Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-27925

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 27 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is concerned that the data on consumption of alcohol contained in the report, Independent Review of the Effects of Alcohol Pricing and Promotion, by the University of Sheffield is five years out of date and does not take into account the improving trends on consumption contained in the 2008 Scottish Health Survey.

The report Model-Based Appraisal of Alcohol Minimum Pricing and Off-Licensed Trade Discount Bans in Scotland (Bib. number 49447) provides an estimate of the potential impact of minimum pricing and a discount ban using the best data available at the time the research was carried out. In the case of alcohol consumption figures, this was data from the Scottish Health Survey 2003 and the Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey 2006.

The Scottish Health Survey 2008 suggested a reduction in men''s average weekly unit consumption since 2003 but the decline for women was not significant. Levels of daily consumption were very similar in 2003 and 2008, while the percentage identified as potential problem drinkers increased since 2003. The report concluded that further years of data are required before firm conclusions can be reached on weekly and daily drinking trends.

Question reference: S3W-27926

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 27 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will request that the University of Sheffield recast its main assumptions in its report, Independent Review of the Effects of Alcohol Pricing and Promotion, based on the newly available data.

The Scottish Health Survey 2008 suggested a reduction in men''s average weekly unit consumption since 2003 but the decline for women was not significant. Levels of daily consumption were very similar in 2003 and 2008, while the percentage identified as potential problem drinkers increased since 2003. The report concluded that further years of data are required before firm conclusions can be reached on weekly and daily drinking trends. Given the similarities in the 2003 and 2008 consumption estimates, re-running the model with 2008 survey data is unlikely to have a significant effect on the modelling results but we are considering this matter further.

Question reference: S3W-27924

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 27 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the basis was of the decision to provide the University of Sheffield with figures on alcohol consumption from 2003.

The report Model-Based Appraisal of Alcohol Minimum Pricing and Off-Licensed Trade Discount Bans in Scotland (Bib. number 49447) provides an estimate of the potential impact of minimum pricing and a discount ban using the best data available at the time the research was carried out. In the case of alcohol consumption figures, this was data from the Scottish Health Survey 2003 and the Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey 2006.

Question reference: S3W-27985

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 27 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many human rights cases are pending against the Scottish Prison Service, broken down by type of claim.

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

As at 21 October 2009, the following human rights cases are pending against the Scottish Prison Service:

Slopping out “ 2,165,

Segregation “ 11,

Lawfulness of pre-recorded message and breach of European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) Article 8 “ one,

Duty of Care and breach of ECHR Article 2 “ one.

Question reference: S3W-27922

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 23 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive when the data collected in the 2008 Scottish Health Survey was first available to officials.

The Scottish Health Survey is a National Statistic and, as such, has complied with the rules set out in the Pre-release Access to Official Statistics (Scotland) Order 2008. The Order states that the maximum period of pre-release access to statistics in their final form is five working days before publication. Pre-release access to the Scottish Health Survey 2008 was given to ministers and officials within the five working day period before publication.

In addition, the UK Statistics Authority''s Code of Practice for Official Statistics allows early access to be granted for quality assurance purposes. Scottish Government analysts involved in the quality assurance process for this report first received access six weeks before publication.

Question reference: S3F-01942

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Salmond on 8 October 2009

To ask the First Minister how many human rights cases are pending against the Scottish Prison Service from prisoners held in segregation units.

Question reference: S3W-27984

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 October 2009
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Executive how many human rights cases are pending against the Scottish Prison Service from prisoners held in segregation units.

Question reference: S3O-07965

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 1 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the reasons are for the delay in implementation of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009.

Question reference: S3W-27310

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 23 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how long each prisoner released from custody on compassionate grounds under section 3 of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993 was on licence before their death, since the coming into force of the Act.

I am able to provide the information requested from 2000 to date and this is set out in the following table. The information relating to cases between 1993 and 1999 will take longer to process but I will send this to you as soon as possible.

Length of Time Prisoner Released from Custody on Compassionate Grounds before their Death

Prisoner
1	49 days
2	199 days
3	89 days
4	4 days
5	2 days
6	4 days
7	272 days
8	35 days
9	182 days
10	Died on day granted
11	15 days
12	1 year 114 days
13	174 days
14	99 days
15	5 days
16	7 days
17	11 days
18	7 days
19	52 days
20	50 days
21	Died on day granted
22	2 days
23	42 days

Question reference: S3W-27088

Asked by: Bill Aitken, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 16 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-26897 by Kenny MacAskill on 8 September 2009 in relation to the foreign national released on compassionate grounds, whether it will provide the (a) length of sentence served, (b) country to which the person was returned, (c) crime for which the person was convicted, (d) date of release and (v) name of the person.

Chamber and committees