- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 June 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 17 July 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to put arrangements in place for the provision of mandatory psychological reports, as required under section 21 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003.
Answer
I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-1668 on 17 July 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 June 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 17 July 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what target date has been set for the implementation of the introduction of mandatory psychological reports, as required under section 21 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003.
Answer
No target date hasyet been set.I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-1668 on 17 July 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 June 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 17 July 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made towards the introduction of mandatory pre-sentencing psychological reports in Scottish courts, as required under section 21 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003.
Answer
A scoping exercisehas been undertaken, facilitated by Scottish Court Service, to examine current demandupon services for the provision of psychological reports for the courts and likelyimpact of additional demand which would be occasioned by commencement ofsection 21 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 for solemn criminal proceedings.The resultant report highlights various options for securing sufficient resourceto meet the additional demand and for uniform procurement procedures. These optionsare currently under consideration.
- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 June 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 16 July 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many women currently in custody are serving (a) life imprisonment, (b) a sentence in excess of five years, (c) a sentence of from two to five years, (d) a sentence of between one and two years, (e) a sentence of six to 12 months, (f) a sentence of three to six months and (g) a sentence of under three months and how many are on remand.
Answer
I have asked MikeEwart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response isas follows:
The provisional femaleprison population by sentence length for 31 December 2006, the most recent day for which data can be released,is given in the following table.
| Sentence | Female Population |
| Remand | 96 |
| Less than 3 months | 12 |
| 3 to less than 6 months | 19 |
| 6 months to less than 1 year | 26 |
| 1 to less than 2 years | 43 |
| 2 to less than 5 years | 75 |
| 5 years and over (excluding Life) | 26 |
| Life | 18 |
| Recalls and Lifer Recalls | 5 |
| Total | 320 |
- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 June 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 16 July 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many women currently serving custodial sentences were convicted of (a) murder, (b) culpable homicide, (c) attempted murder, (d) assault to severe injury, (e) illegal possession with intent to supply drugs, (f) wilful fire raising, (g) causing death by reckless driving and (h) theft, including theft by shoplifting.
Answer
I have asked MikeEwart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response isas follows:
The provisional femalesentenced prison population by main offence for 31 December 2006, the most recent day for which data can bereleased, is given in the following table.
| Main Offence | Female Population |
| Murder | 18 |
| Culpable Homicide | 10 |
| Attempted Murder | 5 |
| Serious Assault | 23 |
| Supply and Illegal Possession with Intent to Supply Drugs | 71 |
| Fire Raising | 1 |
| Causing Death by Dangerous Driving | 4 |
| Death by Careless Driving Under the Influence of Drink or Drugs | 0 |
| Theft | 28 |
| All other crimes and offences | 64 |
| Total | 224 |
- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 June 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Elish Angiolini on 2 July 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive in how many custody cases dealt with by Glasgow Sheriff Court in the last year the Crown sought extensions beyond 140 days.
Answer
The requirement imposedby Section 65 (4) (aa) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 that a trialmust commence within 140 days of full committal applies only to the High Court.
For cases dealt withunder solemn procedure in the sheriff court there is a requirement undersection 65 (4) (b) of the 1995 act that a trial must commence within 110 days offull committal.
The Crown Office andProcurator Fiscal Service’s Case Management Database does not include searchableinformation about cases in which the Crown has sought an extension to these timelimits.
- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 June 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Elish Angiolini on 28 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive in how many cases dealt with by Glasgow Sheriff Court in the last year the time lapse between the petition appearance and an indictment being served was (a) five months or less, (b) six months, (c) seven months, (d) eight months and (e) nine months or more.
Answer
The cumulativenumber of indictments served on accused for each period in Glasgow SheriffCourt cases in 2006-07 is shown in the following table.
IndictmentsIssued In 2006-07 For Glasgow
| Within 5 months of Appearance on Petition | 603 | 39% |
| Within 6 months of Appearance on Petition | 649 | 42% |
| Within 7 months of Appearance on Petition | 721 | 47% |
| Within 8 months of Appearance on Petition | 855 | 55% |
| Within 9 months of Appearance on Petition | 1,336 | 86% |
| Over 9 months from Appearance on Petition | 214 | 14% |
| Total Indicted | 1,550 | 100% |
Notes:
1. Theinformation in this table has been extracted from the Crown Office andProcurator Fiscal Service’s Case Management Database. The database is a live,operational database used to manage the processing of reports submitted to procuratorsfiscal by the police and other reporting agencies.
2. The databaseis accused-based. The figures quoted therefore relate to the number of accusedindicted rather than the number of cases as there will often be different firstpetition appearance dates for cases with multiple accused.
3. The tableexcludes any accused indicted without first having appeared on petition.
- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 June 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Elish Angiolini on 25 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many indictment cases were dealt with by Glasgow Sheriff Court in 2006.
Answer
Nine hundred andthirteen indictment caseswere dealt with by Glasgow Sheriff Court in 2006-07.
- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 12 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage length of the sentence imposed was served on average by prisoners released early under the Management of Offenders etc. (Scotland) Act 2005.
Answer
I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:
The Scottish Prison Service doesnot record the proportion of each sentence served in custody.
- Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 12 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners were released early under the Management of Offenders etc. (Scotland) Act 2005 from the granting of Royal Assent until 31 March 2007.
Answer
I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:
A total of 1,274 prisoners werereleased under the Home Detention Curfew scheme between 3 July 2006 and 31 March 2007.
