Questions and answers

Question reference: S4W-02269

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Cities Strategy has had with the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth to ensure the next budget bill increases funding for measures to improve health while tackling climate change.

The Scottish Government is clear that action to meet statutory emissions reduction targets is a collective responsibility across all ministerial portfolios, and all Cabinet Secretaries are therefore in regular and ongoing discussion in preparation for the Spending Review.

It would be premature to announce any funding for health-related measures in advance of the Spending Review statement in September.

Question reference: S4W-02268

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Cities Strategy has had with the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth to ensure that the next budget bill increases funding towards active travel and the extent to which this could contribute to meeting the annual targets in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.

The Scottish Government is clear that action to meet statutory emissions reduction targets is a collective responsibility across all ministerial portfolios, and all Cabinet Secretaries are therefore in regular and ongoing discussion in preparation for the Spending Review.

It would be premature to announce any additional funding for cycling and walking in advance of the Spending Review statement in September.

Question reference: S4W-02536

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 13 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many convictions there have been for speeding on the trunk road network in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) police force area and (b) speed camera location.

Question reference: S4W-01375

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 July 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will maintain a separate monitoring role for prison visiting committees.

Question reference: S4W-01374

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 July 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the importance of the role of prison visiting committees, following its consultation on the independent monitoring of prisons.

Question reference: S4W-01165

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 18 July 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many test purchases of alcohol were carried out in (a) on-sales and (b) off-sales premises in 2010; how many resulted in alcohol being sold to (i) an underage person and (ii) an underage person for the second time; what action was taken against the licensee in each case; and how many licences were suspended or revoked, broken down by police force area.

The following information has been obtained from the Scottish Police Service in respect of on-sales and off-sales test purchases during 2010.

All alcohol test purchasing is intelligence-led.

Please note that information is not held centrally in relation to the action taken, and the number of licences suspended or revoked, as a result of test purchasing.

2010	Central Scotland Police	Dumfries & Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Lothian & Borders	Northern	Strathclyde	Tayside
Total Number of Off Sales Tested	25	0	120	34	154	21	465	0
Total Number of Off Sales First Failures	4	0	7	5	8	2	42	0
Total Number of Off Sales second or subsequent failures	0	0	1	1	2	0	0	0
Total Number of On Sales Tested	0	0	8	4	30	0	6	0
Total Number of On Sales First Failures	0	0	1	1	3	0	4	0
Total Number of On sales second or subsequent failures	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total Number of Reports to the Licensing Board	4	0	8	2	13	2	58	0
Total Number of Reports to the Procurator Fiscal	4	0	9	6	13	2	58	0

Question reference: S4W-01167

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 14 July 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many retailers were prosecuted for selling alcohol to underage customers in (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11, broken down by police force area, and what fines were issued in each case.

The available information is given in the following tables. The data held centrally cannot be broken down between shop owners and licensed drinking establishments. Information for 2010-11 will not be available until publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2010-11 Statistical Bulletin. This is due to be published in December 2011.

The dates of all Scottish Government Official and National Statistics publications are pre-announced, and the up to date list of future publications can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Search/Forthcoming

The Government has always called for the full enforcement of the law. Enforcement and prosecution remain operational matters for the police and procurator fiscal

Persons proceeded against for selling alcohol to underage customers¹, by police force

Police Force	2009-10
Central	7
Dumfries and Galloway	2
Fife	16
Grampian	7
Lothian and Borders	27
Northern	7
Strathclyde	73
Tayside	4
Scotland	143

1. Where the main offence is under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976 Sections 67, 68(1) and 68(7)

and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 Sections 102(1) and 103(1).

Persons fined for selling alcohol to underage customers¹, by fine amount

Fine amount (£)	2009-10
40	1
50	1
53	1
60	3
75	1
80	1
100	8
115	1
120	1
130	4
135	1
140	6
150	6
170	1
180	1
200	13
250	4
300	7
320	1
400	2
500	5
Total	69

1. Where the main offence is under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976 Sections 67, 68(1) and 68(7)

and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 Sections 102(1) and 103(1).

Question reference: S4W-01164

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 July 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether bariatric surgery is available to patients in all NHS board areas.

Question reference: S4W-01163

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 July 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many gastric (a) band and (b) bypass operations were performed in each of the last three years, broken down by NHS board.

The following tables show information on the number of gastric band and gastric bypass operations undertaken in NHS hospitals, where a main diagnosis of obesity has been recorded, by NHS board of residence in the last three financial years.

Table 1: The number of gastric band operations undertaken, where a main diagnosis of obesity has been recorded, by NHS Board of residence; 2007-08 – 2009-10.

NHS Board of Residence

Financial Year

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

NHS Ayrshire & Arran	3	29	30
NHS Borders	3	0	0
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	1	0	0
NHS Fife	0	3	3
NHS Forth Valley	6	2	0
NHS Grampian	16	11	1
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	32	33	29
NHS Highland	3	7	4
NHS Lanarkshire	28	15	16
NHS Lothian	17	14	11
NHS Orkney	0	0	0
NHS Shetland	1	0	0
NHS Tayside	1	1	0
NHS Western Isles	0	0	0

Source: ISD Scotland, SMR01.

Table 2: The number of gastric bypass operations, where a main diagnosis of obesity has been recorded, by NHS Board of residence; 2007-08 – 2009-10.

NHS Board of Residence

Financial Year

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

NHS Ayrshire & Arran	0	2	3
NHS Borders	1	3	1
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	1	0	0
NHS Fife	3	2	0
NHS Forth Valley	0	2	1
NHS Grampian	4	13	10
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	3	5	5
NHS Highland	1	4	3
NHS Lanarkshire	2	1	4
NHS Lothian	2	7	24
NHS Orkney	0	0	1
NHS Shetland	0	1	1
NHS Tayside	0	0	0
NHS Western Isles	0	0	0

Source: ISD Scotland, SMR01.

Question reference: S4W-01168

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 14 July 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many retailers were prosecuted for selling alcohol to a drunk person in (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11, broken down by police force, and what fines were issued in each case.

One person was prosecuted with no fines issued in the Strathclyde police force area in 2009-10. Information for 2010-11 will not be available until publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2010-11 Statistical Bulletin. This is due to be published in December 2011.

The dates of all Scottish Government Official and National Statistics publications are pre-announced, and the up to date list of future publications can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Search/Forthcoming

The Government has always called for the full enforcement of the law. Enforcement and prosecution remain operational matters for the police and procurator fiscal. As an alternative to prosecution, the Police can report concerns to Licensing Boards who have been given powers to take tough action against those who sell alcohol irresponsibly. Sanctions include suspension and even revocation of a licence.

Chamber and committees