Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-30123

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 22 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive on what occasions a ministerial vehicle has been used to transport someone other than a minister or Scottish Government employee unaccompanied by a minister or Scottish Government employee since May 2007 and what the purpose was of each journey.

Question reference: S3W-28253

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 12 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many fixed penalty notices were served in each year since 2004, broken down by (a) sheriffdom and (b) offence committed.

The available information held centrally on fixed penalty notices for antisocial behaviour and stationary vehicle fixed penalty notices issued by the police are given in the following tables. The data has been supplied by police forces and cannot be aggregated into sheriffdoms.

Information on fixed penalty notices for litter offences also follows. This information has been provided by the independent environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful and is not available by sheriffdom

Information on penalty charge notices for parking infringements issued by local authorities is given in the Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts bulletins for 2004-05 to 2007-08 in tables 26, 26, 31, and 31 respectively. Copies of the first three of these bulletins are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. numbers 39481, 42387 and 46485); the 2007-08 bulletin can be obtained at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/04/27103325/0.

The available information on fixed penalty notices for noise nuisance was given in the answer to question S3W-15965 on 18 September 2008. The central funding and statistical returns ceased with the outset of the single outcome agreement arrangements in April 2008. Subsequent information is held by Audit Scotland. 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.

Fixed penalty notices for dog fouling, road works, fisheries and smoking are not held centrally.

Number of Police Fixed Penalty Notices for Anti-social Behaviour Issued, by Police Force and Offence Type, 2008-09

Police Force	Total	Type 1	Type 2	Type 3	Type 4	Type 5	Type 6	Type 7	Type 8	Type 9	Type 10
Scotland	47,705	59	147	9,469	1,147	5	229	971	17,655	17,970	53
Central	2,006	6	0	423	59	1	26	232	110	1,148	1
Dumfries and Galloway	670	0	2	135	50	0	2	18	154	307	2
Fife	1,975	0	1	481	217	0	7	43	565	661	0
Grampian	2,799	14	0	1,158	80	0	8	37	226	1,276	0
Lothian and Borders	3,282	13	21	770	196	0	13	112	244	1,865	48
Northern	1,539	8	35	288	349	1	15	43	70	730	0
Strathclyde	31,722	16	64	5,329	186	3	91	228	15,971	9,834	0
Tayside	3,712	2	24	885	10	0	67	258	315	2,149	2

Source: Management information provided by ACPOS.

Notes:

2008-09 is the first full year for which data are available.

Offences:

Type 1: Riotous behaviour whilst drunk in licensed premises.

Type 2: Refusing to leave licensed premises on being requested to do so.

Type 3: Urinating or defecating in circumstances causing annoyance to others.

Type 4: Being drunk and incapable in a public place.

Type 5: Being drunk in a public place in charge of a child.

Type 6: Persisting to the annoyance of others in playing musical instruments, singing, playing radios etc on being required to stop.

Type 7: Vandalism.

Type 8: Consume alcoholic liquor in a public place in contravention of Local Bye-law.

Type 9: Breach of the Peace.

Type 10: Malicious Mischief.

Police Fixed Penalty Notices Issued for Stationary Vehicle Offences by Police Force and Type of Offence 2004-05 to 2007-08

Police Force	2004-05³	2005-06³	2006-07³	2007-08³
Central	6,260	10,576	7,441	6,816
Parking and waiting offences¹	5,387	8,991	5,949	5,565
Failing to display a valid excise licence	873	1,585	1,492	1,251
Other²	0	0	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway³	5,283	4,414	4,414	4,403
Parking and waiting offences¹	3,278	2,408	2,408	3,243
Failing to display a valid excise licence	2,000	2,004	2,004	1,160
Other²	5	2	2	0
Fife	13,053	9,539	10,571	10,073
Parking and waiting offences¹	8,518	5,536	6,544	6,560
Failing to display a valid excise licence	4,535	4,001	4,021	3,502
Other²	0	2	6	11
Grampian	4,364	4,470	11,408	10,535
Parking and waiting offences¹	2,352	2,505	2,666	2,419
Failing to display a valid excise licence	1,937	1,934	2,432	2,352
Other^{2, 6}	75	31	6,310	5,764
Lothian and Borders	20,938	20,250	23,829	14,378
Parking and waiting offences¹	15,252	14,176	15,119	8,614
Failing to display a valid excise licence	5,686	6,074	8,710	5,764
Other²	0	0	0	0
Northern⁴	4,828	5,601	5,516	5,449
Parking and waiting offences¹	4,828	5,601	5,516	3,364
Failing to display a valid excise licence	0	0	0	1,727
Other²	0	0	0	358
Strathclyde	48,420	41,598	38,818	39,579
Parking and waiting offences¹	32,319	26,174	25,414	26,488
Failing to display a valid excise licence	16,100	15,423	13,404	13,087
Other²	1	1	0	4
Tayside	2,854	2,948	3,308	2,289
Parking and waiting offences¹	1,408	1,676	2,123	1,488
Failing to display a valid excise licence	1,445	1,266	1,180	798
Other²	1	6	5	3
Scotland	106,000	99,396	105,305	93,522
Parking and waiting offences^1,5	73,342	67,067	65,739	57,741
Failing to display a valid excise licence	32,576	32,287	33,243	29,641
Other²	82	42	6,323	6,140

