- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 21 November 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many available places there are in open prisons.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:
There are 431 available places in the Open Estate, comprising 296 places at HM Prison Castle Huntly and 135 places at HM Prison Noranside.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 21 November 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive where the locations are of all open prisons.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:
HM Prison Noranside and HM Prison Castle Huntly.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 21 November 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners currently incarcerated should be in an open prison but are not and where they are currently located.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:
The number of prisoners eligible for consideration for open conditions changes on a daily basis. On 9 November 2005, 66 prisoners were eligible and were in the following prisons awaiting transfer to the open estate.
| Establishment | Numbers |
| Shotts | |
| Kilmarnock | 13 |
| Perth | 10 |
| Greenock | 10 |
| Glenochil | 20 |
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 21 November 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will issue a policy statement on the spread of avian influenza and the measures it is taking to control the infection, including information on which categories of birds are included in, or excluded from, any restrictions designed to prevent the spread of avian influenza.
Answer
I made a statement to the Scottish Parliament on 2 November 2005 which outlined the current global disease situation and the potential risks to Scotland. Whilst the risk of immediate introduction of avian influenza from migrating wildfowl is judged to be low, we continue to work with industry and other stakeholders to minimise the risk of disease spread.
As a consequence of an EU-wide ban on bird gatherings such events have been cancelled unless licensed on the basis of a veterinary risk assessment. We have started to license low-risk events and are considering how others can go ahead under appropriate biosecurity guidance. The full veterinary risk assessment process for such events is currently being developed to allow as many events as possible to go ahead subject to a proportionate level of risk.
The ban on gatherings is being kept under review by the European Commission’s Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 21 November 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the prison population (a) is currently and (b) should be held in an open prison.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:
(a) As at 9 November 2005, 5.5% of the prison population was held in open conditions.
(b) There is no set percentage of prisoners who should be in open prison. The daily population fluctuates, as does the number of prisoners who become eligible for consideration.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 21 November 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what the assessment criteria are for a prisoner to become entitled to be transferred to an open prison during their sentence.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:
In order to qualify for consideration for transfer to an open prison, an assessment is made against the following criteria:
Proportion of sentence served;
Current supervision level;
Progress in addressing identified high needs related to offending behaviour;
Conduct and behaviour;
Risk of abscond;
Current status in relation to addictions, and
Assessment of risk of self-harm.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 17 November 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-18253 by Tavish Scott on 18 August 2005, whether there are any extra costs in addition to the estimated £22.24 million for the improvements to the Auchenkilns roundabout that have to be met by the contractor for the project and, if so, what these extra costs are.
Answer
I understand that there will be extra costs which will be met by the contractor and his supply chain. The amount of these costs is not known to the Scottish Executive.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 17 November 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether all experts within the Scottish Fingerprint Service agree that fingerprint identification is a matter of opinion and not of fact.
Answer
All experts within the Scottish Fingerprint Service agree that fingerprint evidence is expert opinion of identification based on the scientific fact that fingerprints are unique to every individual.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 October 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 16 November 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what meetings have taken place between the First Minister or Deputy First Minister and business representatives or organisations with the purpose of discussing the Executive's procurement policies and their impact on Scottish businesses since 1 September 2005; who these meetings were with; who represented the Executive in each meeting, and what the outcomes were of the meetings.
Answer
The Deputy First Minister met with representatives of Graham Technologies on 21 September to discuss issues, including public sector procurement. The Director of the Scottish Procurement Directorate and the Head of Business Growth and Innovation Division also attended on behalf of the Scottish Executive. The Deputy First Minister agreed at the meeting that he would be interested in visiting the Graham Technology premises to learn more about their work.
Both the First Minister and Deputy First Minister also attended the Business in the Parliament Conference 2005, held on 9 September. Information about the conference is available on the Parliament’s website.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 15 November 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what drugs are available for the treatment of medical conditions on the NHS (a) in Scotland but not in England and Wales and (b) in England and Wales but not in Scotland and what medical conditions each drug can be used to treat.
Answer
When a medicine receives a UK marketing authorisation, either from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency or the European Medicines Agency, it can be prescribed on the NHS unless it is subject to a direction by Scottish ministers under section 17N(6) of the NHS (Scotland) Act 1978.
However, NHS Scotland is expected to await the advice of the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) before making a new medicine routinely available. SMC conducts rapid and careful appraisals of medicines using pre-launch data and provides its advice to NHS Scotland as soon as possible after the launch. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), who advise the NHS in England and Wales conducts a longer assessment of medicines based on evidence of use. In practice, this means that NICE advice on medicines will issue approximately 12 to 18 months after the SMC advice.
Details of all medicines submitted to the SMC can be found at www.scottishmedicines.org including whether they were accepted for use, accepted for restricted use or not recommended for use.
