- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 6 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what secondary legislation is required to achieve the efficiency savings identified in paragraph 13.1 in the Justice section of Efficiency Delivery Plans 2008-11.
Answer
A combination of amendments to working practices and secondary legislation will be required to achieve anticipated savings in legal aid expenditure.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 5 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any concerns about delays to the programme for the redevelopment of Partick Interchange.
Answer
The redevelopment of the Partick Interchange is a matter for Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT). Delays to the programme have been due to engineering difficulties that are currently being resolved. SPT expect the redevelopment to be completed by the end of the year.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 5 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Strathclyde Partnership for Transport about the redevelopment of Partick Interchange.
Answer
The redevelopment of the Partick Interchange is a matter for Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT). Scottish Government previously provided funding to SPT towards the project through the integrated transport and public transport funds. The Scottish Government have had no recent discussions with SPT on the redevelopment of the Partick Interchange.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 3 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether a cap has been placed on the legal aid budget.
Answer
No cap has been placed on the legal aid budget. The allocation for this expenditure takes account of anticipated demand but additional funds will be provided if that demand is exceeded.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 2 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the First Minister will work with the Education Directorate-General and the Scottish Funding Council to (a) review in the long term the future funding needs of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and (b) provide in the short term the Academy with £600,000 to fund the gap in its finances.
Answer
Any review of the level of funding support for drama courses is a matter for the Scottish Funding Council to take forward in discussion with the institutions concerned, namely Queen Margaret University and the Royal Scottish Academy for Music and Drama. Therefore the Scottish Government warmly welcomes the announcement by the Scottish Funding Council on 22 May 2008 that it will undertake a review of the funding of drama provision across Scotland.
On 22 May 2008 the Principal of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama issued a statement welcoming the Scottish Funding Council’s review of drama provision and confirmed that the Academy is currently in a stable financial position.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will monitor the Criminal Proceedings (Reform) Act 2007 in relation to the new fiscal fine powers contained in the Act.
Answer
A comprehensive programme of work has been put in place to ensure that the impact of the reforms to summary justice will be effectively monitored and evaluated. This work will encompass the new fiscal fine measures contained in the Criminal Proceedings etc. (Reform) (Scotland) Act 2007.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what budget has been allocated to the Scottish Police Services Authority from 2007 for the Scottish Police College.
Answer
The Scottish Police College is one of the police support services provided by the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA). Since its establishment on 1 April 2007, the SPSA has been funded through grant-in-aid from the Scottish Government and was allocated £83 million in 2007-08 and £83.6 million in 2008-09. The breakdown of budgets between the individual services it provides is an operational matter for SPSA.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-8959 by Kenny MacAskill on 4 February 2008, why information on custody limits is not deemed relevant information for the Scottish Government.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13115 on 29 May 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied that the grounds for extending custody limits safeguard the rights of the accused not to be held beyond 140 days.
Answer
The 140 day custody time limit in High Court cases can only be extended by the court, on cause shown, having given all parties an opportunity to be heard. The Scottish Government is satisfied that this arrangement safeguards the rights of the accused, as was Parliament when passing the Criminal Procedure (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2004. In any case in which an extension of the period is sought, the decision is entirely one for the court.
The evaluation of the High Court reforms published in February 2007 suggested that the proportion of cases in which an extension had been granted was remaining more or less constant following the amendments introduced by the 2004 act. Further information is given on pages 38-39 of An Evaluation of the High Court Reforms Arising from the Criminal Procedure (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2004, published by the Scottish Executive in 2007, a copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 42119).
Scottish Court Service is able to confirm that the number of successful applications for extension of the 140 day period in 2007 was 487, but does not hold the information in the answer to question S3W-8959 on 4 February 2008. The 2007 evaluation referred to above found, in a sample, that the average length of extension after the reforms was 46 days. The average period, in a sample of cases, predating the reform was 57 days. These decisions are of course made by the courts on the merits of the individual case.
All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what monitoring has been carried out to ensure that the 140-day custody time limit has been safeguarded.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13115 on 29 May 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
