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-16004

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 September 2008
Current Status: Answered by Frank Mulholland on 17 September 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many charges brought under section 50A of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 have been (a) reported to procurators fiscal by police, (b) prosecuted, (c) marked for no proceedings and (d) disposed of in other ways in each year since 2003-04.

The following table shows the number of charges reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service under Section 50A of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995, and how these charges were dealt with.

Charges: Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995, Section 50A^{1, 2, 4}

Statutory Racial Charges	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
a. Total Charges Reported	2,323	2,598	2,761	2,766	2,698
b. Court Proceedings	1,846	1,967	2,143	2,185	2,164
c. No Action	135	162	138	121	140
d. Direct Measures	222	260	271	231	203
e. Not a Separate Charge³	120	209	209	229	191

Notes:

1. The information in this table has been extracted from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service''s case management database. The database is a live, operational database used to manage the processing of reports submitted to procurators fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies. If a Procurator Fiscal amends a charge submitted by a reporting agency the database will record details only of the amended charge.

2. . The database is charge-based. The figures quoted therefore relate to the number of charges rather than the number of individuals charged or the number of incidents that gave rise to such charges.

3.The charges referred to at (e) were not included as separate charges in any court proceedings or other action, but action was taken in relation to other charges against the accused.

4. The table reflects the position at 9 September 2008.

Question reference: S3W-15893

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 September 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 17 September 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions have taken place with the Registrar General for Scotland regarding the replacement of the Census with an identity register.

The Registrar General for Scotland and the Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism have discussed informally the scope for providing improved census-type information, for instance through some form of register covering the whole population. But, as I said in reply to answer to question S3W-15894 on 3 September 2008, there are no plans to replace the census.

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/webapp/wa.search.

Question reference: S3W-15317

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 September 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether local authorities are able to introduce 20mph speed limits on traffic distributor roads.

Question reference: S3W-15894

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 September 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 September 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to replace the Census with an alternative method of gathering information and, if so, what alternatives it has considered.

Question reference: S3W-15318

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 28 August 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are plans to conduct further research into the improvements in road safety that can be made through the introduction of 20mph speed limits.

Question reference: S3W-15316

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 25 August 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the legal status is of the term traffic distributor road.

Question reference: S3W-15176

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 20 August 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of electricity generation capacity ministers expect to be delivered by coal by 2020.

The composition of Scotland''s future electricity generation will be dependent on a number of factors, including relative cost of fuels, requirements in relation to carbon emissions and related investment decisions made by the private sector. Therefore, we do not have a specific prediction for coal-based generation.

It will be for the industry to bring forward proposals for new or replacement capacity, and Scottish ministers will consider each on its merits under our consenting powers in the Electricity Act 1989. We will be consulting shortly on new guidance for applications for consent to construct thermal power generation.

Question reference: S3W-15174

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 20 August 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what level of (a) carbon emissions and (b) sulphur and other pollutants ministers would regard as acceptable for coal-fired power stations to be considered as clean coal stations.

Levels of carbon emissions, sulphur and other pollutants from coal-fired power stations are strictly regulated by EU emissions and air quality legislation. The European Union is currently negotiating its Climate and Energy package, which includes new and revised directives on Carbon Capture and Storage, the Emissions Trading Scheme and industrial emissions.

These new directives will set the framework for what levels of emissions will be considered acceptable from coal-fired power stations in future to meet the EU''s agreed target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020.

Question reference: S3W-15177

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 20 August 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the impact would be on carbon emissions if coal-fired generation capacity were replaced by equivalent renewable capacity.

It is likely that thermal baseload, utilising carbon reducing technology, will be required into the future to help meet security of supply objectives.

If fitted with carbon capture and storage equipment, estimates from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are that emissions from coal-fired generation would fall by up to 90%.

Where renewable energy replaces thermal generation without carbon capture and storage, a significant reduction in carbon emissions may also be expected.

Question reference: S3W-15178

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 20 August 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive when ministers expect carbon capture and storage technologies to be ready for use in Scotland.

The current Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) competition being run by the UK Government sets a deadline of 2014 for the chosen project to be operational on a commercial scale. We are hopeful that a Scottish based project will win that competition.

We are also playing an enabling role to assist the development of CCS more generally such as funding research into identifying future carbon stores and participating in the UK Energy Bill''s provisions on carbon storage.

We believe that all of this work will ensure that CCS technologies will be ready for deployment in Scotland at the earliest possible opportunity.