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: S3W-14940

Asked by: Mike Pringle, MSP for Edinburgh South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 July 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 30 July 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been issued with fines for vandalism in each year since 1997 and how many, and what proportion of, such fines have been paid, broken down by parliamentary constituency.

The available information is given in the following table, the number of unpaid fines is not held centrally. Information by parliamentary constituency is not available.

Persons with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts for Vandalism¹ where the Main Penalty was a Court Fine, by Approximate Local Authority Area², 1997-98 to 2006-07

Local Authority	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Aberdeen City	142	131	130	125	107	87	95
Aberdeenshire	119	107	96	120	86	99	79
Angus	80	82	65	76	72	75	118
Argyll and Bute	46	50	31	32	38	55	44
Clackmannanshire	51	46	26	45	59	33	60
Dumfries and Galloway	81	78	68	80	51	74	84
Dundee City	83	62	81	105	77	67	101
East Ayrshire	79	93	73	65	77	74	96
East Dunbartonshire	17	16	10	14	8	13	9
East Lothian	34	30	35	31	27	48	35
East Renfrewshire	8	14	2	4	6	25	6
Edinburgh, City of	192	181	135	164	152	131	105
Eilean Siar	21	21	10	14	8	6	12
Falkirk	109	83	84	79	96	98	114
Fife	231	198	187	170	198	129	196
Glasgow City	343	325	211	176	216	194	220
Highland	151	135	140	123	121	155	170
Inverclyde	33	21	18	24	15	22	32
Midlothian	50	30	24	18	28	27	20
Moray	73	72	52	43	59	42	69
North Ayrshire	45	53	47	51	41	51	68
North Lanarkshire	151	134	105	129	115	94	86
Orkney Islands	10	11	4	13	8	8	12
Perth and Kinross	70	70	62	61	63	53	65
Renfrewshire	85	54	58	63	56	75	44
Scottish Borders	42	39	37	32	68	57	63
Shetland Islands	11	5	17	7	8	11	15
South Ayrshire	80	75	55	76	58	66	88
South Lanarkshire	127	120	100	98	110	97	102
Stirling	65	47	55	62	42	59	68
West Dunbartonshire	47	25	42	29	30	41	38
West Lothian	119	95	95	79	77	64	46
Scotland³	2,795	2,503	2,155	2,208	2,177	2,131	2,360

Local Authority	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07
Aberdeen City	84	112	120
Aberdeenshire	88	107	101
Angus	70	67	59
Argyll and Bute	39	31	13
Clackmannanshire	54	66	68
Dumfries and Galloway	97	91	95
Dundee City	91	81	71
East Ayrshire	116	83	100
East Dunbartonshire	10	4	-
East Lothian	30	22	50
East Renfrewshire	6	2	3
Edinburgh, City of	134	124	135
Eilean Siar	9	27	16
Falkirk	107	114	122
Fife	199	232	236
Glasgow City	240	272	299
Highland	167	126	149
Inverclyde	25	9	11
Midlothian	40	23	36
Moray	39	50	56
North Ayrshire	55	57	52
North Lanarkshire	92	75	103
Orkney Islands	6	4	2
Perth and Kinross	60	69	44
Renfrewshire	72	58	54
Scottish Borders	82	137	116
Shetland Islands	8	12	6
South Ayrshire	71	62	86
South Lanarkshire	121	103	98
Stirling	64	47	63
West Dunbartonshire	42	35	41
West Lothian	65	62	55
Scotland³	2,383	2,364	2,460

Notes:

1. Where main offence under the Scottish Government Justice Department Crime Codes is Vandalism, malicious damage and malicious mischief.

2. Incorporates an approximate mapping of sheriff courts into local authority areas. Some sheriff courts will deal with cases from more than one local authority area and some local authority areas do not contain a sheriff court.

3. May contain a small number of cases where the local authority area is unknown.

Fixed penalty notice fines are also issued by the police under the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 for a range of offences, including vandalism. The information requested, however, is not held centrally in relation to these fines.

