Questions and answers

Question reference: S4W-02184

Asked by: Ruth Davidson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 2 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been released from HMP Barlinnie under the early release scheme in each of the last five years.

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

The following table shows the number of people released from HMP Barlinnie under current rules in each of the last five years, and those who have been released on Home Detention Curfew (HDC).

Year

No of Prisoners Released

Barlinnie HDC Releases

2006	5,425	2006	145
2007	5,186	2007	356
2008	4,716	2008	484
2009	3,945	2009	347
2010	3,542	2010	355

Question reference: S4W-02185

Asked by: Ruth Davidson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 2 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-37765 by Kenny MacAskill on 6 December 2010, when it anticipates that automatic unconditional early release will end.

The Scottish Government remains committed to ending automatic unconditional early release, when it is feasible to do so. This would include, for example, achieving the kind of reduction in the short-term prisoner population outlined by the McLeish Commission in its July 2008 report Scotland’s Choice.

Officials have been in discussion with a range of interests to determine how this can be done effectively in light of the unprecedented spending cuts passed down by the UK Government.

Question reference: S4W-02183

Asked by: Ruth Davidson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what disposals were applied to people convicted of carrying a knife or other bladed weapon in the Strathclyde Police force area in 2010-11.

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 published information for 2009-10 for handling an offensive weapon can be found in table 8a of the additional datasets titled Bulletin table 4a, 8a and 10a by Police Force Area 2009-10 at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Datasets/DatasetsCrimProc.

Crimes of “handling an offensive weapon” include possession of an offensive weapon, having in a public place an article with a blade or point and restriction of an offensive weapon. An offensive weapon include knives and other sharp instruments.

Question reference: S4W-02181

Asked by: Ruth Davidson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were convicted of carrying a knife or other bladed weapon in the Strathclyde Police force area in 2010-11.

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 published information for 2009-10 for handling an offensive weapon can be found in table 8a of the additional datasets titled Bulletin table 4a, 8a and 10a by Police Force Area 2009-10 at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Datasets/DatasetsCrimProc.

Crimes of “handling an offensive weapon” include possession of an offensive weapon, having in a public place an article with a blade or point and restriction of an offensive weapon. An offensive weapon include knives and other sharp instruments.

Question reference: S4W-02180

Asked by: Ruth Davidson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) cars were confiscated and (b) licences were removed from people speeding in cars in the Strathclyde Police force area in 2010-11.

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.

Information on the numbers of cars confiscated is not held centrally.

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.

Question reference: S4W-01808

Asked by: Ruth Davidson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 July 2011
Current Status: Answered by Bruce Crawford on 18 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the UK Government releasing similar information, whether it will publish details of meetings held by (a) the First Minister, (b) ministers and (c) officials with newspaper (i) proprietors, (ii) executives and (iii) editors in the last year.

The Scottish Government has proactively released information held about meetings between Scottish ministers and media proprietors, editors and media executives. This includes meetings and correspondence with representatives of News International and News Corporation. This is more information than that published by any other political party or administration.

This information has been published on the Scottish Government website and can be accessed by following this link http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/14944/proprietors-editors-execs.

Question reference: S4O-00055

Asked by: Ruth Davidson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been allocated by Glasgow City Council for suicide prevention in the last three years.

Chamber and committees