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.

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Question reference: S4W-03261

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 2 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners have attended prison learning centres in each year since 2007.

I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

This information is not collected on the basis of individual prisoners’ attendance as some prisoners may attend Learning Centres on a number of occasions over a year. The number of attendances at Learning Centres in public sector prisons from 1 April 2007 to 30 September 2011 is as follows:

2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	1 April – 30 September 2011
107,281	110,035	111,696	107,696	49,101

HMPs Addiewell and Kilmarnock do not record this information.

Question reference: S4W-03262

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 2 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many places have been available on courses offered by prison learning centres in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S4W-03265

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 2 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners have been assessed under the Scottish Prison Service's new literacy and numeracy screening and levelling tool since its introduction and what percentage has been assessed as lacking in functional (a) literacy and (b) numeracy.

I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

A total of 902 prisoners have opted to be assessed under the Scottish Prison Service's new literacy and numeracy screening and levelling from its introduction on 1 August 2011 to the 30 September 2011.

Approximately 77% of prisoners screened were assessed as lacking in functional literacy and 74 % as lacking in functional numeracy.

Question reference: S4W-03266

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 2 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hours a week a prisoner spends engaged in offender development hours and what activity this term covers.

I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

Offender development hours were replaced with purposeful activity hours in 2009.

The amount of hours a prisoner is engaged in purposeful activity hours varies depending on individual prisoner needs and therefore would be different per prisoner and would vary on a weekly basis. Overcrowding is also a significant influence. Also remand and civil prisoners and those excluded on medical grounds are not legally obliged to undertake work.

Notwithstanding the above and based on the average prison population for 2010-11, prisoners spent on average 15 hours per week undertaking purposeful activity. If you exclude remand prisoners, sentenced prisoners spent on average 18 hours per week undertaking purposeful activity.

Purposeful Activities includes:

Work

Vocational Training

Education

Health support/promotion

Social Care

Links Services

Interventions

Physical Education

Addictions support/counselling

Question reference: S4W-03267

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 2 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of cells in each prison accommodate two or more prisoners.

I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

The proportion of cells in each prison accommodating two or more prisoners is listed in the following table. The report was taken from SPS Prisoner Records (PR2) on 24 October 2011:

Establishment	Number of cells in Capacity	Number of cells with 2 or more prisoners	% of double occupancy cells against total cells
Aberdeen	135	94	70
Addiewell	704	77	11
Barlinnie	994	600	60
Cornton Vale	263	52	20
Dumfries	136	43	32
Edinburgh	723	187	26
Glenochil	530	205	39
Greenock	251	4	2
Inverness	84	50	60
Kilmarnock	506	131	26
Open Estate	302	88	29
Perth	485	189	39
Peterhead	142	0	0
Polmont	609	137	22
Shotts	566	0	0

Question reference: S4W-03264

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 2 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of prisoners who took part in a numeracy screening assessment in (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11 was assessed as lacking in functional numeracy.

I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

Before 1 August 2011, this information was not collected on a comprehensive basis.

Since the introduction in public sector prisons on 1 August of the new national literacy and numeracy screening and levelling tool, until 30 September, 74% of prisoners who opted to be assessed under this tool were assessed as lacking in functional numeracy.

Private sector prisons, HMP Addiewell and HMP Kilmarnock will adopt the new national screening tool from 1 November.

Question reference: S4W-03260

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 2 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners have taken part in literacy programmes in each year since 2007.

I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

Prior to 1 August 2011, this information was not collected separately. Information from 1 April 2007 to 31 July 2011 on the numbers of prisoners in public sector prisons starting literacy and/or numeracy programmes is as follows:

2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	1 April – 31 July 2011
2,044	2,559	3,370	3,165	854

Information is now collected separately and between 1 August and 30 September 2011, 317 prisoners have taken part in literacy programmes.

HMPs Addiewell and Kilmarnock do not record this information.

Question reference: S4W-03236

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 27 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding is given to anti-sectarian projects in (a) schools and (b) youth work and how much was given in each year since 2005-06.

The Scottish Government has provided funding over the period in question to a wide range of organisations. These organisations have delivered projects to tackle sectarianism and all forms of religious intolerance across all aspects of Scottish society. The total funding provided for the years 2007-2011 is £1,481,650. However, the specific amount of work in schools or youth work cannot be identified as the work of these organisations cuts across many areas.

Information prior to 2007 is not held centrally and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

Question reference: S4W-03229

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 27 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there have been discussions since January 2011 between the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, the Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs and the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning regarding what action can be taken in schools, colleges and universities to tackle sectarianism.

I met with the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning on 22 September to discuss how we can work with schools, colleges and universities to tackle sectarianism, and I also met with Education Scotland on 5 October to discuss this matter further. Mr Russell and I will be visiting a range of schools in the coming months to see first hand the impact that work to tackle sectarianism is having.

Question reference: S4O-00293

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Executive what priorities it has set for capital investment in the 2011-12 draft budget.