Question reference: S3W-14941

Asked by: Mike Pringle, MSP for Edinburgh South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 July 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 28 July 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many vacancies there were at each (a) prison and (b) young offenders’ institution on 1 June 2008.

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

On 1 June 2008 the Scottish Prison Service had three vacancies as follows:

Open to external applicants:

HM Young Offenders Institution Polmont - Driver

HM Young Offenders Institution Polmont - Activities Administrator.

Open to internal applicants:

HM Prison Peterhead - Prisoner Programmes Officer.

Question reference: S3W-13425

Asked by: Mike Pringle, MSP for Edinburgh South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Linda Fabiani on 9 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what assistance is available to groups who have had their Scottish Arts Council funding cut.

The Scottish Arts Council recently announced its flexible funding programme for 2009-11. Decisions on the allocation of funds are a matter for the Scottish Arts Council. Unsuccessful applicants have the opportunity to appeal against the council’s decisions. There are also other funding options that are available from the Scottish Arts Council such as “project” funding.

Representatives from the Scottish Arts Council are meeting with representatives from the unsuccessful organisations to discuss the implications of the flexible funding decisions.

Question reference: S3W-13424

Asked by: Mike Pringle, MSP for Edinburgh South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Linda Fabiani on 9 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to promote traditional music, song and dance.

Question reference: S3W-11443

Asked by: Mike Pringle, MSP for Edinburgh South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 28 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 18 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many meetings ministers or officials held with NHS Lothian in 2008 regarding the Royal Hospital for Sick Children reprovision project.

Question reference: S3W-11442

Asked by: Mike Pringle, MSP for Edinburgh South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 28 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 18 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the latest timetable is for the Royal Hospital for Sick Children reprovision project.

We are expecting the Outline Business Case for the re-provision of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children re-provision to be submitted to Scottish Government Health Directorates by NHS Lothian at the end of May 2008 for consideration by the Capital Investment Group. The outline business case will, in addition to a detailed option appraisal, set out the timetable for the project, including the expected date for the submission of the Full Business Case.

Question reference: S3W-11444

Asked by: Mike Pringle, MSP for Edinburgh South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 28 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 18 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects the full business case for the Royal Hospital for Sick Children reprovision project to be submitted.

Question reference: S3W-11608

Asked by: Mike Pringle, MSP for Edinburgh South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 17 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what tenants and landlords organisations it intends to consult when gathering evidence about introducing a mandatory national tenant deposit scheme.

The Scottish Government has established a working group of stakeholders representing the interests of private landlords and tenants to consider the need for a mandatory tenancy deposit scheme in Scotland. The following organisations are involved in that group:

Shelter

The National Union of Students Scotland

Crisis

Citizens Advice Scotland

Scottish Consumer Council

Scottish Council for Single Homeless

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities

The Private Rented Housing Forum, including:

The Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland

Scottish Association of Landlords

Scottish Rural Property and Business Association

The National Federation of Property Professionals (which now includes the Association of Residential Letting Agents and the National Association of Estate Agents)

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Scotland

These organisations will be involved in developing any recommendations for Scottish Ministers on how deposit management in Scotland might be improved.

Question reference: S3W-11607

Asked by: Mike Pringle, MSP for Edinburgh South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 17 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-3869 by Stewart Maxwell on 12 September 2007, whether it still intends to carry out detailed surveys of both tenants and landlords to gather evidence about introducing a mandatory national tenant deposit scheme.

As part of the review of the private rented sector, which was announced in the recent housing discussion paper Firm Foundations: the Future of Housing in Scotland, comprehensive surveys of both landlords and tenants are currently being carried out. Both surveys include questions to find out more information about current practice and the scale of problems with unfairly withheld tenancy deposits. The surveys should be completed this summer.

Question reference: S3W-11609

Asked by: Mike Pringle, MSP for Edinburgh South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 17 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that there is a need to introduce a mandatory tenant deposit scheme in Scotland.