Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-19544

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many alternative measures to prison have been (a) imposed on and (b) successfully completed by fine defaulters in the last year and what proportion of all fine defaulters this represents.

Information on the numbers and completion rates of Supervised Attendance Orders, which provide courts with an alternative to custody for fine defaulters, is contained in the Criminal Justice Social Work Statistics Bulletin for 2007-08 published on 9 December 2008. It is not possible to express the number of Supervised Attendance Orders imposed as a proportion of the overall number of fine defaulters. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/12/09091001/0.

Question reference: S3W-19542

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 20 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many fine defaulters have served prison sentences in the last year, broken down by prison, and what proportion of all fine defaulters this represents.

Question reference: S3W-19590

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 20 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-18896 by Kenny MacAskill on 9 January 2009, given that the Alcohol Awareness Programme is not offered to prisoners at HMP Dumfries or HMP Kilmarnock, what alternative forms of support are offered to prisoners suffering from alcohol-related problems.

Question reference: S3W-19545

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 20 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average level of fine left outstanding by those fine defaulters who served a prison sentence was in the last year.

Question reference: S3W-19591

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 20 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-18896 by Kenny MacAskill on 9 January 2009, what evaluation it will make of the Alcohol Awareness Programme.

Question reference: S3W-19589

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 20 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-18896 by Kenny MacAskill on 9 January 2009, whether it intends to offer the Alcohol Awareness Programme to prisoners suffering from alcohol-related problems at HMP Dumfries or HMP Kilmarnock.

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

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-19588 on 19 January 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.

There are no immediate plans to introduce the approved activity Alcohol Awareness at HMPs Dumfries or Kilmarnock.

Question reference: S3W-19244

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 19 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-16681 by Kenny MacAskill on 27 October 2008, when information on the proportion of sex offenders having received rehabilitation treatment prior to release will be made available.

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

Rehabilitation treatment covers the full range of interventions and support services provided by SPS. These include: Prisoner Programmes, Approved Activities, Education & Work opportunities, Links Support Services (accommodation, benefits, etc.), and health care and statutory supervision requirements. Due to the nature of their offence the majority of sex offenders are subject to statutory supervision and all will have had access to some of the services listed above, therefore all sex offenders will have received some form of rehabilitation treatment prior to release.

Question reference: S3W-19202

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 19 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive at what point the number of prisoners reached a peak and what that number was in each of the last 10 years.

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

The following table gives the maximum prisoner population during each calendar year from 1998 to 2008 and the date on which this maximum occurred.

Early release of prisoners from prison on Home Detention Curfew (HDC) was introduced on 3 July 2006. For the purpose of providing a more complete reply the HDC figure for the relevant dates for 2006 to 2008 have been added as these prisoners would have otherwise been detained in prison and is more indicative of the overall prisoner population.

Year	Maximum Prisoner Population	Date	HDC Numbers on Relevant Dates	Combined HDC / Highest Prisoner Population on Identified Dates
1998	6,334	25 March 1998	Not Applicable	6,334
1999	6,311	23 March 1999	Not Applicable	6,311
2000	6,103	6 June 2000	Not Applicable	6,103
2001	6,385	27 June 2001	Not Applicable	6,385
2002	6,723	30 May 2002	Not Applicable	6,723
2003	6,740	18 Sept 2003	Not Applicable	6,740
2004	7,044	16 March 2004	Not Applicable	7,044
2005	7,100	8 Dec 2005	Not Applicable	7,100
2006	7,330	19 Sept 2006	158	7,488
2007	7,567	17 Sept 2007	294	7,861
2008	8,189	15 Sept 2008	356	8,545

Question reference: S3W-19241

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 19 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of sex offenders who completed a custodial sentence on 31 March 2008 and had been assessed during their sentence as suitable for participation in the Sex Offender Treatment Programme took part in the programme during their custodial sentence.

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

Whilst the question seeks information for a specific date, for the purpose of answering this question we have presumed the interest was for statistics relating to the year ending 31 March 2008.

As reported in our answer to question S3W-16676 on 24 October 2008, there was a total of 150 sex offenders liberated from Scottish prisons in 2007-08.

Of these 70 (49%) were deemed as suitable for participation on Sex Offender Treatment Programmes (SOTPs), 59 (39%) completed SOTPs before release from prison whilst the remaining 11 (7%) either dropped out of the programmes after starting, refused a place on the programmes when offered or had insufficient time left in their sentence to complete the programme before liberation when a place became available.

The remaining 80 (51%) who were not assessed as suitable for SOTPs either refused assessment for SOTPs, indicated they would not participate on the programmes or had insufficient time in their sentence to complete the programme before liberation.

These figures are consistent with expected trends for SOTP assessment, drop-out rates and delivery.

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-19210

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 19 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, following the announcement on 24 October 2008 by Kenny MacAskill MSP of £1 million additional funding to deliver speedier community penalties, when it anticipates that the period of time between sentencing and the start of a community service will begin to decrease.

We will shortly be issuing revised guidance for implementation from April 2009 for operation of community service schemes. It has been agreed with the Association of Directors of Social Work that the overall aim should be for the work placement to start within 7 days of the order being made by the court. Whilst this will inevitably take time to achieve it should lead to significant improvements over current levels of performance.

The planned audits of community service referred to in the reply to S3W-19200 answered on 15 January 2009 should provide an indication of the improvements achieved over the next financial year.

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.

Chamber and committees