- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 29 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 30 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish the first revision of the delivery plans for the new Efficient Government Programme for 2008-11 referred to in the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth’s opening address to the Finance Committee on 13 May 2008.
Answer
We have today published the second iteration of the Efficiency Delivery Plans which contains a disaggregation of the plans for the Education portfolio. Copies of the notes have been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 45688) and they are also available on the Scottish Government website:
www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/05/EDPMay2008.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 21 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, with respect to the development of the injury dataset under the National Clinical Dataset Development Programme, what plans there are to instruct accident and emergency (A&E) departments to start collecting this information via the nationally procured A&E Emergency Department Information System and when the first data will become available.
Answer
Now that a dataset to support injury surveillance has been agreed and the A&E (EDIS) IT system has the ability to collect this information, consideration is currently being given to national implementation. NHS Forth Valley and Greater Glasgow and Clyde are already collecting some injury information.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Fergusson on 21 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will provide a detailed account of the process used to select staff to service the Commission on Scottish Devolution, chaired by Sir Kenneth Calman.
Answer
One member of staff has been assigned to the Commission on Scottish Devolution. The selection process involved the Chief Executive in identifying an official that had the appropriate skills and experience to support the commission''s secretariat. The member of staff concerned was then approached directly and offered the assignment.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 April 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 14 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average atmospheric temperature above Scotland has been in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.
The Met Office collects data on Scottish temperature but does not publish data on atmospheric temperature above Scotland. The Met Office will consider whether they can meet specific requests for unpublished data and may make a charge for extracting data from their records.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 April 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 14 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average surface temperature in Scotland has been in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.
The Met Office publishes data on Scottish surface temperature, available on their website at www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/seriesstatistics/scottemp.txt. Annual average surface temperature, extracted from the Met Office data, and differences from a 1961-90 average for Scotland, are available on the Scottish Government''s environment statistics website at:
www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Environment.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 April 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 14 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average sea level along the (a) North Sea, (b) Atlantic, (c) Irish Sea coast has been in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.
The Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL), based at the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL), is responsible for the collection, publication, analysis and interpretation of sea level data from the global network of tide gauges. Further information is available on their website at:
www.pol.ac.uk/psmsl/.
The Scottish Government supports the activities of the Marine Climate Change Impacts Programme who produce a report card highlighting the impact of climate change on the marine environment. The latest report card for 2007-08, which includes conclusions on sea level rise, is available at:
http://www.mccip.org.uk/arc/2007/PDF/ARC2007.pdf.
A Scottish Government commissioned report on Scotland''s Seas: Towards Understanding their State was published last month and includes an assessment of climate change impacts on Scottish seas, including sea level rise. A copy of the report is available on the Scottish Government''s website at:
www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/04/03093608/0.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 April 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 9 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has given any consideration to introducing a national and heavily-discounted dog microchipping scheme, as was carried out by the Dogs Trust until January 2008.
Answer
We have no plans to introduce a national discounted dog microchipping scheme. The Dogs Trust offer a discounted scheme to microchip dogs at a cost of £10 from their two rehoming centres in Scotland. A typical charge to microchip a dog by a private veterinary surgeon could cost as little as £10 if performed at the same time as vaccinations to about £25 to £30 if that was the sole purpose of the consultation.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 April 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 9 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many microchip scanners are currently available to local authority dog wardens.
Answer
This information is not held centrally. However, in addition to microchip scanners held by local authorities, the vast majority of veterinary practices will also have microchip scanners which can be used to identify stray or lost animals.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Elish Angiolini on 6 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in relation to criminal prosecutions or appeals arising from them, it believes that, if a relevant document in a trial is available to the prosecution but not to the defence, the defendant would be able to obtain justice as defined in the UN Charter for human rights and that the terms of the Charter would be fully met.
Answer
Disclosure is a vitally important aspect of criminal procedure in Scotland. The principal purpose of disclosure is to secure the fair disposal of criminal proceedings in accordance with the accused''s rights at common law and under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and to ensure that justice is done.
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service complies with Article 6 of ECHR in terms of the disclosure of evidence in criminal proceedings in Scotland. I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-11311 on 2 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: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Elish Angiolini on 2 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive in how many cases since 1945 the defence has not been given access to a piece of evidence or document which has been revealed to the prosecution; whether there are any precedents where a document has been disclosed to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission but not to the defence in a subsequent appeal hearing; whether the legal opinion of the Crown Office is that the withholding of documents in any such cases would violate the principle of the separation of powers between Executive and Judiciary, and, if so, what it considers the impact would be of withholding of documents on the independence of the Scottish Judiciary, Scots Law and the Crown Office itself.
Answer
It would be inappropriate to refer to any particular case which is before the courts.
However, the duty on the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) to disclose evidence to the defence is set out in The Crown''s Principles of Disclosure, available on the COPFS website as part of the COPFS Disclosure Manual, as follows:
1. The Crown is obliged to disclose all material evidence for or against the accused. This relates to statements, but it also relates to all information of which the Crown is aware.
2. Material means evidence which is likely to be of real importance to any undermining of the Crown case, or to any casting reasonable doubt on it, and of positive assistance to the accused.
This does not mean that the Crown should disclose all information in its possession but that the Crown requires to consider all information for disclosure, and disclose any information which meets the test set out above, subject to any consideration of public interest immunity (PII).
COPFS does not hold information about the number of cases where documents in the possession of the prosecution have not been disclosed to the defence.
