Chamber and committees

It is not possible to provide information on the total number of mortgage repossession decrees granted since 1997, as decrees which were granted under Summary Application procedure could not be identified in the statistics prior to 1 April 2008. However, court actions for repossession are very rarely made under Summary Application procedure and so only a very small number of decrees will be omitted from the data collected. From 1 April 2008 information on the number of all repossession decrees granted is collected.

The Number of Ordinary Cause¹ Mortgage Lender² Actions Disposed of by Sheriff Courts in Favour of the Pursuer³, by court, 1997-2008

Notes:

1. An ordinary cause is a type of court procedure. Up to 13 January 2008 it refers to cases where the value of the claim was over £1,500 and from 14 January 2008 over £5,000, or complex legal issues were involved.

2. Repossession of property in breach/default of a house purchase loan.

3. The final judgment found in favour of the person raising the action, in this case the lender.

4. From 1 April 2008 decrees for repossession of property in breach/default of a loan secured on that property are included. In addition to this, changes were made to the data collection method to improve the accuracy of the data. As a result, data collected before April 2008 are not comparable with data collected after April 2008.

5. Data for Duns sheriff court for May 2000 to March 2007 are included with the data for Jedburgh sheriff court.

6. Includes data for Duns sheriff court for the period May 2000 to March 2007.

7. Data for Lochmaddy sheriff court for April 2002 to October 2006 are included with the data for Portree sheriff court.

8. Includes data for Lochmaddy sheriff court for the period April 2002 to October 2006.

9. The data are management information statistics which have not been subjected to the same quality assurance standards as statistics produced by the Government Statistical Service.

10. In addition to this, it is believed that the data contain significant inaccuracies, as some mortgage lender actions were misclassified as land or heritable estate actions, and vice versa, and disposed cases were undercounted. These inaccuracies affect the data prior to April 2008 and as a result some apparent trends seen in the data do not reflect real changes. For example, Glasgow''s figures show a very large increase in the period April to December 2008 which is incorrect as prior to this their mortgage lender actions had been wrongly classified as land or heritable estate actions and are therefore significantly undercounted in the table above.

11. The Scottish Court Service, the data provider, is working with Justice Analytical Services to improve the accuracy and level of detail of the civil judicial statistics it collects. This work includes changes to the configuration and use of electronic systems for case management and data capture throughout the civil courts, which were put in place in the (civil) sheriff courts in April 2008 and the Court of Session in April 2009. In particular, actions for repossession can now be more easily and accurately identified.

12. The only means to recover accurate civil judicial statistics prior to April 2008 is to examine the paper records held in each of the 49 sheriff courts. However, it would be prohibitively resource-intensive to carry out such an exercise and therefore at the present time no action has been taken to correct historical data and instead the focus has been on providing accurate data from April 2008 onwards.

13. A decree for repossession which has been granted does not necessarily result in an actual repossession or eviction. Therefore, the figures cannot be used to estimate the number of repossessions. It is not known what proportion of mortgage lender decrees granted result in an actual repossession or whether the proportion stays constant each year. Hence it cannot be inferred that a rise (or fall) in these decrees equates to a rise (or fall) in repossessions.

14. Virtually all court actions for repossession are made under Ordinary Cause procedure, but a small number are made under Summary Application procedure. No cases of this type were disposed of in favour of the pursuer during the period from April 2008 to December 2008.

This information was not available prior to December 2001 as dates of birth were not recorded. The table below contains the numbers of households assessed as homeless where the main applicant was aged 16.

	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Scotland	1,441	1,408	1,477	1,457	1,408	1,402
Aberdeen City	51	32	33	33	37	29
Aberdeenshire	41	44	38	31	66	53
Angus	27	38	35	38	28	47
Argyll and Bute	42	41	35	35	36	35
Clackmannanshire	17	21	28	27	39	37
Dumfries and Galloway	35	36	48	41	33	36
Dundee City	43	33	31	39	41	65
East Ayrshire	18	27	27	25	20	28
East Dunbartonshire	3	8	10	3	8	7
East Lothian	16	8	18	32	27	25
East Renfrewshire	5	8	14	7	6	7
Edinburgh	228	197	179	167	140	120
Eilean Siar	6	4	4	5	5	7
Falkirk	48	37	36	50	48	69
Fife	92	137	111	141	136	110
Glasgow City	249	221	261	214	199	145
Highland	51	72	67	80	69	63
Inverclyde	18	15	21	11	15	12
Midlothian	20	26	34	27	36	30
Moray	7	13	16	25	25	35
North Ayrshire	72	62	36	49	57	43
North Lanarkshire	50	50	80	76	73	82
Orkney	3	4	6	7	10	6
Perth and Kinross	23	41	39	23	25	23
Renfrewshire	19	24	23	28	28	44
Scottish Borders	19	32	19	18	25	33
Shetland	9	3	2	2	8	5
South Ayrshire	23	18	20	30	29	43
South Lanarkshire	71	47	48	47	48	55
Stirling	17	17	28	25	12	18
West Dunbartonshire	26	23	33	38	26	32
West Lothian	92	69	97	83	53	58

