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-19673

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people served non-custodial sentences for handling an offensive weapon in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08, broken down by type of disposal and police force area.

2007-08 court proceedings data is planned for release in April 2009. Data for the latest year available (2006-07) is given in the following table.

Persons with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts for Handling an Offensive Weapon¹ who did not Receive a Custodial Sentence, by Police Force Area, 2006-07

Police Force Area	Total Non-Custodial	Community Sentence	Monetary	Other
Central	81	27	41	13
Dumfries and Galloway	55	28	24	3
Fife	74	31	37	6
Grampian	120	28	68	24
Lothian and Borders	306	125	145	36
Northern	78	19	51	8
Strathclyde	1,633	755	600	278
Tayside	143	75	50	18
Scotland	2,490	1,088	1,016	386

Note: 1. Where main offence.

Question reference: S3W-19672

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prison sentences of six months or less have been imposed in each police force area in the last year, broken down by type of offence.

The latest available information is given in the following tables:

Persons Receiving a Custodial Sentence in Scottish Courts of Six Months or Less by Main Crime and Police Force Area¹, 2006-07

Main Crime or Offence	Northern	Grampian	Tayside	Fife
All crimes and offences	710	1,021	1,864	804
All crimes	349	646	1,247	490
Non-sexual crimes of violence	10	14	28	9
Serious assault and attempted murder	8	7	8	3
Robbery	1	6	12	5
Other	1	1	8	1
Crimes of indecency	5	2	4	-
Indecent assault	-	-	2	-
Lewd & indecent behaviour	4	1	1	-
Other	1	1	1	-
Crimes of dishonesty	173	418	733	326
Housebreaking	29	87	84	55
Theft by opening a lockfast place	6	19	44	15
Theft of/from a motor vehicle	9	20	31	17
Shoplifting	71	193	371	144
Other theft	36	62	140	75
Fraud	14	12	12	7
Other	8	25	51	13
Fire-raising, vandalism, etc	32	17	36	24
Fire-raising	3	1	3	1
Vandalism etc	29	16	33	23
Other crimes	129	195	446	131
Crimes against public justice	87	109	318	85
Handling an offensive weapon	19	31	48	23
Drugs	22	52	80	18
Other	1	3	-	5
All offences	361	375	617	314
Miscellaneous offences	301	301	515	263
Common assault	131	104	161	62
Breach of the peace	136	80	111	56
Drunkenness	3	-	-	-
Breach of social work orders	21	107	225	140
Other	10	10	18	5
Motor vehicle offences	60	74	102	51
Dangerous and careless driving	11	9	9	3
Drunk driving	26	15	22	8
Unlawful use of vehicle	23	50	69	39
Other	-	-	2	1

Main Crime or Offence	Lothian and Borders	Central	Strathclyde	Dumfries and Galloway	Scotland
All crimes and offences	2,023	696	7,034	533	14,686
All crimes	1,061	375	3,867	356	8,392
Non-sexual crimes of violence	25	6	80	6	178
Serious assault and attempted murder	10	3	32	2	73
Robbery	12	3	32	3	74
Other	3	-	16	1	31
Crimes of indecency	10	-	13	-	34
Indecent assault	3	-	1	-	6
Lewd & indecent behaviour	3	-	9	-	18
Other	4	-	3	-	10
Crimes of dishonesty	587	215	2,040	202	4,695
Housebreaking	115	40	329	25	765
Theft by opening a lockfast place	49	9	151	11	304
Theft of/from a motor vehicle	23	13	108	10	231
Shoplifting	226	101	1,002	69	2,177
Other theft	97	35	245	46	736
Fraud	24	6	42	26	143
Other	53	11	163	15	339
Fire-raising, vandalism, etc	52	20	193	25	399
Fire-raising	4	2	7	1	22
Vandalism etc	48	18	186	24	377
Other crimes	387	134	1,541	123	3,086
Crimes against public justice	209	94	686	80	1,668
Handling an offensive weapon	89	19	603	15	847
Drugs	71	17	234	18	512
Other	18	4	18	10	59
All offences	962	321	3,167	177	6,294
Miscellaneous offences	812	280	2,731	145	5,348
Common assault	229	107	999	48	1,841
Breach of the peace	246	82	1,025	39	1,775
Drunkenness	-	-	1	-	4
Breach of social work orders	294	84	628	50	1,549
Other	43	7	78	8	179
Motor vehicle offences	150	41	436	32	946
Dangerous and careless driving	13	4	63	1	113
Drunk driving	32	3	102	5	213
Unlawful use of vehicle	105	34	265	26	611
Other	-	-	6	-	9

Note: 1. Figures for Scotland include one record where the police force area is unknown.

