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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 308 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S3W-11409

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many test purchases of alcohol have (a) been made on a second occasion in premises which had already failed a test purchase of alcohol and (b) resulted in failure in (i) on-sales and (ii) off-sales premises as defined by the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976, broken down by police force area.

Information obtained from the Scottish Police Service, indicates that:

(a) there have been 91 second or subsequent test purchases made on premises which had already failed a test purchase of alcohol, and

(b)(i) none of the second failures have occurred within on-sales premises.

(b)(ii) all five second failures occurred within off-sales premises. One in Dumfries and Galloway, three in Lothian and Borders and one in Strathclyde. The following table provides a breakdown per force.

	On Sales		Off-Sales
	No 2nd Tests	Failed 2nd Test	No 2nd Tests	Failed 2nd Test
Central Scotland	0	0	3	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	15	1
Fife	2	0	6	0
Grampian	0	0	2	0
Lothian and Borders	0	0	17	3
Northern	0	0	0	0
Strathclyde	2	0	43	1
Tayside	0	0	1	0
Scotland	4	0	87	5

Question reference: S3W-11408

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many test purchases of alcohol have (a) been made and (b) resulted in failure in (i) on-sales and (ii) off-sales premises as defined by the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976, broken down by police force area.

Information obtained from the Scottish Police Service, indicates that :

(a) Six hundred and forty-four tests have been undertaken since test purchase went live across Scotland. 632 off-sales and 12 on-sales.

(b)(i) There were four failures in respect of on-sales (33%). Two of the on-sales failures were in Fife and two in Strathclyde.

(b) (ii) There were 87 failures in respect of off-sales (14%).

The following table provides a breakdown per force.

	On Sales		Off-Sales
	Tested	Failed	Tested	Failed
Central Scotland	0	0	46	3
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	69	15
Fife	7	2	65	6
Grampian	0	0	11	2
Lothian and Borders	0	0	51	17
Northern	0	0	0	0
Strathclyde	5	2	356	43
Tayside	0	0	34	1
Scotland	12	4	632	87

Question reference: S3W-11407

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown of the funding it has made, and will make, available to police forces, local authorities and the Crown Office to support the national roll-out of the test purchasing of alcohol.

Question reference: S3W-11406

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it made available to support the implementation of the test purchasing of alcohol pilot scheme; how much the pilot exercise as a whole cost to deliver, and whether it will provide a breakdown of these costs.

The total cost of delivering the Fife Test Purchasing Pilot was £121,000, a breakdown of which is provided in the following table. The Scottish Government covered the costs of the pilot co-ordinator.

Costs of Test Purchase Pilot

	£
Co-ordinator (Chief Inspector Grade)	65,000
Police officer time	38,500
Management time	7,000
Expenses for test purchasers	5,000
Media marketing	5,500

Question reference: S3W-11419

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 15 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what procedures are followed in the Scottish Prison Service following allegations made by a prisoner against a prison officer.

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

A prisoner has the right to make a complaint at any time to a residential officer under the Prisons and Young Offenders Institutions (Scotland) Rules 2006, Rule 123 (3). Under this rule, a complaint must be made in writing and the residential officer must give a written reply within 24 hours. If the prisoner is dissatisfied with the reply given he may refer the complaint in writing to the Residential Unit Manager. Again the Residential Unit Manager must give a written reply within 24 hours.

Experience indicates some prisoners are comfortable in raising allegations against prison officers in this way. Others opt for direct access to the Governor. This is provided in the Prisons and Young Offenders Institutions (Scotland) Rules Rule 127 (Complaint to the Governor in relation to confidential matters). Under this rule the Governor is required to consider the complaint and inform the prisoner of his/her decision within seven days of the date on which the complaint was made, except where it is not reasonably practicable to do so.

In the event that a complaint is of a serious nature and warrants a criminal investigation, it will be referred to the police.

Question reference: S3W-11420

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 15 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how long inquiries take to reach a finding following allegations made by a prisoner against a prison officer.

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

In the event that an allegation is of such a serious nature that it requires investigation under the Scottish Prison Service Code of Conduct procedures there are laid down timescales for concluding the process. These timescales however may be subject to delay if for example the officer is absent on long-term sick leave or the allegation warranted a criminal investigation by the police, resulting in subsequent court appearances.

The SPS Code of Conduct procedures may run in tandem with any criminal proceedings and where appropriate SPS Management may await the outcome of any criminal proceedings before making a decision.

Timescales for fact-finding exercises or investigations may be amended at any stage by management. Normally this is done by mutual agreement.

A copy of the SPS Code of Conduct is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 45231).

Question reference: S3W-11047

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what emergency plans or provisions it has put in place to cover the relocation of prison populations in the event of any prison or part of such a prison being rendered uninhabitable by reason of fire, water damage or other cause.

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

SPS contingency plans depend on making intensive use of existing accommodation and bringing into use redundant accommodation where available. With the continued growth in the prison population additional measures may be necessary and these are currently under consideration by the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S3W-11046

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what emergency plans or provisions it has inherited from the previous administration to cover the relocation of prison populations in the event of any prison or part of such a prison being rendered uninhabitable by reason of fire, water damage or other cause.

Question reference: S3W-10381

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 February 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 6 March 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidences there have been, since the passing of the appropriate legislation, in which counsel have been appointed to act in cases of sexual assault where the accused sought to defend themselves.

This information is not held centrally.

Under section 22(1)(dd) of the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986 a court can automatically appoint a solicitor to a person accused of a sexual offence as defined under section 288B of the Criminal Procedure(Scotland) Act 1995. Since April 2004 to date, we are aware of only 16 such grants. Some of these appointed solicitors may have subsequently applied for sanction to appoint counsel.

Question reference: S3W-09601

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 February 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 3 March 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-8923 by Kenny MacAskill on 4 February 2008, what the terms of reference are for the review of HM Prison Castle Huntly commissioned by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice.

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

The terms of reference are:

To consider the individual circumstances and the decision to transfer Robert Foye to the SPS Open Estate.

To review the operation of the SPS Open Estate, its role, the process of transferring prisoners there from closed prisons.

The Cabinet Secretary has also written to the Chair of the Prisons Commission, asking him to ensure that the need for the Open Estate be considered as part of his wider ranging work on the future of prisons in Scotland.