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-25272

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 July 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive,further to the answer to question S3W-24824 by Kenny MacAskill on 23 June 2009, what the level is of (a) work provision and (b) demand for work in each prison.

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

The latest available data shows the number of work places to be:

Establishment	Work Places
Aberdeen	96
Addiewell	273
Barlinnie	499
Castle Huntly	285
Cornton Vale	192
Dumfries	121
Edinburgh	418
Glenochil	387
Greenock	154
Inverness	54
Kilmarnock	455
Noranside	192
Perth	364
Peterhead	255
Polmont	284
Shotts	499

Some of these work places may, through timetabling, be utilised by more than one prisoner in a day.

Prisoner demand for work is not measured by the SPS.

Question reference: S3W-25268

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 July 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average annual prison population was in each of the last three financial years, broken down by institution.

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

Prison

Establishment	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Aberdeen	228	237	233
Addiewell			113
Barlinnie	1,480	1,462	1,555
Castle Huntly*	278
Cornton Vale	300	323	366
Dumfries	200	202	205
Edinburgh	782	796	847
Glenochil	436	634	730
Greenock	310	315	312
Inverness	147	148	151
Kilmarnock	599	641	636
Low Moss	299	18
Noranside*	161
Open Estate		484	350
Perth	348	433	646
Peterhead	302	304	305
Shotts (inc. NIC)	515	536	540

Note: *Now part of the Open Estate.

Young Offenders Institute

Establishment	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Cornton Vale	46	41	44
Perth	139	133	116
Polmont	611	670	689

Question reference: S3W-25274

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 July 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S3W-24826, S3W-24827 and S3W-24828 by Kenny MacAskill on 23 June 2009, whether it will collect this information in future.

Question reference: S3W-25144

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 3 July 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the £5.5 million of funding announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice in a news release on 23 June 2009 to help deliver swifter and more effective community justice will be allocated to each local authority and how many additional community justice staff it estimates will be employed by each local authority directly as a result of this funding, broken down by financial year.

The £5.5 million additional funding for community sentences announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice on 23 June 2009 will be released in two tranches. £1.5 million is being released in the financial year 2009-10 for the specific purposes of assisting authorities to deal with any existing backlogs in placing offenders on their work placements, to move to the new seven working day target for such placements to start and to allow offenders to complete orders within the revised six months target.

The distribution to community justice authorities (CJA) is detailed in the following table:

Fife and Forth Valley CJA	£178,424
Glasgow CJA	£244,529
Lanarkshire CJA	£212,532
Lothian and Borders CJA	£222,563
Northern CJA	£172,604
North Strathclyde CJA	£161,979
South West Scotland CJA	£185,876
Tayside CJA	£134,622

The community justice authority will determine the allocation to local authorities based on local priorities and needs. It is for the local authority to decide how to deploy the additional funding with relation to the staffing and delivery of community service.

The additional funding being provided for the current financial year will be increased to £4 million next year. The distribution of the additional £4 million across CJAs will be determined by application of the agreed formula for criminal justice social work using the most recent available datasets and it is hoped to notify CJAs of the available amounts as part of their overall settlement for 2010-11 by the end of December.

Question reference: S3W-25270

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 2 July 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-24818 by Kenny MacAskill on 23 June 2009, whether it plans to increase the number of places on the Sex Offender Treatment Programme for those deemed eligible.

Question reference: S3W-25269

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 2 July 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-24818 by Kenny MacAskill on 23 June 2009, when it expects the Scottish Prison Service to (a) complete and (b) roll-out the new Sex Offender Treatment Programme.

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

The new Sex Offender Treatment Programme (SOTP) is contracted to be completed, including initial training of trainers, by 30 October 2009.

Further training of programme facilitators will be rolled out between October and December 2009 with delivery being phased in to replace existing SOTPs during 2010.

Question reference: S3W-24642

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 08 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what evidence it has that “institutional racism does not exist in the police service in Scotland – of that I’m sure” as stated by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice to the SemperScotland conference on 1 June 2009.

Question reference: S3W-24641

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 08 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the comments made by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice on 1 June 2009 to the SemperScotland conference that “institutional racism does not exist in the police service in Scotland – of that I’m sure”.

Scottish police forces take their responsibilities under equality regulations extremely seriously, and since the 1999 MacPherson report have sought to ensure they are exemplars in their approach to racial equality. Progress has been made and will continue to be made.

Our police reflect and represent all of Scotland. Victimisation or discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated; the law will be enforced by the police and within the police, and, while we always remain alert to these issues, ministers do not believe that the police service in Scotland is institutionally racist.

Question reference: S3W-22858

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 23 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many community service orders were revoked before they were completed in 2008, broken down by local authority area.

The information requested is given in the following tables. The numbers are shown in the first table, with percentages in the second.

