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-07556

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 April 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many other service providers bid for the contract awarded to Reliance Secure Task Management Ltd, stating the names of such companies.

Question reference: S2W-07564

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 April 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what obligations Reliance Secure Task Management Ltd is required to undertake under the terms of the contract awarded to it for the escorting of prisoners.

Question reference: S2W-07562

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 April 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the contract awarded to Reliance Secure Task Management Ltd for escorting prisoners has a break clause for material breach of contract and what constitutes material breach under the contract.

Question reference: S2W-07958

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 April 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 18 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Scottish Central Fire Brigades Advisory Council last met and when it will next meet.

Question reference: S2W-07560

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 April 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 11 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what training obligations are undertaken by Reliance Secure Task Management Ltd as part of its contract to escort prisoners; how these obligations are monitored, and what sanctions exist for breach of these obligations.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

Prisoner Custody Officers (PCOs)undergo a six-week training programme. The structure and topics of the trainingand the content of the training programme is validated by SPS. The training modulesare based upon the relevant National Training Organisation Standards. All prospectivePCOs are required to pass this training in order to be certified as PCOs.

Question reference: S2W-06573

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 18 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how the #3 million allocated in 2003 to litter reduction schemes from the Quality of Life Initiative has been spent and whether any of this money has been used to educate children in schools on the effect of littering, broken down by local authority area.

In 2003-04, £3.2 million of the total allocation of £50 million for “Quality of Life” funding, wasallocated by 19 local authorities under the policy theme of “Litter, DogFouling and Abandoned Cars”. Councils submitted their proposals at thebeginning of the year as to how they would spend these funds and theirproposals were approved by the Executive.

None of the councilsindicated that they would be allocating funds to educate children in schools onthe effect of littering.

The total beside eachcouncil is the amount they have allocated to “Litter, Dog Fouling and AbandonedCars”:

Aberdeen City: £30,000.

Angus: £225,000.

Clackmannanshire: £3,000.

Dumfries and Galloway: £30,000.

East Ayrshire: £40,000.

East Dunbartonshire: £41,000.

Edinburgh City: £650,000.

Fife: £400,000.

Glasgow City: £701,000.

Inverclyde: £25,000.

Midlothian: £230,000.

Moray: £37,000.

North Ayrshire: £95,000.

North Lanarkshire: £50,000.

Perth and Kinross: £282,000.

Renfrewshire: £240,000.

Scottish Borders: £60,000

Stirling: £74,000.

Question reference: S2W-06648

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 16 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many individuals have been (a) prosecuted for and (b) convicted of (i) dropping litter and (ii) fly tipping in 2002 and 2003, broken down by local authority area.

The available information is given in the table. Data for 2003 are not expected to be available until the autumn of 2004.

Persons Proceeded Against in Scottish Courts Where The Main Offence Was a Litter or Fly-Tipping Offence, by Local Authority Area 2002

Local Authority Area	Total⁽¹⁾		Number with Charge Proved
Local Authority Area	Litter Offence⁽²⁾	Fly-tipping Offence⁽³⁾	Litter Offence⁽²⁾	Fly-Tipping Offence⁽³⁾
Aberdeen	0	1	0	1
Angus	0	1	0	1
Dundee City	8	0	7	0
East Ayrshire	1	0	1	0
East Dunbartonshire	2	0	2	0
Edinburgh, City of	1	0	1	0
Glasgow City	2	0	2	0
Highland	1	0	1	0
Inverclyde	3	0	3	0
Moray	0	1	0	1
North Ayrshire	1	0	1	0
North Lanarkshire	1	0	1	0
Renfrewshire	1	0	1	0
Scottish Borders	1	0	1	0
Shetland Islands	0	1	0	1
South Ayrshire	1	1	1	1
South Lanarkshire	7	1	7	1
Stirling	2	0	2	0
West Lothian	0	1	0	1
Total	32	7	31	7

Notes:

1. Number of persons acquitted may be under-stated in the totals for persons proceeded against due to recording delays.

2. Offences categorised as litter offences in the Scottish Executive Justice Department’s classification of crimes and offences.

3. Offences under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 section 33.

Question reference: S2W-06505

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 11 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of prisoners who had served sentences of six months or less requested a social work service within 12 months of their release, as referred to in the annual report of the Chief Social Work Inspector, Progress with Complexity: The 2003 National Overview Report.

Question reference: S2W-06572

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 10 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration it has given to initiatives with regard to (a) reducing the amount of discarded fast food containers in the street and (b) imposing a levy on (i) plastic bag and (ii) fast food container use.

A consultation paper for aCode of Practice on litter and waste for the Fast Food Industry in Scotland iscurrently being prepared. In the Antisocial Behaviour etc (Scotland)Bill the Executive is proposing to extend the power to issue fixed penaltynotices for littering to police officers.

There are no proposals tointroduce a levy on fast food container use at present. On plastic bags, MikePringle MSP has issued a consultation paper about the possible introduction ofa levy. The Executive is currently giving consideration to this paper. We arealso having discussions with the Scottish Retail Consortium about retailerstaking voluntary steps to reduce the use of plastic bags.

Question reference: S2W-06574

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 10 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many notices under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 have been served on railway authorities as occupiers of premises since May 1999 and, of these, how many have been complied with, broken down by local authority area.