Notes:

1. Includes clearway offences.

2. Includes vehicle lighting offences, prescribed route offences and infringement of the construction and use regulations.

3. Includes estimated data, for example, data for Dumfries and Galloway for 2006-07 was estimated from 2005-06.

4. Northern police force were unable to provide a breakdown of offences for 2004-05 to 2007-08. The 2007-08 breakdown for Northern is estimated.

5. Data for 2006-07 has been updated since publication of the 2007-08 Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts bulletin.

6. A substantial reconciliation of data in Grampian led to the data on other notices issued increasing substantially from 2006-07 onwards. Equivalent data for earlier years is not available centrally.

Fixed Penalty Notices for Litter Offences by Local Authority Area 2004-05 to 2008-09

Local Authority	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Aberdeen City Council	-	-	11	148	152
Aberdeenshire Council	-	-	3	-	-
Angus Council	11	-	23	19	3
Argyll and Bute Council	-	-	5	6	6
City of Edinburgh Council	973	-	1658	927	819
Clackmannanshire Council	-	-	0	-	-
Dumfries and Galloway Council	0	-	11	31	122
Dundee City Council	0	-	100	42	166
East Ayrshire Council	6	-	80	-	-
East Dunbartonshire Council	0	-	1	15	15
East Lothian Council	1	-	3	1	1
East Renfrewshire Council	-	-	0	0	0
Falkirk Council	3	-	161	165	268
Fife Council	120	-	104	122	54
Glasgow City Council	490	-	1316	-	-
Highland Council	-	-	5	4	23
Inverclyde Council	-	-	6	152	202
Midlothian Council	not adopted the FPN scheme
Moray Council	0	-	2	0	-
North Ayrshire Council	0	-	4	0	-
North Lanarkshire Council	62	-	370	260	277
Orkney Islands Council	0	-	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross Council	47	-	100	266	57
Renfrewshire Council	not adopted the FPN scheme				205
Scottish Borders Council	0	-	3	-	-
Shetland Islands Council	0	-	19	23	21
South Ayrshire Council	14	-	11	20	77
South Lanarkshire Council	10	-	142	-	-
Stirling Council	0	-	27	19	21
Western Isles Council	-	-	0	0	0
West Dunbartonshire Council	0	-	11	11	-
West Lothian Council	-	-	191	162	143

Source: Data provided by the independent environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful (information by sheriffdoms is not available).

Note: - denotes information not provided.

Question reference: S3W-28254

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Frank Mulholland on 10 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases were sent to (a) district and (b) Justice of the Peace courts in each year since 2004, broken down by sheriffdom.

The information held by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) does not distinguish between cases prosecuted in the District and Justice of the Peace courts and is available only by COPFS Area rather than by sheriffdom.

The following table shows the number of accused for each COPFS Area for whom the first prosecution decision was to prosecute in the district court and, from 2008, the Justice of the Peace courts. It does not include cases where a prosecution in the district court or Justice of the Peace court followed a failure to accept a direct measure such as a fiscal fine or road traffic fixed penalty.

The figures for 2008-09 demonstrate that procurators fiscal, as part of the successful introduction of Summary Justice Reform, supported the strengthening of lay justice by increasing the number of prosecutions in the new Justice of the Peace courts by 20%.

