- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 February 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 28 February 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to preserve sites of environmental value in Glasgow.
Answer
The Glasgow City Plan sets out Glasgow City Council''s planning policies for development affecting open spaces and other sites of environmental value within the city. Planning decisions must be made in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise.
- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 February 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 25 February 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the 774 persons on supervised bail during 2005-06 who breached their conditions did so as a result of behaviour that led to criminal convictions.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally. The most recent statistics that relate to supervised bail cases are presented in the Statistical Bulletin
Criminal Justice Social Work Statistics, 2006-07. This bulletin includes information on the number of supervised bail cases (table 12.1) but does not hold information on breaches of bail cases or reasons for breaches of bail cases. The bulletin can be accessed from the Scottish Government website via the link:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/209079/0055387.pdf.
- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 February 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 25 February 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the 774 persons on supervised bail during 2005-06 breached their conditions.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally. The most recent statistics that relate to supervised bail cases are presented in the Statistical Bulletin
Criminal Justice Social Work Statistics, 2006-07. This bulletin includes information on the number of supervised bail cases (table 12.1) but does not hold information on breaches of bail cases. The bulletin can be accessed from the Scottish Government website via the link:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/209079/0055387.pdf.
- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 January 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 February 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many accused persons (a) were made subject to bail supervision and (b) offended while on bail over the last three years.
Answer
Statistics on thenumber of individuals made subject to bail supervision are given in table 12.1 of the Criminal Justice Social Work Statistics 2006-07 bulletin, available at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/01/11134527/0.The available statisticson the number of offences with a charge proved in Scottish courts with a bail aggravatorrecorded (indicating that the offence was committed while the offender was on bail)are given in table 18 of the Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts 2005-06 statisticalbulletin, available at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/03/21083652/0.However, these statisticscannot identify whether the bail aggravator was specifically related to a bail supervisionorder.
- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 25 January 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 February 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will carry out an interim study of the security at HM Prison Castle Huntly and the selection process for prisoners who go there, pending receipt of the fuller report of the Scottish Prison Service’s internal review.
Answer
I have asked MikeEwart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond.
His response is asfollows:
The review commissionedby the Cabinet Secretary will be completed and published by the end of February.
- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 January 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 24 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners are serving sentences of 12 months or less in the open estate and how many were serving similar sentences five years ago.
Answer
I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:
As of 17 January 2008 thereare no prisoners in the Open Estate serving 12 months or less.
As of 17 January 2005 therewas one prisoner in Castle Huntly and one prisoner in Noranside serving sentencesof 12 months or under.
- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 January 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 24 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners are serving sentences of 12 months or less in (a) HM Prison Castle Huntly and (b) HM Prison Noranside and what the figures were five years ago.
Answer
I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:
As of 17 January 2008 thereare no prisoners in either (a) Castle Huntly or (b) Noranside serving 12 monthsor less.
As of 17 January 2005 therewas 1 prisoner in Castle Huntly and one prisoner in Noranside serving sentencesof 12 months or under.
- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 January 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) indictments were dealt with and (b) appeals were lodged against (i) conviction, (ii) sentence and (iii) conviction and sentence in sheriff and jury courts over the last three years for which figures are available.
Answer
(a) Figures are not held centrally on total indictments dealt with in the sheriff courts to include alldisposals and outcomes. Over the last three years 5,512 new indictments wereregistered in the sheriff court in 2004-05, 5,798 in 2005-06 and 6,304 in2006-07.
Figures published on theCrown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service website indicate that sheriff andjury disposals by way of plea of guilty and by trial totalled 3,611 for theyear 2004-05, 3,905 for 2005-06 and 4,224 for 2006-07.
This information may befound at:
www.crownoffice.gov.uk/About/corporate-info/Caseproclast5.(b) The number of appealslodged in solemn criminal proceedings are as follows:
| | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 |
| Conviction | 103 | 81 | 74 |
| Sentence | 754 | 704 | 703 |
| Conviction and sentence | 89 | 73 | 83 |
These figures include bothHigh Court and sheriff and jury cases and the available data does not enablesheriff court appeals to be disaggregated.
- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 January 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many appeals are outstanding where the appellant is in custody and, of these, how many have been outstanding (a) for up to three months, (b) from three to six months, (c) from seven to 12 months, (d) at least 12 months and (e) over 24 months.
Answer
The number of appealsoutstanding where the appeal records show the appellant to be in custody is348.
Of those the followingperiods apply:
| Period | Appeals Outstanding |
| Up to 3 months | 189 |
| 3 to 6 months | 38 |
| 7 to 12 months | 29 |
| At least 12 months | 94 |
| Over 24 months | 47 |
For the purposes ofcalculating the period over which the appeal has been outstanding, the appealhas been considered to commence at the point at which appeal issues have beenformalised at the appeal sift stage (i.e. when a judicial decision is madeabout whether to grant leave to appeal). In solemn criminal appeals againstconviction, a significant further period follows sift during which parties tothe appeal may have various procedural matters to attend to and during whichthe court is not in a position to progress the appeal.
The above figures arecurrent as at 11 January 2008 and do not include bail appeals which are dealt withexpeditiously. It should be noted that appellants may be remanded in custody orliberated at various stages of the appeal process and their status may changeaccordingly.
It should also be noted thatthe column total is greater than the number of outstanding appeals due todouble counting – for example, “at least 12 months” will include all appeals“over 24 months.
- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 January 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many appeals are outstanding where the appellant is at liberty and, of these, how many have been outstanding (a) for up to three months, (b) from three to six months, (c) from seven to 12 months, (d) at least 12 months and (e) over 24 months.
Answer
The number of appealsoutstanding where the appeal records show the appellant to be at liberty is400. It is possible that of this number some appellants may have subsequentlybeen subject to other court proceedings and remanded or committed to custody inthose proceedings.
Of those the followingperiods apply:
| Period | Appeals Outstanding |
| Up to 3 months | 164 |
| 3 to 6 months | 72 |
| 7 to 12 months | 72 |
| At least 12 months | 101 |
| Over 24 months | 24 |
For the purposes ofcalculating the period over which the appeal has been outstanding, the appealhas been considered to commence at the point at which appeal issues have beenformalised at the appeal sift stage (i.e. when a judicial decision is madeabout whether to grant leave to appeal). In solemn criminal appeals againstconviction, a significant further period follows sift during which parties tothe appeal may have various procedural matters to attend to and during whichthe court is not in a position to progress the appeal.
The above figures arecurrent as at 11 January 2008 and do not include bail appeals which are dealt withexpeditiously. It should be noted that appellants may be remanded in custody orliberated at various stages of the appeal process and their status may changeaccordingly.
It should also be noted thatthe column total is greater than the number of outstanding appeals due todouble counting – for example, “at least 12 months” will include all appeals“over 24 months”.
