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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 788 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S1W-12711

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 21 February 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of serious assault of women there were in each year from 1993 to 1999 inclusive.

The recorded crime statistics collected centrally do not include information on the victims of the crimes and therefore cannot distinguish those crimes of assault where the victims were women. The only information available comes from the Scottish Crime Survey (SCS) which collects information through interviews with a sample of 5,000 adults resident in households across Scotland. The Survey is conducted approximately every four years.

The Survey does not distinguish between serious and petty assault because of difficulties with accurately categorising such crimes. The results of the 2000 Survey suggest that assaults against women are rare (only 1.2% of women said they had been assaulted in 1999), but that many of these victims are repeatedly assaulted. The results given below are for all assaults against women in 1992, 1995 and 2000. They are presented as rates per 10,000 women in the population in order to remove any effect that changing population rates may have on crime levels.

Rates of assault on women, 1992-1999

Year	Rate per 10,000 women
1992	234
1995	250
1999	256

Source: 1993, 1996 and 2000 Scottish Crime Surveys

Question reference: S1O-02961

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 February 2001
Current Status: Answered by Iain Gray on 15 February 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what initiatives it is planning to combat sexual violence outwith domestic settings.

Question reference: S1W-11980

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 December 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 6 February 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-11531 by Mr Jim Wallace on 7 December 2000, whether it has any plans to run TV or radio campaigns to raise public awareness of the effect of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Question reference: S1W-12692

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 5 February 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of domestic assault were prosecuted through sheriff courts in (i) 1998-99 and (ii) 1999-2000.

Question reference: S1W-12693

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 5 February 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of domestic assault were brought before sheriff courts between 1992 and 1997.

Question reference: S1W-12694

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 5 February 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to prosecute all cases of domestic violence through sheriff courts.

Question reference: S1W-12698

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 5 February 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of domestic assault resulted in a guilty disposition between February 1998 and February 2000.

Question reference: S1W-12699

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by Iain Gray on 5 February 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what types of evidence the police take into account when seeking corroborative evidence in cases of domestic assault.

The types of evidence the police take into account when seeking corroborative evidence in cases of domestic assault are no different from those in any other type of crime, although such evidence can be more difficult to obtain for a number of reasons. The police will take a statement from the victim and any eye witnesses, although it is less likely in such cases that there will be eye witnesses. Statements would also be sought from neighbours and from children present in the house, if appropriate. Police officers attending domestic incidents can also give evidence about what they found when they arrived at the locus, the condition of the victim, the actions of the accused and so on. In addition, physical evidence can be sought, such as photographs of injuries, medical statements about injuries and expert evidence about how injuries could have been caused. DNA, fingerprint and analysis of, for example, bloodstains can also be used, as can previous history evidence from police records.

Question reference: S1W-12701

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by Iain Gray on 5 February 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many charges of domestic assault there were in each year between 1990 and 2000.

There is no specific charge of "domestic assault". However, statistics on domestic abuse recorded by the police in Scotland are contained in the Scottish Executive Statistical Bulletin (CrJ/2000/5), published in August 2000, a copy of which is available in SPICe (Bib. no. 1770). The bulletin presents statistics on incidents of domestic abuse returned by the eight Scottish police forces between 1 April and 31 December 1999. This is the first time that such data has been collated.

Question reference: S1W-12700

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 5 February 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of domestic assault were dropped by the Procurators Fiscal because of a lack of evidence in each year since 1997.