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: S2W-19453

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 6 October 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases were processed in each sheriff court in each of the last five years.

Sheriff courts handle a range of civil and criminal business, but the largest component of it is summary criminal cases. The number of summary criminal cases concluded in each sheriff court in each of the last five financial years is shown in the following table.

Summary Cases Concluded

Court	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Aberdeen	4,487	5,133	6,020	6,655	5,567
Airdrie	2,469	2,788	3,241	3,681	3,547
Alloa	635	772	945	1,108	1,338
Arbroath	1,014	1,153	1,289	1,515	1,175
Ayr	3,349	3,153	3,682	3,579	3,550
Banff	455	579	512	571	392
Campbeltown	207	189	225	256	292
Cupar	560	705	727	695	690
Dingwall	405	397	448	572	518
Dornoch	110	159	125	175	137
Dumbarton	2,476	2,446	2,405	2,840	2,850
Dumfries	2,051	1,895	2,277	2,410	2,896
Dundee	3,987	4,598	4,627	5,747	4,800
Dunfermline	1,661	1,935	2,226	2,354	2,025
Dunoon	383	404	399	435	449
Edinburgh	9,866	9,942	10,587	10,682	10,366
Elgin	992	1,058	1,139	1,360	1,420
Falkirk	2,730	2,919	3,557	3,271	3,185
Forfar	640	721	872	971	904
Fort William	322	357	346	406	447
Glasgow	11,585	12,600	13,073	11,331	11,542
Greenock	2,024	1,973	2,491	2,427	2,291
Haddington	799	856	1,070	1,029	976
Hamilton	5,027	5,629	7,185	6,805	7,102
Inverness	1,484	1,954	2,010	2,203	2,265
Jedburgh/Duns	512	678	761	848	997
Kilmarnock	3,551	3,934	3,812	4,632	4,881
Kirkcaldy	2,283	2,439	2,751	2,849	3,006
Kirkcudbright	283	235	351	370	338
Kirkwall	247	217	238	258	239
Lanark	995	1,171	1,106	1,202	1,345
Lerwick	303	269	290	401	382
Linlithgow	2,579	2,831	3,081	2,544	2,474
Lochmaddy	87	78	73	71	99
Oban	358	377	329	409	387
Paisley	3,536	3,359	3,817	4,394	4,083
Peebles	155	194	220	204	188
Perth	1,722	2,203	2,229	2,909	2,832
Peterhead	654	784	876	845	996
Portree	58	69	92	101	109
Rothesay	116	163	171	175	194
Selkirk	362	547	595	634	647
Stirling	1,501	1,796	2,035	2,232	2,281
Stonehaven	487	543	536	581	391
Stornoway	195	222	246	302	269
Stranraer	1,008	958	897	969	1,136
Tain	409	480	550	519	539
Wick	300	342	431	491	340
Total	81,419	88,204	96,965	101,018	98,877

Question reference: S2W-19455

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 6 October 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average time to process a case in each sheriff court was in each of the last five years.

Sheriff courts handle a range of civil and criminal business, but the largest component of it is summary criminal cases. The average time to process summary criminal cases concluded in each sheriff court in each of the last five financial years is shown in the following table.

Summary Cases - Duration From First Calling to Conclusion (Average Weeks)

Court	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Aberdeen	19	21	21	24	25
Airdrie	21	23	22	19	26
Alloa	26	30	28	35	33
Arbroath	18	15	19	18	22
Ayr	17	19	20	23	23
Banff	14	18	18	19	24
Campbeltown	20	17	15	16	13
Cupar	18	20	19	19	19
Dingwall	14	19	15	14	16
Dornoch	16	15	15	14	14
Dumbarton	21	21	23	21	19
Dumfries	12	11	12	13	10
Dundee	23	22	23	23	25
Dunfermline	16	17	18	14	18
Dunoon	36	27	29	24	25
Edinburgh	22	22	22	20	18
Elgin	13	15	18	19	20
Falkirk	19	18	22	15	18
Forfar	14	16	16	18	19
Fort William	13	11	13	13	15
Glasgow	28	28	33	34	29
Greenock	21	28	30	31	34
Haddington	20	20	24	26	24
Hamilton	26	30	33	29	30
Inverness	16	18	20	20	21
Jedburgh/Duns	11	16	17	17	18
Kilmarnock	12	14	13	15	17
Kirkcaldy	23	23	28	27	27
Kirkcudbright	13	16	11	10	10
Kirkwall	12	15	12	10	10
Lanark	12	13	14	20	21
Lerwick	18	19	17	14	10
Linlithgow	23	24	25	18	20
Lochmaddy	15	9	7	15	16
Oban	14	15	15	15	21
Paisley	21	28	26	24	33
Peebles	8	10	15	15	17
Perth	26	25	19	19	24
Peterhead	18	18	22	21	14
Portree	10	16	17	13	11
Rothesay	18	13	19	23	22
Selkirk	10	16	15	16	16
Stirling	22	24	23	22	23
Stonehaven	12	12	13	11	12
Stornoway	19	14	16	13	12
Stranraer	10	14	16	13	13
Tain	13	14	14	12	13
Wick	11	12	11	11	12

Question reference: S2W-19458

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 3 October 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average time to process a case by each sheriff was in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-19456

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 3 October 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases were processed by each sheriff in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-19457

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 3 October 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases were subject to a continuance by each sheriff in each of the last five years and what the average duration of a continuance was.

Question reference: S2W-19459

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 30 September 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many forensic science centres there are in Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-19460

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 30 September 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many forensic scientists there were in Scotland in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-19461

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 30 September 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average time for forensic evidence to be processed was in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-18585

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 August 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 September 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide details of the diets of children held in secure accommodation.

Question reference: S2W-18586

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 August 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 September 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has undertaken any research into the impact of diet on the behaviour of children held in secure accommodation and, if not, whether it will do so.