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-27270

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 2 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, following the meeting scheduled with Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) officials on 16 May 2006, what new measures the SCRA is required to report on to ministers regarding youth justice reporting.

Question reference: S2W-27269

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 2 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it agreed with and supported the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA) view that it should not issue the Q4 Youth Justice Report prepared by SCRA in April 2006.

Question reference: S2W-27240

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 2 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it has provided to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration since March 2005 in relation to the provision of information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

The Scottish Executive has notprovided any specific guidance to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration(SCRA) since March 2005 in relation to the provision of information under the Freedomof Information (Scotland) Act 2002.Internal guidance produced forScottish Executive staff in relation to Freedom of Information request handlingis available via the Scottish Executive’s publication scheme on the website, andis therefore also available to Scottish Public Bodies and other agencies outwiththe Scottish Executive. The guidance is available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/FOI.

Question reference: S2W-27241

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 2 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive on what dates in this year did the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration provide ministers or their officials with provisional statistics showing national and local authority data on youth justice, including figures on persistent young offenders.

Question reference: S2W-27343

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 2 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what confidence it has in the data analysis and publication of figures by the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA), in light of the press release by Moray Council of 11 July 2006 which said that its most prolific, persistent offenders were not included in SCRA’s baseline data of persistent young offenders.

Question reference: S2W-27307

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 2 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children referred to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration on grounds of “lack of parental care” in each year since 2001 came from the top 20 most deprived communities, as defined by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, expressed (a) in real terms and (b) as a percentage of the total number of referrals for “lack of parental care”.

The Scottish Children’sReporter Administration (SCRA) does not hold information on children referredas defined by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.

Information provided by SCRAis for children referred to the Children’s Reporter under section 52(2)(c) of the Children’s (Scotland) Act 1995 on the basis that they were likely(i) to suffer unnecessarily; or (ii) to be impaired seriously in his health ordevelopment, due to lack of parental care. This information is provided foreach local authority area for 2003-04 and 2004-05.

This breakdown is notavailable for preceding years which pre-date the Scottish Children’s ReporterAdministration Referral Administration Database (RAD).

Local Authority	2003-2004	2004-2005
Aberdeenshire	330	452
Angus	132	121
Argyll and Bute	252	345
City of Aberdeen	646	1005
Clackmannan	314	510
Dumfries and Galloway	783	830
Dundee	618	383
East Ayrshire	158	199
East Dunbartonshire	67	114
East Lothian	371	325
East Renfrewshire	154	74
Edinburgh	2376	2507
Falkirk	661	718
Fife	615	765
Glasgow	2047	1629
Highland	854	947
Inverclyde	442	531
Midlothian	534	501
Moray	288	280
North Ayrshire	503	328
North Lanarkshire	551	440
Orkney	40	28
Perth and Kinross	213	210
Renfrewshire	644	493
Shetland	48	57
South Ayrshire	58	98
South Lanarkshire	279	334
Stirling	514	520
The Scottish Borders	418	469
West Dunbartonshire	561	567
Western Isles	93	115
West Lothian	704	923
Total*	16,266	16,781

Source: SCRA ReferralsAdministration Database (RAD).

Note: *A child may be referred in more than one localauthority in the year. The total number of children referred for Scotland isa count of each child once, and does not therefore reflect the sum of the localauthorities.

Question reference: S2W-27306

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 2 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what figures it holds on the number of children who have died as the result of “bad parenting”.

Question reference: S2W-27305

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 2 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how it defines a “good parent”.

Question reference: S2W-27308

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 2 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children referred to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration on grounds of “lack of parental care” in each year since 2001 came from the top 10 most economically inactive communities, expressed (a) in real terms and (b) as a percentage of the total number of referrals for “lack of parental care”.

