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: S2W-17447

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 8 July 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many special schools have closed since 1997.

Question reference: S2W-17478

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 8 July 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff members were attacked with weapons in mental health wards in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-17576

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 6 July 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) doctors, (b) nurses, (c) consultants and (d) auxiliary staff have been victims of violence in each of the last 10 years, broken down by NHS board area.

The information asked for is not collected in the requested format. The data available on violence is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics, www.isdscotland.org/workforce.

Section A gives details of the Occupational Health and Safety Minimum Dataset in NHS Scotland. In particular, table A7 shows the number of occupational injuries by staff group and type of organisation. Latest available figures are at 31 March 2004.

Question reference: S2W-17665

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 6 July 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the rate of sickness absence for (a) medical staff, (b) non-medical clinical staff and (c) all other staff has been in the NHS in each year since 1997, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S2W-17443

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 6 July 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-17176 by Cathy Jamieson on 17 June 2005, what the average sentence was for criminals convicted of accessing, distributing and possessing child pornography in each of the last six years, broken down by police force area.

Cases involving the accessing, distribution and possession of child pornography are prosecuted under sections 52 and 52A of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. However, the data held centrally does not distinguish between cases involving pornography downloaded from the internet and those where it was obtained by other means. The available information on sentences imposed in all convictions under sections 52 and 52A of the 1982 act is given in the following table.

Average sentences for persons with a charge proved in Scottish courts for an offence¹ under sections 52 or 52A of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, by police force area, 1998–2003.

Number of Convictions by Main Result of Proceedings and Police Force Area

	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003²
All Convictions	9	9	15	16	26	68
Central
Total	-	-	-	-	*	*
Custody	-	-	-	-	*	-
Community sentence	-	-	-	-	-	*
Monetary	-	-	-	-	*	-
Dumfries and Galloway
Total	-	-	*	-	-	-
Custody	-	-	*	-	-	-
Fife
Total	-	*	-	*	-	*
Custody	-	*	-	-	-	*
Community sentence	-	-	-	*	-	*
Monetary	-	-	-	-	-	*
Grampian
Total	-	*	*	*	*	6
Community sentence	-	*	*	-	*	*
Monetary	-	-	*	*	*	*
Other	-	-	-	-	-	*
Lothian and Borders
Total	*	*	6	6	*	17
Custody	*	-	*	*	*	9
Community sentence	-	-	*	-	-	*
Monetary	*	*	*	*	*	*
Other	-	*	*	-	-	-
Northern
Total	-	-	*	*	*	11
Custody	-	-	-	*	-	*
Community sentence	-	-	-	*	-	9
Monetary	-	-	*	*	*	*
Strathclyde
Total	*	*	*	*	12	18
Custody	-	-	-	*	*	10
Community sentence	-	*	*	*	8	7
Monetary	*	*	*	-	-	*
Other	*	-	-	-	-	-
Tayside
Total	*	-	*	*	*	9
Custody	-	-	*	*	*	-
Community sentence	*	-	*	-	*	7
Monetary	-	-	-	-	-	*
Average custodial sentence (Days)
Central	-	-	-	-	123	-
Dumfries and Galloway	-	-	91	-	-	-
Fife	-	365	-	-	-	274
Lothian and Borders	274	-	456	312	325	274
Northern	-	-	-	91	-	731
Strathclyde	-	-	-	396	494	465
Tayside	-	-	91	182	91	-
Scotland	274	365	213	301	352	387
Average fine (£)
Central	-	-	-	-	200	-
Fife	-	-	-	-	-	3,000
Grampian	-	-	400	500	2,725	2,500
Lothian and Borders	800	625	1,000	500	3,000	1,667
Northern	-	-	30	1,250	1,000	1,250
Strathclyde	823	308	88	-	-	250
Tayside	-	-	-	-	-	650
Scotland	814	435	434	708	1,930	1,355

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Includes estimated data.

3. The following symbols are used in this table, * = five or less, - = nil.

Question reference: S2W-17480

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 6 July 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of (a) male and (b) female prisoners it estimates have (i) alcohol and (ii) drug abuse problems.

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

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-15576 on 14 April 2005, and the answer given to question S2W-16631 on 31 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.

Question reference: S2W-17479

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 6 July 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hospital workers have been disciplined for alcohol and drug-related incidents since 1997, broken down by (a) profession and (b) gender.

Question reference: S2W-17484

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 6 July 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will reply to my letter of 18 May 2005 on parliamentary questions S2W-15081 and S2W-15082.

Question reference: S2W-17481

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 6 July 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were arrested for the (a) supply and (b) possession with intent to supply of (i) heroin, (ii) crack cocaine, (iii) all class A drugs and (iv) all class B drugs excluding cannabis prior to reclassification in each calendar year since 2001, broken down by (1) police force and (2) age of individual arrested.

Statistics on arrests are not available. The available statistics on persons with a charge proved for drug supply offences is given in the table. Supply and possession with intent to supply are not separately identifiable in the statistics held centrally, nor is information available to give a breakdown on type of drug by offence and age of offender.

Persons with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts for Supply of Drugs Offences¹ by Police Force Area and Age of Offender, 2001-03.

Police Force	Under 21			21 and over			Total
Police Force	2001	2002	2003²	2001	2002	2003²	2001	2002	2003²
Central	15	21	12	84	67	104	99	88	116
Dumfries and Galloway	10	6	9	24	40	36	34	46	45
Fife	9	8	3	59	67	61	68	75	64
Grampian	20	23	17	95	106	134	115	129	151
Lothian and Borders	19	24	26	160	129	164	179	153	190
Northern	18	8	12	50	50	65	68	58	77
Strathclyde	71	80	83	604	546	718	675	626	801
Tayside	12	13	12	85	113	109	97	126	121
Scotland	174	183	174	1,161	1,118	1,391	1,335	1,301	1,565

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Includes estimated data.

Question reference: S2W-17453

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 6 July 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive when the prisoner escort record form used by police forces, prisons and Reliance was last reviewed and what changes were made as a result.