 

Homelessness statistics provide information on the numbers of households in temporary accommodation at the end of each quarter. Information on households including dependent children is only available for the Lothians local authorities from 2001.

The first table show the numbers of households in bed and breakfast accommodation. The second shows the number of households containing dependent children in bed and breakfast accommodation.

Table 1:

	East Lothian	Edinburgh	Midlothian	West Lothian
March 1997	22	0	5	0
June 1997	24	19	15	0
September 1997	27	20	3	0
December 1997	18	8	5	0
March 1998	24	28	3	0
June 1998	27	24	12	0
September 1998	34	42	1	0
December 1998	22	32	3	0
March 1999	25	31	2	0
June 1999	31	38	3	0
September 1999	23	54	5	0
December 1999	19	61	4	0
March 2000	20	70	4	0
June 2000	19	68	1	0
September 2000	31	64	5	0
December 2000	17	62	2	0
March 2001	26	90	5	0
June 2001	32	66	14	0
September 2001	40	70	8	0
December 2001	32	45	5	0
March 2002	32	84	11	0
June 2002	45	98	6	0
September 2002	27	97	5	0
December 2002	33	94	9	0
March 2003	41	87	6	0
June 2003	49	129	10	0
September 2003	61	157	9	0
December 2003	51	154	11	0
March 2004	59	192	2	0
June 2004	70	192	42	0
September 2004	75	191	39	2
December 2004	59	171	56	1
March 2005	83	187	104	0
June 2005	40	171	56	1
September 2005	51	191	48	0
December 2005	25	192	60	0
March 2006	58	199	62	0
June 2006	57	195	49	0
September 2006	83	222	53	0
December 2006	44	203	65	0
March 2007	43	222	85	0
June 2007	54	238	94	0
September 2007	47	260	73	0
December 2007	54	241	55	0
March 2008	60	257	78	0
June 2008	53	284	99	0
September 2008	57	290	104	0
December 2008	45	292	94	0

 

Table 2:

	East Lothian	Edinburgh	Midlothian	West Lothian
March 2001	0	14	0	0
June 2001	15	3	9	0
September 2001	12	7	3	0
December 2001	10	2	1	0
March 2002	9	6	4	0
June 2002	9	6	2	0
September 2002	6	6	2	0
December 2002	7	12	0	0
March 2003	15	9	0	0
June 2003	21	9	3	0
September 2003	19	15	3	0
December 2003	14	3	4	0
March 2004	18	3	1	0
June 2004	26	6	8	0
September 2004	26	6	5	0
December 2004	23	0	4	0
March 2005	16	0	12	0
June 2005	19	0	14	0
September 2005	28	0	15	0
December 2005	0	0	12	0
March 2006	16	0	12	0
June 2006	19	0	14	0
September 2006	28	0	15	0
December 2006	0	0	12	0
March 2007	3	0	18	0
June 2007	14	0	26	0
September 2007	4	0	16	0
December 2007	2	0	10	0
March 2008	7	0	12	0
June 2008	7	0	25	0
September 2008	3	0	27	0
December 2008	1	0	22	0

 

The only knife crime communication campaign undertaken by the Scottish Government over the past five years ran between November 2006 and April 2007, and £220,489 was spent on its delivery throughout the Lothian region. However, we are continuing to work in partnership with the national Violence Reduction Unit to deliver a range of initiatives to prevent and reduce knife crime. These include the on-going anti-violence policing campaign, which is delivering coordinated and targeted enforcement action across the Lothian region, and our new £500,000 youth engagement initiative, No Knives Better Lives, which will work directly with young people across Scotland, including those in the Lothians, to educate them about the dangers and consequences of carrying a knife.

