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-08576

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has made any revisions to the volume bandings at which prisoner movements are reimbursed in the contract for prisoner escort duties with Reliance.

Question reference: S3W-08578

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any variance has been made to the budget for prisoner escort duties and, if so, when the variance was agreed; how much extra expenditure is projected to the end of 2011-12, and how many prisoner movements the revised estimates envisage in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10, (c) 2010-11 and (d) 2011-12.

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

To date, there has been no variationsto the annual budget set by SPS for this contract.

In determining any additionalexpenditure, I would refer the member to response to S3W-8577 on 29 January 2008. Thebudget is based on the actual volume data for the previous calendar year, we haveno estimates beyond fiscal year 2008-09 and would not anticipate any additionalexpenditure.

To date, prisoner movement dataindicates that total prisoner movements have varied between 177-198,000 movementsper year.

All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Question reference: S3W-08577

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the contract awarded to Reliance for prisoner escort duties is still operating to the original budget set.

Question reference: S3W-08055

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 December 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 22 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how much is being allocated under the spending review to service repayment schemes for PFI/PPP contracts established since 1999.

Specific amounts to repay PFI/PPPcontracts form part of broader allocations in the spending review for public servicesand investment. For example, in the case of local authorities, as agreed throughthe Concordat, the local government settlement is now all-embracing and individualproject costs are not ring-fenced.

Public bodies which have enteredinto PFI/PPP contracts are responsible for payments to their private sector partnersfrom within the total resources available to them. The total amount of unitary chargesfor PPP projects that are either operational or reached financial close to datefor the spending review years (2008-09 to 2010-11) is £2.0 billion covering 80 projects.Unitary charges are the amounts paid by the public sector procuring body to theprivate sector consortium for the services it provides over the length of the contract.

Question reference: S3W-08353

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the nature is of the Scottish Prison Service’s relationship with the International Corrections and Prisons Association.

Question reference: S3W-08278

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive in what capacity Strathclyde Police assisted Premier Prison Service’s management at an incident in HM Prison Kilmarnock on 4 January 2008.

Question reference: S3W-08277

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive when it was informed that Strathclyde Police had been called out to HM Prison Kilmarnock on 4 January 2008 to quell a disturbance.

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

Strathclyde police were not calledout to HM Prison Kilmarnock on 4 January 2008 to quell a disturbance. In line with the Nationally AgreedMemorandum of understanding the Scottish Prison Service and Strathclyde Police wereadvised of the incident at the outset. In line with these procedures the policewere present at the prison but SERCO remained in control throughout the durationof the incident.

Question reference: S3W-08279

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what procedures were undertaken to transfer responsibility from Premier Prison Service's management to Strathclyde Police in respect of an incident in HM Prison Kilmarnock on 4 January 2008.

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

The management of theincident on 4 January 2008 remained the responsibility of SERCO and theincident was brought to a successful conclusion with no injuries or loss ofaccommodation to the prison estate. Appropriate procedures were followed andStrathclyde police attended the incident in line with a nationally agreedmemorandum.

Question reference: S3W-08352

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many employees of the Scottish Prison Service are currently on secondment and to which organisations they are seconded.

Question reference: S3W-08354

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide details of the salaries and positions of employees of the Scottish Prison Service who are currently on secondment.

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

The SPS Grades (Bands) and salariesof the SPS staff who are currently seconded to external organisations are as follows:

Band	Salary (£)	Costs Met By
H	53,777	SPS
H	53,777	External organisation
G	44,715	External organisation
F	38,991	External organisation
F	37,986	SPS
D	26,591	SPS