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: S3W-03060

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 20 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to establish an advisory panel on sentencing and, if so, within what timescale.

Question reference: S3W-03059

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 20 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive which recommendations of the Sentencing Commission for Scotland’s report, The Scope to Improve Consistency in Sentencing, it intends to accept and what priority it attaches to the recommendations.

The Scope to ImproveConsistency in Sentencingwas presented to the previous administration and published in September 2006. Itcontains 25 recommendations which for the most part pertain to the introductionof a process for giving effect to sentencing guidelines and the creation of a newstatutory body which would be responsible for their preparation and presentationfor consideration to the Appeal Court of the High Court of Justiciary.

We believe that thereis a case for sentencing guidelines in order to deliver consistent sentencing andso improve public confidence in the criminal justice system. We are taking forwardour consideration of the case for a Sentencing Council but our immediate priorityin the context of sentencing is to improve the delivery of community sentences soas to improve judicial and public confidence in them as alternatives to custody.

Question reference: S3W-03074

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-20071 by Hugh Henry on 8 November 2005, how many bankruptcies there have been in each year since 2005-06, broken down by sheriff court district.

The Accountant inBankruptcy (AiB) maintains the Register of Insolvencies in Scotland. Details of the numbers of bankruptcies awarded by sheriffdomsby financial year are compiled by AiB and included in the annual report.

The following tablegives the number of bankruptcies for the financial years 2005-06 and 2006-07.

Further informationon bankruptcies is available in the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s AnnualReport which is available at www.aib.gov.uk.

Sheriffdom (Sheriff Court)	Awards per Sheriff Court
	2005-06	2006-07
Tayside, Central and Fife
Alloa	55	69
Arbroath	44	54
Cupar	76	65
Dundee	459	429
Dunfermline	198	191
Falkirk	229	231
Forfar	27	45
Kirkcaldy	264	247
Perth	179	170
Stirling	76	75
Total awards for Sheriffdom	1,607	1,576
South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway
Airdrie	324	313
Ayr	124	147
Dumfries	77	85
Hamilton	367	408
Kirkcudbright	25	34
Lanark	54	64
Stranraer	34	39
Total awards for Sheriffdom	1,005	1,090
North Strathclyde
Campbeltown	13	22
Dumbarton	132	176
Dunoon	13	22
Greenock	77	82
Kilmarnock	185	247
Oban	17	22
Paisley	198	162
Rothesay	8	7
Total awards for Sheriffdom	643	740
Grampian, Highland and Islands
Aberdeen	315	252
Banff	20	16
Dingwall	28	32
Dornoch	6	3
Elgin	76	106
Fort William	29	28
Inverness	60	92
Kirkwall	18	20
Lerwick	9	12
Lochmaddy	7	4
Peterhead	64	76
Portree	11	22
Stonehaven	36	36
Stornoway	26	18
Tain	14	22
Wick	25	14
Total awards for Sheriffdom	744	753
Lothian and Borders
Duns	11	19
Edinburgh	364	467
Haddington	108	117
Jedburgh	36	27
Linlithgow	193	184
Peebles	4	18
Selkirk	37	34
Total awards for Sheriffdom	753	866
Glasgow and Strathkelvin
Glasgow	671	860
Total Awards	5,423	5,885

Source: Accountantin Bankruptcy.

Question reference: S3W-03075

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-20070 by Hugh Henry on 8 November 2005, how many debt arrangement schemes there have been in each year since 2005.

Question reference: S3W-02602

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 14 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-2020 by John Swinney on 23 July 2007, what departments the 381 staff on loan to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority normally work in and how much the Home Office is paying for the loan of these staff.

The costs chargedto the Home Office for the Scottish Government employees working at the CriminalInjuries Compensation Authority (CICA) are as follows:

2001-02 - £6,389,925.64

2002-03 - £6,988,188.22

2003-04 - £7,402,028.52

2004-05 - £6,511,248.31

2005-06 - £6,811,804.67

2006-07 - £7,795,202.94.

The above costs coversalaries, NiCs and employers pension contributions.

The Scottish Governmentstaff working at the CICA are assigned to the agency. They can, however, elect totransfer to core areas of the Scottish Executive or to its Executive Agencies forcareer development reasons or when promotion opportunities arise.

Question reference: S3W-02104

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 13 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans the Cabinet Secretary for Justice has to review all existing communications interception warrants authorised by Scottish ministers in the last 12 months.

When authorising the interceptionof communications, Scottish ministers must first satisfy themselves that interceptionis both necessary and proportionate for the prevention or detection of serious crime.

I have no plans to review allinterception warrants signed in the last 12 months.

Independent statutory oversightof the powers and duties conferred on the Scottish ministers by the sections of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 which govern the authorisation ofinterception of communications is provided by the Interception of CommunicationsCommissioner, currently Sir Paul Kennedy.

The commissioner’s latest annualreport, for 2005-06, was laid before the Scottish Parliament on 19 February 2007 (documentnumber SE/2007/17).

Question reference: S3W-02548

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 13 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the parties who have access to a patient’s medical records without (a) explicit authorisation and (b) the information being anonymised and whether changes have been made to these lists in each year since 1999, identifying these changes.

Personal health information isprotected by the Data Protection Act and the common law duty of confidentiality.

NHS staff and contractors areauthorised to use personal health information for a range of activities necessaryto the provision of care and treatment, including medical diagnosis, patient care,planning, statistics, payment, clinical governance, clinical and financial audits.Unauthorised individuals are not given access to personal health information.

NHS organisations take stepsto protect personal health information from unauthorised access, such as controllingphysical access to medical records libraries and putting password protection onelectronically stored personal health information. As records are increasingly movedto an electronic storage medium, there are opportunities to not only make accesscontrols clearer, but also to audit access to the information. These issues arebeing considered within the Scottish Government’s eHealth programme.

Personal health information,once anonymised so that a patient is no longer identifiable, is not protected bythe common law duty of confidentiality or the Data Protection Act. Patients havea right to know when it is intended that their information will be anonymised forappropriate purposes, such as medical research, and NHS organisations have mechanismsin place to approve the use of anonymised data for research purposes.

Question reference: S3W-02299

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been paid to police informants in each year since 2000, broken down by police force.

Question reference: S3W-02298

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much in total has been paid to police informants in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S3W-02300

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many registered police informants were (a) charged with and (b) convicted of criminal offences during the times they were informants in each year since 1999.