Initial Prosecution Decision “ Number of Accused by COPFS Area

Area	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Argyll and Clyde	3,746	3,778	2,836	2,820	2,951
Ayrshire	3,147	3,182	1,787	1,457	2,605
Central	2,964	2,792	1,679	1,784	1,800
Dumfries and Galloway	1,551	2,079	1,712	2,258	3,043
Fife	2,705	2,055	1,567	1,813	2,000
Glasgow	7,958	7,214	6,272	5,946	8,521
Grampian	3,585	3,407	3,614	4,509	5,871
Highland and Island	3,312	2,157	2,031	2,081	2,289
Lanarkshire	5,905	4,855	3,348	3,832	4,293
Lothian and Borders	7,289	7,403	7,022	5,960	6,200
Tayside	4,934	4,940	4,767	4,158	4,230
Grand Total	47,096	43,862	36,635	36,618	43,803

Question reference: S3W-26540

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 5 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on the administration of eProcurement Scotland in each year since its establishment in 2002.

The following table provides details of the total cost (including staff costs and payments to the contracted service provider) of the eProcurement Scotland service since it was established in 2002.

Financial Year	Cost
2002-03	£3,253,370
2003-04	£1,540,542
2004-05	£583,402
2005-06	£1,868,721
2006-07	£1,634,456
2007-08	£2,609,397
2008-09	£10,207,173
2009-10	£9,081,158

Since April 2008, the costs of annual subscriptions for software licensing, systems hosting and service management have been met centrally by the Scottish Government rather than by individual user organisations and this explains the increase in costs for that year and 2009-10.

Question reference: S3O-07975

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 1 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is on the transportation of abnormal loads.

Question reference: S3W-26541

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 18 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what its estimate is of the cost savings achieved by eProcurement Scotland in each year since 2002.

The following table shows the estimated savings achieved by eProcurement Scotland (ePS) each year since 2002. The transaction cost (costs of processing purchase orders and invoices) savings figures are conservative estimates based on work undertaken with ePS users to identify typical costs per transaction before and after implementation of the ePS service. The ePS service also supports delivery of savings through use of electronic auctions and tendering (e-sourcing) and these are also shown in the following table.

Year	Transaction Cost Savings	eSourcing Savings
2002-03	£27,000	£0
2003-04	£229,000	£300,000
2004-05	£846,000	£3,953,000
2005-06	£2,196,000	£807,000
2006-07	£5,640,000	£2,045,000
2007-08	£7,895,000	£7,300,000
2008-09	£10,095,000	£0
2009-10	£2,764,000	£0
Totals	£29,691,000	£14,405,000

Question reference: S3W-24590

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 15 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason rail services between Glasgow Central and Kilmarnock via Dunlop and Kilmaurs are scheduled to run on an hourly basis given that the timetable on page 31 of the ScotRail franchise extension amendment agreement of 2 April 2008 shows a half-hourly service on this route.

Priced Option 4 Operation of Kilmarnock half hourly service and recast of G&SW timetable being Ayr-Girvan and Stranraer “ Glasgow services includes an indicative timetable developed for resourcing purposes to allow an understanding of the franchise operating costs.

The decision to take forward the current timetable and calling pattern is based primarily on economic analysis and aspirations to improve the journey times and connections between Glasgow to Kilmarnock and beyond.

The timetable will be based upon a half hourly service between Glasgow and Kilmarnock throughout the day. Residents of Kilmaurs and Dunlop will benefit from this half hourly service during peak times as well as two additional trains mid-morning and mid-afternoon. This will be an increase in trains per day at each station from 36 to 51.

The following is the original answer (published on 15 June 2009); see below.

Priced Option 4 Operation of Kilmarnock half hourly service and recast of G&SW timetable being Ayr to Girvan and Stranraer to Glasgow services includes an indicative timetable developed for resourcing purposes to allow an understanding of the franchise operating costs.

The decision to take forward the current timetable and calling pattern is based primarily on economic analysis and aspirations to improve the journey times and connections between Glasgow to Kilmarnock and beyond.

The timetable will be based upon a half-hourly service between Glasgow and Kilmarnock throughout the day. Residents of Kilmaurs and Dunlop will benefit from this half-hourly service during peak times as well as two additional trains mid-morning and mid-afternoon. This will be an increase in trains per day at each station from 38 to 53.

Question reference: S3W-24592

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 15 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive on what routes the three class 158 units displaced by the leasing of loco-hauled stock on the Fife circle line, as indicated on page 29 of the ScotRail franchise extension amendment agreement of 2 April 2008, are being used.

Question reference: S3W-24591

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 15 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive on what routes the eight leased class 158 units mentioned on page 29 of the ScotRail franchise extension amendment agreement of 2 April 2008 are being used.

Question reference: S3W-24593

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 15 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what additional stock has been allocated to rail services between Glasgow Central and Kilmarnock since the commencement of the ScotRail franchise agreement in 2004.

Chamber and committees