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-12386

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 31 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many hours of community payback orders have (a) been completed in (i) full and (ii) part and (b) not been completed since February 2011, broken down by community justice authority area.

Question reference: S4W-12382

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 31 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many community payback orders have been imposed in each community justice authority area in each month since February 2011.

<>Information on the number of community payback orders commenced by local authorities in 2011-12 is published at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Datasets/SocialWork/CPOs (worksheet entitled “CPOs - ords and inds”).

Numbers of community payback orders issued by Scottish courts have been obtained separately, from the Scottish Court Service (SCS), on a monthly basis, covering the period February 2011 to March 2012 at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Datasets/CPOs. The SCS data is available at an individual court level but is not held at the level of community justice authority area.

The two sets of data are not directly comparable with one another, as they are not compiled on exactly the same basis (see paragraph 4.38 of published bulletin “Criminal Justice Social Work Statistics, 2011-12”- http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/12/1332/4.

Question reference: S4W-11857

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 14 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 30 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4O-01594 by Kenny MacAskill on 12 December 2012 (Official Report, c.14637), what powers currently held by the Department of Work and Pensions it considers would help it improve the collection of fiscal direct penalties.

The Scottish Court Service (SCS) is responsible for collecting unpaid fines and penalties in Scotland and to do so often requires them to access information about a known offender held by other public sector bodies.

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) require an information sharing gateway to be in place before they will allow other public sector organisations direct access to the information they hold. The SCS has been working with the DWP for some time now to secure direct access and provide them with the same rights and access to information which is already afforded to fines enforcement teams in England and Wales.

I have written to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions requesting that SCS urgently be afforded direct access to DWP information systems.

Question reference: S4W-12387

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it has given to councils regarding the type of work to be carried out by people sentenced to community payback orders.

Practice guidance on the operation of the Community Payback Order (CPO), drawn up in consultation with a range of relevant organisations and agencies, was issued to local authorities on 24 December 2010, in advance of the legislation coming into force. This guidance contains a section on the “unpaid work or other activity” requirement which includes information on the objectives and guiding principles of the unpaid work element. It does not, however, specify the type of unpaid work to be carried out by offenders, which is for local authorities to determine.

The guidance is designed to be read in conjunction with the National Outcomes and Standards for Social Work Services in the Criminal Justice System, and specifically section 8 thereof which deals with reparation.

Both documents are available on the Scottish Government website at the following location: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/public-safety/offender-management/offender/community/16910/Standards/Guidance

Local authorities now have a statutory duty to consult annually on the nature of unpaid work and other activities to be undertaken by those on CPOs.

Question reference: S4F-01165

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 January 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 January 2013

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government has approved plans for staff redundancies suggested by the Scottish Police Authority.

Question reference: S4W-11950

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 28 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) the Scottish Government and (b) each local authority recouped from the reserves of each (i) police force and (ii) fire and rescue service board for 2011-12.

Question reference: S4W-11951

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 24 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how much it estimates (a) the Scottish Government and (b) each local authority will recoup from the reserves of each (i) police force and (ii) fire and rescue service board for 2012-13.

Question reference: S4W-11856

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 14 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 23 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4O-01594 by Kenny MacAskill on 12 December 2012 (Official Report, c.14637), on what basis it has calculated that 78% of the fines imposed in 2009-10 have been, or are on track to be, paid.

The latest quarterly fines report published by the Scottish Court Service reports that 78% of the total value of Fiscal direct penalties imposed in 2009-10 has either been paid or is on track to be paid. This is an increase of 3 percentage points on the rates as at 12 July 2012.

As the report states; Fiscal direct penalties include Fiscal fines, Fiscal compensation orders and the monetary amount of Fiscal combined offers. The total value of Fiscal direct penalties to be paid is minus any discharges. As the Scottish Court Service report states, fines can be discharged for a number of reasons and can be discharged following part-payment.

Question reference: S4W-12214

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government further to the answer to question S4W-11764 by Kenny MacAskill on 20 December 2012, whether it consulted organisations or individuals other than executive agencies, Scottish Government directorates or holders of judicial or public offices appointed by ministers before deciding to amend section 16 of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993 and, if so, what organisations or individuals.

As announced in November 2012, the Scottish Government is intending to legislate to clarify the powers of the court to impose a consecutive sentence for people who are released early from prison and go on to commit another offence before their original sentence has ended. We are intending a technical change to the law to help make it clearer and easier to understand.

We have not formally consulted on our proposed technical changes, but once the legislation is introduced into Parliament we will consider carefully views offered from the Justice Committee, other MSPs and stakeholders on the provision.

Question reference: S4F-01119

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 January 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 January 2013

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government allows convicted criminals to post online material purporting to cast doubt on their conviction.