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-30413

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 February 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it and its agencies have spent on recruitment advertising since May 2007, broken down by (a) directorate or agency and (b) position advertised.

The following table shows spend with our recruitment advertising supplier, TMP, on recruitment advertising media for civil service recruitment and public appointments. Agencies may have used other recruitment advertising suppliers but that spend is not available centrally. The information on recruitment advertising spend by position advertised could only be calculated at disproportionate cost and therefore is not provided.

Scottish Government Core (by Directorate General)

	2007-08 (May to March)	2008-09	2009-10 (April to December)
Economy	Note 1	76,986	32,201
Education	Note 1	83,083	52,583
Environment	Note 1	86,813	80,270
Health	Note 1	153,015	93,991
Justice and Communities	Note 1	131,233	56,420
Finance and Corporate Services	Note 1	130,877	28,815
Permanent Secretary	Note 1	34,793	14,632
Central and other spend	Note 1	108,133	5,020
Total for Scottish Government Core	930,041	804,933	363,932
Scottish Government Main Agencies
Scottish Public Pensions Agency	1,243	28,751	2,179
Student Awards Agency for Scotland	3,050	9,803	4,399
HM Inspectorate of Education	Note 2	19,865	17,311
Accountant in Bankruptcy	No spend recorded	2,882	7,476
Social Work Inspection Agency	Note 2	865	0
Transport Scotland	57,097	227,622	110,861
Scottish Housing Regulator	Note 5	40,051	0
Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland	10,921	2,467	Note 3
Communities Scotland	3,834	Note 3	Note 3
Total for Scottish Government Agencies	76,145	332,306	142,226
Grand Total	1,006,186	1,137,239	506,158

Notes:

1. Due to the way information is collected it is not possible to split the Scottish Government Core information by directorate for all years or by directorate general (DG) for 2007-08.

2. In 2007-08, recruitment advertising orders for some agencies were placed through the Scottish Government core and the spend is included in the core figure.

3. As a result of the simplification exercise Mental Health Tribunal and parts of Communities Scotland integrated into the Scottish Government core during this period after which any recruitment spend will be included in the relevant DG area. Some Mental Health Tribunal recruitment spend is reported against Scottish Government Health DG during 2008-09.

4. Information is provided for the Scottish Government Core and those Agencies for which information is collected centrally by Scottish Government HR, excluding non‘ministerial departments, and against which spend is recorded. All spend is ex VAT and as invoiced direct by TMP during the appropriate period.

5. Scottish Housing Regulator did not exist until April 2008.

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-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-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-30670

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 of the fines issued in shoplifting cases remain outstanding and (b) what their value has been in each of the last 10 years, broken down by local authority area.

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.