- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 27 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 11 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S3W-2421, S3W-2423, S3W-2425, S3W-2426, S3W-2427 and S3W-2428 by Frank Mulholland QC on 22 August 2007, how the Scottish Government monitors the effectiveness of the fatal accident inquiry system, given the level of information and data specifically related to the system that is not centrally collated.
Answer
The Procurator Fiscalis responsible for investigating all sudden, suspicious, unexplained, unexpectedor accidental deaths and will consider, based on all the facts and circumstances,whether a fatal accident inquiry (FAI) is necessary.
Current legislationprovides for mandatory fatal accident inquiries in respect of deaths whichoccur in the course of employment or in legal custody, and for discretionary FAIswhere it appears to the Lord Advocate to be in the public interest to hold suchan inquiry. A full investigation by the Procurator Fiscal will precede an FAI.
FAIs are held in public.The sheriff who presides over the FAI makes a determination, on the facts and circumstancesof the case at the conclusion of the FAI and may issue recommendations which arenot currently legally enforceable.
The Scottish Governmentmaintains a public database of FAI determinations.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 11 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) retailers and (b) licensees have been prosecuted for selling tobacco products to underage customers in each year since 2000, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The available informationis given in the following table. No breakdown of these figures into prosecutionsof retailers and licensees is available from the data held centrally.
Persons ProceededAgainst in Scottish Courts for Selling Tobacco to Persons Under 161,by Approximate Local Authority Area2, 2000-01 to 2005-06
| Local Authority | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2005-06 |
| Aberdeenshire | - | - | - | 1 | - |
| East Lothian | - | - | - | - | 1 |
| Edinburgh, City of | - | - | - | 2 | - |
| North Lanarkshire | - | 1 | - | - | - |
| West Lothian | - | - | - | - | 1 |
| Scotland | - | 1 | - | 3 | 2 |
Notes:
1. Where main offence.
2. Incorporates anapproximate mapping of sheriff courts into local authority areas. Some sheriff courtswill deal with cases from more than one local authority area. Some local authorityareas, including East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Midlothian and North Ayrshire, do not contain a sheriffcourt.
More recent informationavailable from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service shows that in 2006-07a total of 11 people were subject to court proceedings in respect of illegal salesof tobacco.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 11 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many prosecutions of (a) retailers and (b) licensees for selling tobacco products to underage customers in each year since 2000 resulted in convictions, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The available informationis given in the following table. No breakdown of these figures into prosecutionsof retailers and licensees is available from the data held centrally.
Persons with aCharge Proved in Scottish Courts for Selling Tobacco to Persons Under 161,by Approximate Local Authority Area2, 2000-01 to 2005-06
| Local Authority | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2005-06 |
| Aberdeenshire | - | - | - | 1 | - |
| East Lothian | - | - | - | - | 1 |
| Edinburgh, City of | - | - | - | 2 | - |
| North Lanarkshire | - | 1 | - | - | - |
| West Lothian | - | - | - | - | 1 |
| Scotland | - | 1 | - | 3 | 2 |
Notes:
1. Where main offence.
2. Incorporates anapproximate mapping of sheriff courts into local authority areas. Some sheriff courtswill deal with cases from more than one local authority area. Some local authorityareas, including East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Midlothian and North Ayrshire, do not contain a sheriffcourt.
More recent informationavailable from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service shows that in 2006-07a total of 11 people were subject to court proceedings in respect of illegal salesof tobacco.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 6 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how much revenue has been lost from members leaving VisitScotland.com in each year since 2002.
Answer
Visitscotland.comis not a member organisation, but a commercial enterprise set up to provide Scottishtourism businesses and accommodation providers a route to the quickly expandingsector of the market which wishes to use the internet to research and book holidaysonline. Since its launch in 2002, visitscotland.com has built up around 11,500 businesssubscribers, about 85% of which are small businesses such as B&Bs, guest housesand self caterers. Many of these receive very significant numbers of their bookingsthrough visitscotland.com.
Annual figures forthe numbers of businesses which have ceased subscribing to visitscotland.com, orthe income lost as a result, are not currently available because of the introductionof new software. However, the number of accommodation businesses subscribing tovisitscotland.com has increased by about 120 between last year and this.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 6 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how much public funding VisitScotland.com (eTourism Ltd) has received for each year since 2002.
Answer
eTourism Ltd,trading as visitscotland.com, was established in 2002 as a Public Privatepartnership joint venture company, with total funding of £7.5 million beingprovided by its shareholders including VisitScotland. One quarter of thefunding, or £1.875 million, was provided by the Scottish Government throughVisitScotland as an interest bearing loan, on the condition that it will berepaid when visitscotland.com is trading profitably. No other public funds havebeen provided to visitscotland.com since then.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 6 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the major shareholders of eTourism Ltd, expressed as a percentage of ownership of the company and showing the location of each shareholder's headquarters.
Answer
The major shareholdersof eTourism Ltd., their percentage ownership and the location of their headquartersare:
| Tourco Ltd (VisitScotland) | 36% | Edinburgh |
| Tiscover UK Ltd | 35% | Crawley, West Sussex* |
| Partnerships UK Ltd | 22% | London |
| Atos Origin IT Services | 7% | London |
Note: *The globalHQ of Tiscover is in Austria.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 6 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many members have left VisitScotland.com in each year since 2002.
Answer
Visitscotland.comis not a member organisation, but a commercial enterprise set up to provide Scottishtourism businesses and accommodation providers a route to the quickly expandingsector of the market which wishes to use the internet to research and book holidaysonline. Since its launch in 2002, visitscotland.com has built up around 11,500 businesssubscribers, about 85% of which are small businesses such as B&Bs, guest housesand self caterers. Many of these receive very significant numbers of their bookingsthrough visitscotland.com.
Annual figures forthe numbers of businesses which have ceased subscribing to visitscotland.com arenot currently available because of the introduction of new software. However, thenumber of accommodation businesses subscribing to visitscotland.com has increasedby about 120 between last year and this.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 6 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what resources are available to assist people who are terminally ill to have a choice of high-quality palliative and end-of-life care.
Answer
The Scottish Government believes that palliative care should be available to anyone suffering from any life threatening progressive condition from the time of diagnosis onwards and expects NHS boards to ensure people''s needs are met through a range of services including hospice care. The Gold Standards Framework (Scotland) is being used by GP practices throughout Scotland to improve the care of individuals requiring palliative care in the community. Managed clinical networks, which provide a co-ordinated approach involving the NHS, patient groups, social work, voluntary organisations and other key partners are also being promoted. Funding arrangements for specialist palliative care provided by independent voluntary hospices in Scotland are set out in HDL (2003)18 which is titled -
Funding of Specialist Palliative Care Provided by Independent Voluntary Hospices in Scotland, and is available from the following link:
http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/sehd/mels/HDL2003_18.pdf.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 6 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to increase the provision of palliative care.
Answer
The Scottish governmenthas made a clear commitment to ensure that palliative care is available toanyone who needs it and NHS boards have a responsibility to work with thevoluntary sector to ensure its availability in accordance with local needs andrequirements.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 5 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many arrests proceeded under the Protection from Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001 in each year since its enactment, broken down by sheriff court district if available or sheriffdom.
Answer
The information requestedis not held centrally.
