Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-33050 on 26 April 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The proposals which were contained in section 17 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill sought to create a presumption against short custodial sentences of six months or less, but did not remove the right of judges to impose such a sentence if they considered there was no alternative. Given judicial discretion, only individual sentencers would be able to answer how their sentencing behaviour in relation to those charged with handling an offensive weapon might have been different had the presumption been in force.

The Scottish Government does not hold the value or the number of grants paid by Parliamentary constituency under the CashBack for Communities scheme. The following table sets out the total number of grants and value administered by Youthlink Scotland since 2007 within each local authority.

To date, the Scottish Government has invested over £14 million in the CashBack for Communities programme which includes diversionary and participatory projects for young people across Scotland, and in am wide range of projects.

This includes £2.5 million to Scottish Football Association, £4 million to Youthlink, £1.4 million to Scottish Rugby Union, £1.7 million to Scottish Sports Futures and Basketball Scotland, £2 million to Scottish Screen and the Scottish Arts Council for the Creative Identities initiative. The most recent projects launched are a multisport project funding of £1.5 million, £500,000 to YouthScotland to administer a grant project for uniformed and small organisations, and The Junction project with £1.6 million allocated to the project.

So far over 100,000 young people have participated in CashBack for Communities activities.

LA Area	Panels	Total Amount Awarded	Total No. of Awards
1	Aberdeen City	£123,543.00	14
2	Aberdeenshire	£136,580.56	20
3	Angus	£65,505.00	19
4	Argyll and Bute	£61,478.00	10
5	Clackmannanshire	£49,723.00	8
6	Dumfries and Galloway	£100,671.00	13
7	Dundee	£149,414.00	17
8	East Ayrshire	£105,069.00	16
9	East Dunbartonshire	£58,596.86	13
10	East Lothian	£49,986.00	9
11	East Renfrewshire	£51,384.74	9
12	Edinburgh	£291,203.00	32
13	Falkirk	£96,810.00	12
14	Fife	£257,945.00	36
15	Glasgow	£811,573.00	65
16	Highland	£133,865.00	23
17	Inverclyde	£98,745.00	12
18	Midlothian	£48,441.00	8
19	Moray	£45,946.00	11
20	North Ayrshire	£122,151.95	18
21	North Lanarkshire	£285,488.00	38
22	Orkney	£15,298.00	4
23	Perth and Kinross	£80,652.20	14
24	Renfrewshire	£130,960.00	11
25	Scottish Borders	£61,041.00	11
26	Shetland	£16,321.00	4
27	South Ayrshire	£80,021.61	18
28	South Lanarkshire	£234,542.00	29
29	Stirling	£54,778.00	5
30	West Dunbartonshire	£99,677.00	9
31	West Lothian	£113,618.37	15
32	Western Isles	£17,289.00	8
	Totals	£4,048,039.29	531

 

Offences of public mischief recorded by Grampian Police¹:

	Grampian
2006-07	121
2007-08	132
2008-09	95

Note: 1. The offence of public mischief includes, but is not restricted to, wasting police time.

No.

We have previously made clear that work on Haudagain Roundabout will be completed before financial responsibility transfers to the Council.

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

To assist in managing the consequential risks associated with the pressure on the prison system when the prisoner population reaches defined levels in each establishment, the Assessed Operational Limit (AOL) was introduced in 2008 to establish the numerical level at which prison management assess they can safely operate the establishment in the short term.

The AOL is a dynamic risk assessment of the capacity beyond which prison management assess there to be unacceptable risks, taking into account the health and safety of both prisoners and staff, the need to deliver an acceptable regime, European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and other minimum requirements.

When the prisoner population is in excess of the AOL, the  SPS can no longer guarantee that the continued operation of Scotland''s prisons is operationally safe or complaint with legal obligations.

The AOL for each prison is reviewed periodically as circumstances change. The current AOL for each establishment is:

Establishment	AOL
Aberdeen	255
Addiewell	7001
Barlinnie	1,600
Cornton Vale	440
Dumfries	216
Edinburgh	960
Glenochil	750
Greenock	330
Inverness	162
Kilmarnock	5481
Open Estate	5192
Perth	7123
Peterhead	306
Polmont	837
Shotts	537

Notes:

1. HMP Addiewell and HMP Kilmarnock figures are based on the number of Available Prisoner Places which are currently provided to SPS

2. The Open Estate AOL is subject to the availability of sufficient qualifying prisoners who meet the strict entry criteria for progression from closed to open conditions. The average prisoner population in the Open Estate during the last six months was around 240 compared with the current AOL of 519.

3. HMP Perth AOL excludes Friarton Hall which is currently closed pending consideration of its future use.

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

SPS has no plans to capture the specific information requested in questions S3W-32236, S3W-32237.

In respect of the information requested in S3W-32238, SPS is working with its education contractors and partners to develop information about the qualifications gained by prisoners during time spent in custody in Scotland. The first phase of this exercise has been to collect information in respect of Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA) awards “ such qualifications can be gained by participating in the education sessions and attending the vocational opportunities available in prisons. The tables below provide details of the number of prisoners gaining SQA awards and the total number of awards gained “ shown separately for each category - during each of the last three years. This information is the best available and may not be strictly accurate given that only limited quality assurance has been undertaken at this stage of the development. Further work is planned to examine the feasibility of collecting details of other non-SQA awards gained in custody.

Education:

Prison	2006-07		2007-08		2008-09
	No. of Prisoners	No. of SQA qualifications	No. of Prisoners	No. of SQA qualifications	No. of Prisoners	No. of SQA qualifications
Aberdeen	65	141	85	209	69	152
Addiewell	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0	0
Barlinnie	214	365	250	612	385	929
Cornton Vale	23	145	52	257	120	163
Dumfries	26	41	69	125	114	254
Edinburgh	89	323	156	326	195	344
Glenochil	43	450	78	397	96	325
Greenock	91	221	91	175	160	287
Inverness	158	218	159	189	114	152
Kilmarnock	130	141	123	172	129	133
Open Estate	170	90	64	94	67	102
Perth	138	525	235	651	418	1,007
Peterhead	71	168	95	368	86	202
Polmont	205	318	228	448	272	435
Shotts	172	159	99	211	161	135
Total Education	1,595	3,305	1,784	4,234	2,386	4,620

 

Vocational:

Prison	2006-07		2007-08		2008-09
	No. of Prisoners	No. of SQA qualifications	No. of Prisoners	No. of SQA qualifications	No. of Prisoners	No. of SQA Qualifications
Addiewell	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	20	20
Barlinnie	45	110	65	275	150	727
Cornton Vale	10	34	4	15	23	60
Dumfries	18	82	28	163	20	120
Edinburgh	85	420	105	487	121	483
Glenochil	97	405	75	288	91	343
Greenock	35	190	2	10	75	408
Open Estate	144	418	122	516	159	747
Perth	11	15	1	1	30	94
Polmont	102	291	108	319	84	250
Shotts	11	77	7	43	13	86
Total Vocational	558	2,042	517	2,117	786	3,338
Total Education and Vocational	2,153	5,347	2,301	6,351	3,172	7,958

 

Information on the cost to the NHS of treating knife crime-related incidents is not available.

No information is held on the costs to the NHS of knife crime.