Chamber and committees

Number of Recorded Offences Related to Underage Alcohol Consumption¹, in the Lothians² Region, 2008-09 to 2009-10

Source: Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services.

Notes:

1. Covers crime categories sale of drink to person under 18 and wholesaler selling liquor to person under 18, although no crimes of the latter have been recorded in the years reported.

2. The Lothians region consists of the local authority areas of City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian.

For data on the financial year 2007-08, I refer the member to questions S3W-26512 and S3W-26513 which were both answered on 7 September 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

In 2008-09, the latest year for which court proceedings data is available, there were 27 convictions for sale of alcohol to a person under 18. This covers the crime categories sale of drink to person under 18 and wholesaler selling liquor to person under 18, although no convictions of the latter have been recorded in the year reported. There were 15 convictions for purchasing alcohol for consumption by a person under 18.

In 2008-09, there were no convictions in the Lothians region for purchase of alcohol or its consumption in a licensed premises by a person under 18 or confiscation of alcohol from a person under 18.

Please note that prosecution is not the sole course taken in dealing with these offences. Where persons under 18 possess alcohol in a public place, the police have powers under section 61 of the Crime and Punishment (Scotland) Act 1997 to confiscate this alcohol and dispose of it. If the alcohol is surrendered to the police, it is not an offence and so is not included in the recorded crime statistics. It is, however, an offence to fail to comply, for example by failing to surrender the alcohol or by failing to give name and address if requested. During the years reported, for the Lothians region, there were no recorded instances of persons under 18 failing to comply with such a request.

It should be noted that statistics dealing with court proceedings and recorded crime are not directly comparable as a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime involving more than one victim and there is the possibility that the crime recorded by the police may be altered in the course of judicial proceedings. Also a crime may be recorded by the police in one year and court proceedings concluded in a subsequent year.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-34679 on 9 July 2010 for data up to 2008-09. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Details of disposals issued in 2008-09 for offences in Lothian and Borders police force area can be found on the Scottish Government web page for Datasets - Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts 2008-09 - Police Force Area.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Datasets/PFA0809

It should be noted that statistics dealing with court proceedings and recorded crime are not directly comparable as a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime involving more than one victim and there is the possibility that the crime recorded by the police may be altered in the course of judicial proceedings. Also a crime may be recorded by the police in one year and court proceedings concluded in a subsequent year.

Table 1. Fire and Rescue Services

Source: Fire Statistics Scotland 2007.

Table 2. Police

Source: Scottish Government police recorded crime statistics.

Notes:*Prior to 2007-08 these two categories were collected under the heading false calls to the emergency services and bomb hoaxes.

Number of Children Under 15 Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in NHS Lothian

Source: NHS Lothian Diabetes Managed Clinical Network.

Accurate data on the number of children under the age of 15 with Type 2 diabetes are not available, due to the potential recording overlap with other types of diabetes such as Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young (MODY).

Data on the incidence or prevalence of diabetes, broken down by local authority, are not held centrally.

Number of People Diagnosed with Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes in NHS Lothian

Source: Scottish Diabetes Surveys.

Data on the incidence or prevalence of diabetes, broken down by local authority, are not held centrally.

CashBack funding has been granted to the Scottish Football Association (£2.5m), the Scottish Rugby Union (£1.4m), Scottish Sports Futures and BasketballScotland (£1.7m), the Sports Facilities Fund (£2m), Youthlink Scotland (£4m), Scottish Screen and the Scottish Arts Council for the Creative Identities Initiative (£1.2m). All recorded spending is done by Local Authority rather than parliamentary constituency.

Football activities in the Lothians include Street Football, Midnight Leagues, Soccer 1 and 2 and a School of Football for the South East region based in Dalkeith at Newbattle High School. Funding for Street football and Midnight leagues in each area is £28,000 for Edinburgh City, £25,600 in East Lothian, £28,200 in Midlothian and £26,600 in West Lothian during 2008-10. Total funding for Soccer One was £21,737 in Edinburgh City, £7,050 in East Lothian, £7,050 in Midlothian and £3,525 in West Lothian in 2008-09. The School of Football received £18,200 in 2008-09 and 2009-10.

The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) in 2008-09 delivered free rugby sessions, street rugby and coaching programmes to primary and secondary young people in the Lothian''s. £60,000 was invested in 20 staff posts and equipment for all areas to deliver. In 2009-10 £64,000 was invested again for staff and equipment in the Lothian''s.

Scottish Sports Futures is delivering basketball activities in Edinburgh through their programme of Twilight Basketball and Jump2It. Over the past two years £155,945.22 has been spent on both Twilight Basketball and Jump2It in the Lothians.

The Sports Facilities fund was split over 26 projects throughout Scotland. Five projects were awarded a combined £463,083 throughout the Lothians. £250,000 to two projects in West Lothian, £100,00 for one project in East Lothian, £63,083 for one project in Midlothian and £50,000 for one project in Edinburgh City.

Youthlink Scotland have distributed £4m of CashBack funding, it is allocated by local authority rather than parliamentary constituency. The breakdown of spending in the Lothians regions for successful applicants is as follows; East Lothian £49,983, Edinburgh £291,185, Midlothian £48,437 and West Lothian £68,766.00

A further £2.5 million funding scheme for Youthlink Round 4 was announced on 15 July 2010. The funding will be distributed throughout Scotland to successful applicants over two years. There will be three phases of applications for this strand of Youthlink, the first phase will close 27 August 2010, the second phase on the 28 January 2011 and the third phase on the 16 of September 2011.

In the last few months three new national projects have been launched; the Multisport project funding of £1.5m, £500k to YouthScotland to administer a grant project for uniformed and small organisations, and £1.6 million allocated to the Personal Social Development project.

In the orderly room, (a) a total of 48 charges were brought in respect of these incidents at HMP Addiewell, and (b) 16 charges were brought in respect of the incidents at HMP Edinburgh.

The punishments awarded in respect of these incidents are as follows:

HMP Addiewell

In addition, there was one Not Guilty finding, three cases were dismissed and hearings for 6 charges are adjourned at the time of writing.

HMP Edinburgh

In addition, two charges are adjourned at the time of writing.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on individual drug seizures or offences recorded by the eight police forces in Scotland, and does not therefore hold information on the specific locations in which those seizures took place. As a result it is not possible for the Scottish Government to identify what quantity of cannabis has been recovered from cannabis farms in the Lothians in each of the last three years or what the estimated street value was.

Persons with a Charge Proved for Possession of Cannabis¹ in the Lothian and Borders Police Force Area, 2006-07 to 2008-09

Notes:

1.   Where main offence.

2.   Includes community service orders and sentences of probation with community service order.