Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-40232

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 14 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussion it has had with the UK Government since May 2007 on how prisoner voting might impact on the operation of the Scottish Prison Service.

Question reference: S3W-39680

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 11 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-37562 by Fergus Ewing on 26 November 2010, how many people were (a) prosecuted, (b) convicted and (c) given a custodial sentence in cases involving domestic abuse in 2009-10, broken down by police force area.

Information on offence aggravations have been published and classified as data being developed alongside the 2009-10 Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistical bulletin and therefore extreme caution needs to be applied to these figures.

They are initial results of a testing phase and are not fully developed. It is important that users clearly understand the status of these series and apply caution to the results, particularly when comparing results across time or geographically.

We are planning work to increase our understanding of offence aggravations data and to assess and attempt to improve the consistency of recording of the data. It is anticipated that this work will be completed during 2011. An update and full details of any changes will be provided with publication of the 2010-11 Criminal Proceedings Bulletin. More details are available here:

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

The available information on domestic abuse aggravations is given in the following table. Sentencing decisions are made by the judiciary based on all the facts and circumstances of the offence and offender.

Persons proceeded against, convicted and sentenced to custody, for an offence with a domestic aggravator recorded¹, 2009-10:

Police Force	2009-10
Central
Proceeded against	621
Convicted	542
Custodial sentence	42
Dumfries and Galloway
Proceeded against	248
Convicted	215
Custodial sentence	30
Fife
Proceeded against	512
Convicted	447
Custodial sentence	34
Grampian
Proceeded against	839
Convicted	748
Custodial sentence	35
Lothian and Borders
Proceeded against	948
Convicted	845
Custodial sentence	95
Northern
Proceeded against	403
Convicted	354
Custodial sentence	37
Strathclyde
Proceeded against	6,136
Convicted	5,194
Custodial sentence	619
Tayside
Proceeded against	552
Convicted	492
Custodial sentence	57
Scotland
Proceeded against	10,259
Convicted	8,837
Custodial sentence	949

Note: 1. The recording of aggravators has improved over time, therefore caution is needed when comparing changes over time and geographically. Information on offence aggravations have been published as data being developed alongside the 2009-10 Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistical bulletin.

Question reference: S3W-39965

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 11 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were (a) prosecuted, (b) convicted and (c) given a custodial sentence in cases involving rape in 2009-10, broken down by police force area.

The available information is given in the following table.

Persons proceeded against for rape¹ in 2009-10, by police force area:

Police Force Area	Proceeded Against	Convicted	Custodial Sentence
Central	3	1	1
Dumfries and Galloway	3	2	2
Fife	4	0	0
Grampian	11	4	4
Lothian and Borders	16	6	6
Northern	6	2	2
Strathclyde²	43	23	21
Tayside	5	2	2
Unknown	1	1	1
Scotland²	92	41	39

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Two persons received a guardianship order; a court appointment which authorises a person to take action or make decisions on behalf of an adult with incapacity.

Question reference: S3W-39966

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 11 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how Scotland’s rape conviction rate compares with other countries.

Information on conviction rates in Scotland can be found in Conviction Rates for Rape Charges Reported: 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008 published by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in July 2010. It can be obtained at:

http://www.copfs.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Publications/Resource/Doc/13547/0000632.pdf.

The Scottish Government does not generally publish data on international comparisons with regard to criminal statistics due to the difficulties in making such comparisons.

Question reference: S3W-39968

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 11 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-34679 by Kenny MacAskill on 9 July 2010, how many people were convicted for an offence with a domestic aggravator in 2009-10, broken down by police force area.

Question reference: S3W-39964

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 11 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of rape were recorded in each police force area in 2009-10.

Crimes of rape recorded by the police, 2009-10, by police force area.

Police Force Area	Recorded Crimes
Central	47
Dumfries and Galloway	15
Fife	92
Grampian	111
Lothian and Borders	173
Northern	50
Strathclyde	358
Tayside	38
Scotland	884

Question reference: S3W-39530

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive on what date it will publish Drug Seizures by Scottish Police Forces, 2007/2008 and 2008/09.

The statistical bulletin Drug Seizures by Scottish Police Forces, 2007/2008 and 2008/09, is due to be published by the Scottish Government in September 2011, and will be available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/DrugSeizures.

The dates of all Scottish Government Official and National Statistics publications are pre-announced, and the up to date list of future publications can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Search/Forthcoming.

Question reference: S3W-39824

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the financial cost to the police of knife crime since May 2007.

Scottish Government officials are carrying out ongoing work examining the economic and social costs of crime in Scotland, however precise cost estimates specifically for knife crime are currently not available at either the per offence or cumulative level.

We have put record levels of investment into the national Violence Reduction Unit, record investment into gang violence and record investment in diversionary activities. We announced on Friday 25 February 2011 a doubling of the funding for No Knives, Better Lives for 2011-12.

Question reference: S3W-39820

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hospital admissions there were due to assault by a sharp object in 2009-10.

There were a total of 1,446 admissions (emergency and elective) to acute hospitals in Scotland due to assault by sharp object in the year ending 31 March 2010. This data has been revised since provisional figures were used to answer S3W-35111 on 3 August 2010.

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-39822

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the financial cost to society of knife crime since May 2007.

Scottish Government officials are carrying out ongoing work examining the economic and social costs of crime in Scotland, however precise cost estimates specifically for knife crime are currently not available at either the per offence or cumulative level.

We have put record levels of investment into the national Violence Reduction Unit, record investment into gang violence and record investment in diversionary activities. We announced on Friday 25 February 2011 a doubling of the funding for No Knives, Better Lives for 2011-12.

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