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA). The figuresprovided below by SCRA represent the children who were referred to the Children’sReporter under section 52(2)(c) of the Children’s (Scotland) Act1995 because they were “likely (i) to suffer unnecessarily, or (ii) to be impairedseriously in [their] health or development, due to a lack of parental care.” Itis only possible to provide this breakdown for 2003-04 and 2004-05 since the introductionof the SCRA Referral Administration Database (RAD).

There is no standard definitionof what is meant by an “economically inactive community”. The Annual Scottish LabourForce Survey (now know as the Annual Population Survey) is the main source for providingup-to-date information on economic inactivity (people who are not in employmentbut do not satisfy all the criteria for unemployment - this group comprises (1)those who want a job but who have not been seeking work in the last four weeks (2)those who want a job and are seeking work but are not available to start and (3)those who do not want a job).

Results from the Annual LabourForce Survey are available by a range of geographical areas (subject to the reliabilityof the results together with maintaining the confidentiality of individuals). SCRAdata is only reliably available at local authority area. Therefore, the followingtable shows data at local authority level. The top 10 most economically inactivelocal authorities are highlighted in bold in the following table. The percentageof children from those 10 areas referred to the Children’s Reporter under section52(2)(c), represented as a percentage of the total number referred under section52(2)(c), was 37.6% in 2003-04 and 32.1% in 2004-05.

Table: Children Referred to theReporter and Economic Inactivity Rates by Local Authority Area in 2003-04 and 2004-05.

Local Authority	2003-04		2004-05
	Children Referred (1a)	Economic Inactivity Rates (Per Cent) (2a)	Children Referred (1b)	Economic Inactivity Rates (Per Cent) (2b)
Aberdeenshire	330	17.1	452	16.2
Angus	132	21.2	121	19.5
Argyll and Bute	252	19.8	345	19.1
City of Aberdeen	646	20.3	1005	17.8
Clackmannanshire	314	23.1	510	22.9
Dumfries and Galloway	783	18.6	830	18.3
Dundee	618	24.3	383	24.2
East Ayrshire	158	24.0	199	24.4
East Dunbartonshire	67	18.4	114	16.9
East Lothian	371	21.4	325	18.5
East Renfrewshire	154	17.7	74	16.6
Edinburgh	2376	20.6	2507	19.7
Falkirk	661	21.0	718	19.6
Fife	615	20.3	765	18.7
Glasgow	2047	30.1	1629	29.7
Highland	854	15.5	947	14.4
Inverclyde	442	27.0	531	24.5
Midlothian	534	19.7	501	15.9
Moray	288	16.9	280	20.1
North Ayrshire	503	26.6	328	23.7
North Lanarkshire	551	26.5	440	24.8
Orkney	40	14.9	28	15.0
Perth and Kinross	213	19.8	210	18.8
Renfrewshire	644	21.9	493	21.7
Shetland	48	13.2	57	13.6
South Ayrshire	58	21.1	98	20.6
South Lanarkshire	279	21.8	334	20.9
Stirling	514	20.7	520	19.0
Scottish Borders	418	17.2	469	17.9
West Dunbartonshire	561	25.2	567	23.9
Western Isles	93	15.0	115	18.9
West Lothian	704	20.0	923	18.1
Total*	16,268		16,818

Notes:

(1a) (1b) Source:SCRA Referrals Administration Database (RAD).

(2a) (2b) Source:Annual Scottish Labour Force Survey 2004-05.

*A child maybe referred in more than one local authority in the year. The total number of childrenreferred for Scotland is a count of each child once, and does not therefore reflectthe sum of the local authorities.

Question reference: S2W-27309

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 31 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration it is giving to preventing people with alcohol addiction from having children.

There is no consideration beinggiven to preventing people with alcohol addiction from having children. Instead,action by NHSScotland is being focused on ensuring that accessible maternity servicesare available to ensure service users with drug and alcohol problems feel comfortableabout presenting for treatment, and these same services place the children’s bestinterests at the centre of any decisions or assessments that are made.