In the period 1998-99 to 2007-08 there were no convictions in the Lothians region where the main offence involved was allowing disorderly conduct on licensed premises. Convictions for selling alcohol to people who are drunk cannot be identified separately in the available statistics.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-23251 on 6 May 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.

The available information is given in the following table.

Persons with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts for Drug Trafficking^1,2, by Court, 2003-04 to 2007-08

Court	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Sheriff Court
Aberdeen	57	88	108	122	128
Airdrie	25	29	43	33	34
Alloa	28	27	22	16	32
Arbroath	12	18	16	28	22
Ayr	40	29	43	55	62
Banff	9	5	3	7	8
Campbeltown	3	2	9	4	2
Cupar	7	8	7	6	7
Dingwall	6	20	7	16	9
Dornoch	1	1	2	-	-
Dumbarton	26	38	51	44	67
Dumfries	6	21	34	42	29
Dundee	27	40	41	52	77
Dunfermline	20	18	26	25	22
Dunoon	5	5	5	4	4
Duns	4	2	9	5	3
Edinburgh	103	189	173	158	187
Elgin	16	15	12	17	20
Falkirk	41	40	57	46	55
Forfar	7	11	8	10	17
Fort William	5	3	8	4	2
Glasgow	327	331	347	353	403
Greenock	43	36	40	36	42
Haddington	7	17	18	5	16
Hamilton	55	83	93	63	124
Inverness	36	41	19	47	73
Jedburgh	9	17	15	13	12
Kilmarnock	103	78	82	95	84
Kirkcaldy	33	43	41	30	43
Kirkcudbright	6	13	7	2	8
Kirkwall	4	4	2	1	3
Lanark	9	5	3	7	9
Lerwick	1	6	9	7	15
Linlithgow	27	56	47	50	39
Lochmaddy	1	1	-	1	-
Oban	5	6	5	3	8
Paisley	25	25	28	53	61
Peebles	2	5	2	8	4
Perth	47	64	71	56	64
Peterhead	13	12	20	27	33
Portree	1	-	1	1	3
Rothesay	-	-	5	3	-
Selkirk	8	10	11	11	12
Stirling	33	30	27	22	36
Stonehaven	-	-	6	3	7
Stornoway	3	5	2	8	6
Stranraer	18	19	23	13	13
Tain	12	10	8	9	5
Wick	3	2	7	7	4
All sheriff courts	1,279	1,528	1,623	1,628	1,914
All courts3	1,634	1,820	1,867	1,867	2,145

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Covers the crime categories illegal importation of drugs, possession, manufacture or cultivation of drugs, supply, possession with intent to supply etc of drugs and other drugs offences.

3. Includes High Court convictions.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-23251 on 6 May 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.

The number of people employed by each of the four local authorities in the Lothians area in each of the last five years is shown in the following table. The information is available on a quarterly basis.

	West Lothian	East Lothian	Midlothian	City of Edinburgh
Q1 2004	7,739	4,586	4,588	20,736
Q2 2004	7,895	4,619	4,548	20,599
Q3 2004	7,974	4,571	4,380	20,522
Q4 2004	8,019	4,612	4,583	21,041
Q1 2005	8,034	4,615	4,596	20,858
Q2 2005	8,127	4,764	4,538	20,900
Q3 2005	8,115	4,766	4,500	20,583
Q4 2005	8,132	4,845	4,664	21,116
Q1 2006	8,163	4,929	4,779	21,435
Q2 2006	8,183	4,790	4,376	21,042
Q3 2006	8,286	4,869	4,209	20,630
Q4 2006	8,321	4,869	4,683	20,630
Q1 2007	8,321	4,869	4,665	20,994
Q2 2007	8,326	4,985	4,521	20,773
Q3 2007	8,326	4,985	4,580	20,483
Q4 2007	8,365	4,962	4,768	20,812
Q1 2008	8,374	5,015	4,757	20,471
Q2 2008	8,406	4,925	4,848	20,195
Q3 2008	8,419	4,902	4,734	20,116
Q4 2008	8,437	5,031	4,847	19,401

Source: Joint Staffing Watch Survey, Scottish Government.

Notes:

1. Data are on a head count basis and not seasonally adjusted and therefore comparisons between years should only be made for the same quarter in each year.

2. Where a local authority fails to make a return for one quarter, the data for the last return available are used.

3. The reference date for Q1 is March, for Q2 is June, for Q3 is September and for Q4 is December in each year.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-23251 on 6 May 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.