Question reference: S3W-19678

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-18495 by Kenny MacAskill on 12 December 2008, whether any police forces record information on the number and types of offences carried out by people subject to bail orders.

Question reference: S3W-19682

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average cost per day is of administering a supervised attendance order.

Question reference: S3W-19677

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-18495 by Kenny MacAskill on 12 December 2008, whether it intends to take action to ensure that information on the number and type of offences carried out by people subject to bail orders will be made available.

Question reference: S3W-19680

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average cost per day is of administering a community service order.

Question reference: S3W-19679

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent on administering community sentences in each local authority in the last year, broken down by type of disposal.

Community Justice Authorities (CJAs) are responsible for the distribution of grant from the government for criminal justice social work services to the local authorities within their area. Information is not therefore held centrally on allocations to individual local authorities.

The following table details the funding allocated to individual CJAs in financial year 2008-09 for the statutory community disposals:

Service	Fife and Forth Valley (£)	Glasgow (£)	Lanarkshire (£)	Lothian and Borders (£)	Northern (£)
Community Service	1,604,023	2,177,340	1,863,972	2,205,206	1,474,383
Probation	1,584,188	1,958,638	1,421,578	1,447,352	1,282,486
Supervised Attendance Orders	396,365	1,295,013	275,508	317,609	388,107
Drug Treatment & Testing Orders (DTTOs)	871,134	350,733	594,500	2,145,098*	676,459
Total	4,455,710	5,781,724	4,155,558	6,115,265	3,821,435

Service	North Strathclyde (£)	South West Scotland (£)	Tayside (£)	Scotland (£)
Community Service	1,424,046	1,664,911	1,275,284	13,689,165
Probation	998,952	1,097,333	905,453	10,695,980
Supervised Attendance Orders	348,169	528,055	380,174	3,928,999
Drug Treatment & Testing Orders (DTTOs)	1,118,705	797,969	584,899	7,139,497
Total	3,889,872	4,088,268	3,145,810	35,453,641

Note: *Includes the allocation to the Lothians and Borders Community Justice Authority for the pilot exercise in relation to the use of DTTOs with lower tariff offenders.

Question reference: S3W-19681

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average cost per day is of administering a probation order.

Question reference: S3W-19674

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of people convicted for handling an offensive weapon served a non-custodial sentence in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08, broken down by type of disposal and police force area.

2007-08 court proceedings data is planned for release in April 2009. Data for the latest year available (2006-07) is given in the following table.

Percentage of Persons Receiving Non-Custodial Sentences for Handling Offensive Weapons¹ by Police Force Area, 2006-07

Police Force Area	All Persons with a Charge Proved (Number)	Percentage of all Persons with a Charge Proved who Received Non-Custodial Sentences
Police Force Area	All Persons with a Charge Proved (Number)	All Non-Custodial	Community Sentence	Monetary	Other
Central	105	77	26	39	12
Dumfries and Galloway	73	75	38	33	4
Fife	102	73	30	36	6
Grampian	155	77	18	44	15
Lothian and Borders	411	74	30	35	9
Northern	98	80	19	52	8
Strathclyde	2,392	68	32	25	12
Tayside	198	72	38	25	9
Scotland	3,534	70	31	29	11

Note: 1. Where main offence.

Question reference: S3W-19676

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-18495 by Kenny MacAskill on 12 December 2008, whether it considers that it would be useful to collect information on the number and type of offences carried out by people subject to bail orders.

The Scottish Government currently publishes information about offences committed by individuals on bail, although it is not currently possible to identify the type of original offence the bail order relates to. Data for the latest year available is contained in table 18 of the statistical bulletin Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts, 2006-07, which can be found on the Scottish Government website http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/06/02124526/0.