- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by John Scott on 23 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will provide a breakdown of the other running costs referred to in Table 2 on page 10 of the Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner’s 2004-05 Annual Report.
Answer
A breakdown of the other running costs referred to in table 2 on page 10 of the Scottish Parliamentary Standard’s 2004-05 Annual Report are as follows:
| Other Running Costs | 2003-04 (£) | 2004-05 (£) |
| Conferences/training | 320 | 745 |
| Printing/translation | | 2,577 |
| Travel and Expenses | 1,360 | 2,938 |
| Capital Costs (Transcription equipment and printer) | 1,465 | |
| Transcriptions | 437 | 989 |
| Consumables (stationery, ink cartridges) | 130 | 320 |
| Accounting adjustments | | -901 |
| Total | 3,712 | 6,668 |
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to questions S2W-21582 by Cathy Jamieson on 22 December 2005, why there have been no discussions with representatives of the US Government, given that the allegations involved pertain to their agencies.
Answer
No reliable and credible information has been provided to any Scottish law enforcement agency to support the allegations that US flights carrying alleged terrorist detainees overseas to be tortured have stopped to refuel at Scottish airports. In light of this, the Scottish Executive has not discussed such allegations with representatives of the US government.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-20861 by Cathy Jamieson on 30 November 2005 and without specific reference to the contract between the Scottish Prison Service and Premier Prison Services Ltd for the operation of HM Prison Kilmarnock, whether it considers that, in general, a contract which places the onus on the contractor to report any of its own contractual failings is the best system by which to ensure that contractual failures are brought to light.
Answer
Yes, so long as it is complemented with mechanisms appropriate to the particular contract to monitor performance in pursuit of best value for money for the tax payer.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average cost per prisoner is for (a) prisoners on the open estate and (b) prisoners in regular prisons.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:
I refer the member to my answer to S2W-16418 on 18 May 2005. 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: Wednesday, 14 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it had to meet the costs of police officers from outwith Scotland being deployed in Scotland in relation to policing the G8 summit and related events, such as the Make Poverty History march, and, if so, what the accumulated cost was of doing so.
Answer
The Scottish Executive was responsible for the bulk of the cost of policing last year’s G8 summit, and associated events. The total policing cost was
£71.976 million. The UK Government agreed to provide
£20 million towards meeting that cost.
A breakdown of the cost of policing the event has been provided to the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 38309) and is available on the Scottish Executive’s website at:
www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/International-Relations/G8/costofpolicing
Mutual aid was provided by police forces across the UK as a result of an agreement between the Chief Constable of Tayside Police and Chief Constables/Chief Officers of other forces for those forces to provide assistance during the G8 summit. This was in recognition of the fact that policing an event of this magnitude was beyond the resources of Tayside Police alone.
This mutual aid comprised the additional staffing costs incurred by police forces - north and south of the border - who contributed to the operation. £21.495 million of the total spending on mutual aid went to English and Welsh forces (including the British Transport Police) with Scottish forces (including the SDEA) receiving £23.165 million.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had any discussions with the UK Government about responsibilities under the International Law Commission’s draft articles on Responsibility of States for internationally wrongful acts which would result if the articles were to be ratified, in particular article 15, which state that an omission of action is a breach of these articles, in respect of allegations that US agencies are using Scottish airports as refuelling stops for flights in which it is alleged that suspected terrorists are being carried to countries where the practice of torture is used for the purposes of interrogation.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has not had any discussions with the UK Government about the International Law Commissions draft articles on Responsibility of States for internationally wrongful acts.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had any discussions with the UK Government about responsibilities under the International Law Commission’s draft articles on Responsibility of States for internationally wrongful acts which would result if the articles were to be ratified, in particular article 16, which state that countries are in breach of the articles if they aid or assist another state in the commission of an internationally wrongful act, in respect of allegations that US agencies are using Scottish airports as refuelling stops for flights in which it is alleged that suspected terrorists are being carried to countries where the practice of torture is used for the purposes of interrogation.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has not had any discussions with the UK Government about the International Law Commissions draft articles on Responsibility of States for internationally wrongful acts.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-21260 by Cathy Jamieson on 15 December 2005, why the Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) was asked to respond to this question, given that the information requested did not necessarily pertain to the SPS.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:
Question S2W-21260 referred to S2W-20863 which relates to the contract between the Scottish Prison Service and Kilmarnock Prison Services Ltd. As the Chief Executive of SPS is responsible for contractual matters, it was appropriate for him to respond to this question.
The Executive have supplied the following corrected answer:
Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:
Question S2W-21260 referred to S2W-20863 which relates to the contract between the Scottish Prison Service and Kilmarnock Prison Services Ltd. As the Chief Executive of SPS is responsible for contractual matters, it was appropriate for me to respond to this question.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-21261 by Cathy Jamieson on 15 December 2005, why the Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) was asked to respond to this question, given that the information requested did not necessarily pertain to the SPS.
Answer
Question S2W-21261 referred to S2W-20863 which relates to the contract between the Scottish Prison Service and Kilmarnock Prison Services Ltd. As the Chief Executive of SPS is responsible for contractual matters, it was appropriate for him to respond to this question.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-21261 by Cathy Jamieson on 15 December 2005, how this answer indicates whether it considers that its contracts are rigorously enough drafted to ensure that contractors adhere to their contractual commitments, if failure to meet a particular contractual commitment is not a breach of contract.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:
The SPS are content with the terms of our contract with Kilmarnock Prison Services Ltd, which has delivered excellent performance.