Terminations of Community Service Orders¹ by Local Authority Area: 2007-08 (Numbers)

	Revoked Due to Review²	Revoked Due to Breach	Order Successfully Completed	Transfer Out of Area	Death	Other³	Total
Aberdeen City	14	65	106	3	-	5	193
Aberdeenshire	3	30	74	10	3	1	121
Angus	3	14	43	-	1	13	74
Argyll and Bute	6	4	32	1	-	1	44
Clackmannanshire	6	25	46	8	1	1	87
Dumfries and Galloway	12	46	151	3	1	-	213
Dundee City	40	105	154	7	-	5	311
East Ayrshire	1	33	107	3	-	-	144
East Dunbartonshire	1	4	46	1	-	-	52
East Lothian	-	-	58	7	-	14	79
East Renfrewshire	-	2	31	1	1	-	35
Edinburgh, City of	23	128	358	80	2	26	617
Eilean Siar	4	5	15	1	1	-	26
Falkirk	14	27	98	5	-	7	151
Fife	36	108	244	7	-	2	397
Glasgow City	-	126	510	17	8	45	706
Highland	1	58	148	1	1	1	210
Inverclyde	9	29	80	5	-	4	127
Midlothian	11	26	93	5	-	-	135
Moray	2	31	34	3	-	-	70
North Ayrshire	10	54	161	12	1	-	238
North Lanarkshire	6	159	317	16	-	20	518
Orkney Islands	-	1	9	-	-	-	10
Perth and Kinross	10	43	95	10	-	2	160
Renfrewshire	4	25	96	3	1	9	138
Scottish Borders	8	27	70	2	-	1	108
Shetland Islands	-	1	8	2	-	-	11
South Ayrshire	6	25	88	4	-	-	123
South Lanarkshire	17	51	247	15	-	14	344
Stirling	7	36	45	3	-	8	99
West Dunbartonshire	13	42	140	6	2	-	203
West Lothian	4	16	58	3	-	-	81
Scotland	271	1,346	3,762	244	23	179	5,825

Notes:

1. Figures exclude probation orders with a requirement of unpaid work.

2. An order may be revoked due to a breach of the terms of the order, or a review resulting from change in the offender''s circumstances, such as illness.

3. The category other includes non-compliance, further offence, early discharge and information unknown/missing.

4. Symbols used in the tables are “nil.

Terminations of Community Service Orders¹ by Reason and Local Authority, 2007-08 (Percentage of Total)

	Revoked Due to Review²	Revoked Due to Breach²	Order Successfully Completed	Transfer Out of Area	Death	Other³	Total
Aberdeen City	7	34	55	2	-	3	193
Aberdeenshire	2	25	61	8	2	1	121
Angus	4	19	58	-	1	18	74
Argyll and Bute	14	9	73	2	-	2	44
Clackmannanshire	7	29	53	9	1	1	87
Dumfries and Galloway	6	22	71	1	*	-	213
Dundee City	13	34	50	2	-	2	311
East Ayrshire	1	23	74	2	-	-	144
East Dunbartonshire	2	8	88	2	-	-	52
East Lothian	-	-	73	9	-	18	79
East Renfrewshire	-	6	89	3	3	-	35
Edinburgh, City of	4	21	58	13	*	4	617
Eilean Siar	15	19	58	4	4	-	26
Falkirk	9	18	65	3	-	5	151
Fife	9	27	61	2	-	1	397
Glasgow City	-	18	72	2	1	6	706
Highland	*	28	70	*	*	*	210
Inverclyde	7	23	63	4	-	3	127
Midlothian	8	19	69	4	-	-	135
Moray	3	44	49	4	-	-	70
North Ayrshire	4	23	68	5	*	-	238
North Lanarkshire	1	31	61	3	-	4	518
Orkney Islands	-	10	90	-	-	-	10
Perth and Kinross	6	27	59	6	-	1	160
Renfrewshire	3	18	70	2	1	7	138
Scottish Borders	7	25	65	2	-	1	108
Shetland Islands	-	9	73	18	-	-	11
South Ayrshire	5	20	72	3	-	-	123
South Lanarkshire	5	15	72	4	-	4	344
Stirling	7	36	45	3	-	8	99
West Dunbartonshire	6	21	69	3	1	-	203
West Lothian	5	20	72	4	-	-	81
Scotland	5	23	65	4	*	3	5,825

Source: annual returns submitted by local authorities to Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services. The full tables are published on the Scottish Government website at:

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

Notes:

1. Figures exclude probation orders with a requirement of unpaid work.

2. An order may be revoked due to a breach of the terms of the order, or a review resulting from change in the offender''s circumstances, such as illness.

3. The category other includes non-compliance, further offence, early discharge and information unknown/missing.

4. Symbols used in the tables are “nil, *less than 0.5%.

Question reference: S3W-22852

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 23 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time between sentence and the commencement of a community service order was in each quarter since May 2007, broken down by local authority area.