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-17757

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 November 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 19 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-16814 by Kenny MacAskill on 21 October 2008, whether it intends to take action to increase the number of test purchases of alcohol in on-sales premises.

Question reference: S3W-17759

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 November 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 18 November 2008

The Scottish Government believes that test purchasing provides the police with a useful additional tool to help prevent illegal underage sales of alcohol and that active test purchasing encourages licensees to be more vigilant in exercising their legal obligations to avoid underage sales.

However, it is just one tactical option available to the police to enforce the law and the number of tests, in themselves, cannot be taken as a reflection of the extent of enforcement activity taking place in a police force area. It also need to be borne in mind that the safety and welfare of the young test purchasers is a paramount consideration and it has taken some forces longer than others to recruit test purchasers and to ensure all the necessary safeguards are in place. We will continue to work with ACPOS to encourage and support test purchasing arrangements.

Question reference: S3W-17125

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive which local authorities combine the role of community warden with that of traffic warden.

Question reference: S3W-17124

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 12 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers it appropriate for local authorities to combine the role of community warden with that of traffic warden.

Following the concordat between COSLA and the Scottish Government, it is now the responsibility of local authorities to determine the scope of warden services and the wardens'' role.

Where prudent and where local needs dictate, local authorities may extend the duties of community wardens in a manner that meets these needs. If combining the role of community warden with that of traffic warden is deemed appropriate in the local circumstances, then the local authority and police could work together to ensure that local needs are fulfilled.

Question reference: S3W-17126

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 12 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many community wardens there have been in each local authority in each year since their introduction.

Question reference: S3W-17127

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 12 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how much money has been invested in community warden schemes in each year since their introduction, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S3W-17224

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 5 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of convicted sex offenders who did not attend the Sex Offender Treatment Programme in the last year were in receipt of alternative treatment and what that treatment entailed.

Question reference: S3W-16845

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 4 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many pupils have been suspended for alcohol-related issues in each local authority area in the last year.

The available information on the number of pupils of temporarily excluded from school for Substance misuse “ alcohol in 2006-07, is given in the following table.

Local Authority	Number of Pupils
Aberdeen City	14
Aberdeenshire	25
Angus	19
Argyll and Bute	30
Clackmannanshire	1
Dumfries and Galloway	6
Dundee City	6
East Ayrshire	8
East Dunbartonshire	13
East Lothian	2
Edinburgh, City of	6
Eilean Siar	1
Falkirk	24
Fife	13
Glasgow City	22
Highland	33
Inverclyde	3
Midlothian	3
Moray	8
North Ayrshire	4
North Lanarkshire	18
Perth and Kinross	18
Renfrewshire	6
Scottish Borders	13
South Ayrshire	10
South Lanarkshire	10
West Dunbartonshire	3
West Lothian	10
Total	329

Note: Two pupils were temporarily excluded twice for alcohol misuse, so the total figure is two less than the figure in the statistical bulletin Exclusions from Schools 2006-07.

Question reference: S3W-16847

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people under the age of 18 have had alcohol confiscated in the last four years in each police force area.

There are no statistics held centrally on the number of alcohol confiscations in Scotland in any given year. Only confiscations that subsequently lead to an offence under section 61 of the Crime and Punishment (Scotland) Act 1997 are recorded.

Section 61(1) of this act provides powers for the police to confiscate alcohol from under 18s in a public place and dispose of it. Where this happens, it is not an offence and is not included in the centrally collated Police Recorded Crime statistics. It only becomes an offence if the young person refuses to comply with the requirement, e.g. by failing to hand over the drink or by failing to give his name and address.

Question reference: S3W-16848

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) reported incidents, (b) prosecutions and (c) convictions there have been in the last year, where alcohol was a contributory factor.