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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 1063 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S3W-31049

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 3 February 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the 367 serious organised crime groups identified by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency are based in (a) Edinburgh and (b) the Lothians region.

The Scottish Serious Organised Crime Group Mapping Project was established in April 2008. Led by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency in partnership with the Scottish Government all Scottish police forces, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, HMRC, and other agencies the project aimed to contribute to a safer and stronger Scotland by identifying the scale and impact of serious organised crime on Scotland, with a view to taking more effective action against this threat.

Detailed information from the mapping project is not held centrally but a summary of the results are available on the SCDEA website:

http://www.scdea.police.uk/Other-publications/Mapping%20Summary%20Report.pdf?sksearchtext=mapping.

Serious Organised Crime Groups are not restricted by borders and many groups operate across all eight police forces in Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-31002

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 2 February 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many off-licences in the Lothians region had their licence suspended in each year since 2007, broken down by local authority.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-30174 on 25 January 2010. 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.

Premises which could hold an off-sales licence under the 1976 Licensing (Scotland) Act are divided into the following categories: shops, supermarkets, garages (from which fuel and other items are sold), other and unknown.

Question reference: S3W-30999

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 2 February 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of people caught by police with (a) knives and (b) other weapons in the Lothians region in (i) 2007-08 and (ii) 2008-09 represents (A) repeat and (B) first-time offenders, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S3W-31001

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 2 February 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many off-licences in the Lothians region were found to have sold alcohol to people under 18 in 2008-09, broken down by local authority.

The available information is provided in the following table:

Number of offences recorded by the police in the Lothians, in which a licensed person has sold alcohol to a person under 18, in 2008-09:

	2008-09
City of Edinburgh	38
East Lothian	15
Midlothian	13
West Lothian	31
Total	97

Source: Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services.

Question reference: S3W-30881

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 1 February 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of bills for local authority contracts was paid within (a) 30 and (b) 10 days in each year since 2007, broken down by local authority.

The information requested is not collected by the Scottish Government. However, local authorities are required to report their performance against a number of statutory performance indicators, including the percentage of invoices sampled that were paid within 30 days. This information is collected annually by Audit Scotland and can be found on their website at http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/performance/index.php where the relevant statutory performance indicator is Indicator 7 under Corporate Management.

Question reference: S3W-30880

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 1 February 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of bills for its contracts was paid within (a) 30 and (b) 10 days in each year since 2007.

The Scottish Government''s payment policy is that all suppliers'' invoices not in dispute are paid within the terms of the relevant contract. The Scottish Government aims to pay 100% of invoices, including disputed invoices once the dispute has been settled, on time within these terms. The Scottish Government''s audited annual consolidated accounts provide information on payment policy and performance measured against 30 days in 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09. Additionally, as part of its plan for supporting economic recovery in Scotland, the First Minister announced on 9 October 2008 that the Scottish Government would aspire to a 10 day target for paying bills to businesses in Scotland and performance on this is also reported in the 2008-09 accounts.

The published accounts for the financial years 2006-07 onwards are available at www.scotland.gov.uk at these links:

2006-07

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/10/30102402/3.

2007-08

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/09/29130020/3.

2008-09

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/10/01085501/3.

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting business in the current economic climate by paying bills more quickly and since the announcement of the target on 9 October 2008, performance has risen significantly. For the current financial year, an average of 95% of bills were paid within 10 working days in the five months to December 2009 by the Scottish Government, executive agencies and other bodies who use our financial systems. (For those bodies with their own financial systems we do not hold information until the point when it is reported in annual accounts.)

Question reference: S3W-31000

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 29 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many recorded convictions there were for drug trafficking in 2008-09, broken down by sheriff court.

Question reference: S3W-30702

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of alcohol poisoning there were in the Lothians region in 2009, broken down by hospital.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-22375 on 20 April 2009, which contains the most recent information available.

Data for the financial year 2008-09 will be released on 23 February 2010, on the Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland website. Hospital admissions data will be available on request after publication.

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.

Question reference: S3W-30705

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people had a charge proved in court for supply of drugs offences in the Lothian and Borders police force area in 2008-09 and what disposals were applied to them, broken down by type of drug.

Question reference: S3W-30672

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive (a) how many and (b) what percentage of people convicted of shoplifting have been (i) male and (ii) female in each year since 1998-99, also broken down by age group.

The available information is given in the following table:

Persons with a Charge Proved in Scottish courts for Shoplifting Crimes¹ 1998-99 to 2007-08

Type of Accused: All Persons	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Under 21	2,134	2,059	1,792	1,763	1,618	1,243	1,123	1,143	1,066	934
21-30	3,396	3,668	3,611	4,220	4,673	4,153	4,304	4,101	4,099	3,981
over 30	2,029	2,026	1,942	2,383	2,535	2,727	3,000	2,918	3,383	3,492
All	7,559	7,753	7,345	8,366	8,826	8,123	8,427	8,162	8,548	8,407
Type of Accused: Female Person
Under 21	563	570	511	534	502	441	378	329	318	289
21-30	984	1,047	941	1,117	1,258	1,215	1,197	1,143	1,094	1,147
over 30	580	559	525	629	687	785	891	793	891	921
All	2,127	2,176	1,977	2,280	2,447	2,441	2,466	2,265	2,303	2,357
Type of Accused: Male Person
Under 21	1,571	1,489	1,281	1,229	1,116	802	745	814	748	645
21-30	2,412	2,621	2,670	3,103	3,415	2,938	3,107	2,958	3,005	2,834
over 30	1,449	1,467	1,417	1,754	1,848	1,942	2,109	2,125	2,492	2,571
All	5,432	5,577	5,368	6,086	6,379	5,682	5,961	5,897	6,245	6,050

Note: 1. Where main offence.

Percentage of Persons with a charge proved in Scottish courts for shoplifting crimes⁽¹⁾ 1998-99 - 2007-08

Gender / age	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Females
Under 21	7	7	7	6	6	5	4	4	4	3
21-30	13	14	13	13	14	15	14	14	13	14
over 30	8	7	7	8	8	10	11	10	10	11
All	28	28	27	27	28	30	29	28	27	28
Males
Under 21	21	19	17	15	13	10	9	10	9	8
21-30	32	34	36	37	39	36	37	36	35	34
over 30	19	19	19	21	21	24	25	26	29	31
All	72	72	73	73	72	70	71	72	73	72

Note: 1. Where main offence.