007, as partof the new Scottish Forensic Science Service, with staff transferring on their currentterms and conditions of employment.

Question reference: S2W-30252

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Solidarity Group
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 18 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive which organisations are the official employers of individuals working in the four bureaux of the Scottish Fingerprint Service.

Question reference: S2W-30257

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Solidarity Group
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 18 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many fingerprint cases have been prepared for court by each fingerprint bureau since 1999.

The number of fingerprint casesprepared for court by each fingerprint bureau of the Scottish Fingerprint Serviceis as follows:

	Glasgow	Aberdeen	Dundee	Edinburgh
1999	406	128	Not available	Not available
2000	343	122	110	Not available
2001	235	107	96	Not available
2002	275	143	113	Not available
2003	208	155	104	Not available
2004	161	102	86	Not available
2005	148	123	78	116
2006	178	78	65	94

Source: Scottish Criminal RecordOffice.

Question reference: S2W-30258

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Solidarity Group
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 18 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any fingerprint experts currently working in the Scottish Fingerprint Service have been removed from the list of authorised experts maintained by the Executive and, if so, how many have been removed and on what dates, who recommended such removals and when the experts received written confirmation of the removals.

Forensic scientists (includingfingerprint experts) may be authorised under section 280(5) of the Criminal Procedure(Scotland) Act 1995 for the purposes of section 280(4) of that act, i.e. the co-signingof reports in relation to routine evidence for criminal proceedings. The Executiverecords such authorisations; no fingerprint expert currently working in the ScottishFingerprint Service has been removed from those records.

Question reference: S2W-30256

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Solidarity Group
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 15 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the job roles and responsibilities will be of all positions in the fingerprint departments in the Scottish Police Services Authority from 1 April 2007.

Question reference: S2W-30255

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Solidarity Group
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 15 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the staffing establishment and structure will be of the fingerprint departments in the Scottish Police Services Authority from 1 April 2007.

Question reference: S2W-30259

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Solidarity Group
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Elish Angiolini on 15 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what investigations it has carried out into who leaked the MacKay report on the Scottish Criminal Record Office’s handling of the Shirley McKie case to Mike Pringle MSP.

Question reference: S2W-30293

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Solidarity Group
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 13 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many households were registered as homeless (a) in Scotland and (b) broken down by local authority area in each of the last six years.

The numbers of applications assessedas homeless under the homelessness legislation by local authorities are shown inthe following table.

Number of ApplicationsAssessed as Homeless by Local Authority: 2000-01 to 2005-06

	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Scotland	26,200	31,100	35,060	36,674	34,821	36,299
Aberdeen City	860	880	846	805	659	1,110
Aberdeenshire	640	620	667	629	723	736
Angus	270	310	445	536	529	531
Argyll and Bute	230	340	515	561	561	656
Clackmannanshire	350	390	376	408	512	598
Dumfries and Galloway	490	620	780	801	859	827
Dundee City	530	510	415	366	376	311
East Ayrshire	390	430	671	692	808	734
East Dunbartonshire	230	220	258	320	258	362
East Lothian	340	450	435	436	462	553
East Renfrewshire	120	150	122	195	246	260
Edinburgh, City of	3,470	3,550	3,815	4,283	4,192	4,287
Eilean Siar	50	60	124	130	173	155
Falkirk	940	930	1,021	992	808	879
Fife	1,530	1,800	2,325	2,824	2,621	2,729
Glasgow City	8,380	11,520	11,038	10,624	8,436	8,609
Highland	440	530	791	1,220	1,292	1,349
Inverclyde	190	220	364	550	430	509
Midlothian	250	310	405	422	483	467
Moray	210	270	546	383	413	346
North Ayrshire	650	820	1,382	1,295	1,109	1,076
North Lanarkshire	900	1,110	1,649	1,972	2,763	2,879
Orkney	60	70	50	65	88	87
Perth and Kinross	380	430	654	361	305	390
Renfrewshire	630	440	565	652	689	628
Scottish Borders,The	380	350	388	598	470	529
Shetland	90	110	109	105	69	43
South Ayrshire	570	590	551	554	552	546
South Lanarkshire	820	970	1,335	1,402	1,267	1,401
Stirling	460	420	505	455	535	517
West Dunbartonshire	530	660	835	860	1,133	1,230
West Lothian	910	1,010	1,078	1,178	1,000	965

Source: HL1returns by local authorities to the Scottish Executive Development Department AnalyticalServices Division (Housing Statistics).

Notes:

1. All applicationswithin period assessed as homeless (excluding potentially homeless).

2. Some householdsmay have applied several times during the period, and will be counted more thanonce.

3. Data priorto 2002 are estimated due to missing returns (rounded to the nearest 100 for Scotland level and the nearest 10 for local authoritylevel).

4. Due to thelive nature of the data collection system, figures are updated on a continuous basisand the information published here may differ from that published previously.