Chamber and committees

The estimated average gross annual revenue derived from tourism over the last three years in each of the area tourist board areas of Scotland is shown in the following table:

Area Tourist Board	Total Visitor Spend (£ Million)
Aberdeen and Grampian	369
Angus and Dundee	106
Argyll, the Isles, Loch Lomond, Stirling and the Trossachs	443
Ayrshire and Arran	202
Dumfries and Galloway	165
Edinburgh and Lothians	1,041
Greater Glasgow and Clyde Valley	782
Highlands of Scotland	576
Kingdom of Fife	161
Perthshire	194
Scottish Borders	78

Note: Due to small sample-sizes, there are no area figures for Orkney, Shetland or Western Isles Tourist Boards.

The Scottish Executive shares with the tourism sector and with VisitScotland the ambition to grow tourism revenues by 50% in the next decade. This will primarily be delivered by the wide range of businesses in the sector, with support from the various public sector organisations involved in tourism working in an integrated way. As far as the Executive’s part in this is concerned, we have more than doubled VisitScotland’s budget since 2000, and earlier this year increased its marketing budget by 28%, with a challenge to companies in the private sector to match fund £12 million of that increase. We recently announced a doubling in our Route Development Fund, which encourages new direct air routes into Scotland from overseas. Earlier investment in the fund is already paying dividends, with an increase in the first half of this year of 12% in visitors from overseas.

The Executive has also invested additional funding in broadening and strengthening VisitScotland’s already well regarded quality assurance schemes. And to help tourism businesses of all kinds to grow and prosper, we are now developing an integrated tourism network by merging VisitScotland with the 14 area tourist boards to create one team for Scottish tourism. Our objective is to grow tourism’s contribution to the economy by making Scotland a must-visit,must return destination.

Resources totalling £90 million per year are currently made available for investment in tourism development through VisitScotland, Historic Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, and other organisations. VisitScotland works closely with the industry to support the development of tourism and, where appropriate, provides financial and in kind support for tourism marketing initiatives and events that bring benefits to Scotland’s tourism industry and economy. The enterprise networks also provide assistance to individual tourism businessesto grow their operations.

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

The following table breaks downthe number of deaths in custody in the last 10 years by establishment. A fatalaccident inquiry is held to each death in custody. The further information requestedis not available.

	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	Total
Aberdeen	0	0	2	1	1	1	0	1	2	0	8
Barlinnie	7	2	8	3	6	6	6	4	3	1	46
Castle Huntly	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Cornton Vale	0	3	3	1	1	0	0	2	2	0	12
Dumfries	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	4
Dungavel	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	-	-	-	1
Edinburgh	4	4	1	3	3	2	5	1	2	2	27
Glenochil	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	8
Greenock	3	2	5	3	3	3	1	1	1	0	22
Inverness	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	3
Kilmarnock	-	-	-	0	0	1	2	4	3	2	12
Longriggend	2	1	1	1	1	0	0	-	-	-	6
Low Moss	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	3
Noranside	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Penninghame	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-	-	-	0
Perth	7	2	4	1	3	4	0	1	1	7	30
Peterhead	0	2	1	0	1	3	0	0	1	3	11
Polmont	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	3
Shotts	0	1	1	2	0	2	0	1	0	1	8
Total	25	17	27	19	21	26	16	18	16	19	204

 

Crimes involving graffiti arenot identified separately from other crimes in the category “vandalism, maliciousdamage and malicious mischief” in the Scottish Executive Justice Department classificationof crimes and offences. In 2002, the latest year for which information is currentlyavailable, there were 3,470 convictions in total where the main offence involvedwas vandalism, malicious damage or malicious mischief. Nine per cent of these involvedoffenders who had one or more previous convictions for such offences since the startof 1989. Some information on the reconviction profiles of person convicted of criminaldamage (which includes crimes of vandalism etc) was published in the statisticalbulletin Reconvictions of offenders discharged from custody or given non-custodialsentences in 1997, Scotland published by the Scottish Executive in March 2003,a copy of which is available in the Parliament’s Reference centre (Bib. number 27185).

The available information isgiven in the following table. The recorded crime statistics collected centrallydo not distinguish legislation at the level of detail requested. In consequencesome of the figures given in the tables may include offences recorded under legislationother than that specified in the question.

Crimes of “Handling anOffensive Weapon” Recorded by the Police 2003

	Possession of an Offensive Weapon (Section 47 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995)	Having in a Public Place an Article with a Blade or Point1	Restriction of Offensive Weapons2
Scotland	5,276	3,567	11
Aberdeen City	207	103	0
Aberdeenshire	116	31	0
Angus	17	10	0
Argyll and Bute	40	38	1
Clackmannanshire	66	11	0
Dumfries and Galloway	109	39	0
Dundee City	84	54	0
East Ayrshire	111	54	0
East Dunbartonshire	64	28	0
East Lothian	46	19	0
East Renfrewshire	43	33	0
Edinburgh, City of	430	182	2
Eilean Siar	9	3	0
Falkirk	121	46	0
Fife	111	68	1
Glasgow, City of	1,653	1,587	0
Highland	183	59	0
Inverclyde	116	169	0
Midlothian	61	17	0
Moray	68	27	0
North Ayrshire	144	100	1
North Lanarkshire	354	182	0
Orkney Islands	1	3	0
Perth and Kinross	41	13	0
Renfrewshire	194	179	3
Scottish Borders	70	37	0
Shetland Islands	1	2	0
South Ayrshire	54	39	1
South Lanarkshire	361	278	1
Stirling	93	23	1
West Dunbartonshire	184	102	0
West Lothian	124	31	0

Notes:

1. Includes all offences recordedunder the Criminal law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 sections 49 and 49A,and the Carrying of Knives etc (Scotland) Act 1993 section 1.

2. Includes all offences recordedunder the Criminal Justice Act sections 141 and 141A, and the Restriction of OffensiveWeapons Act 1959.

Statistics on telecommunications developments have only been collected since the introduction of the new controls in July 2001. The following table provides the figures for planning applications for telecommunications infrastructure, including ground-based masts, additional antennas, roof-based masts and equipment housing for the period 23 July 2001 to 30 June 2004.

Completion of the returns by planning authorities is voluntary, therefore a number of gaps appear in the returns.

Planning Authority	No. of Telecommunication Developments Approved
Aberdeen	73
Aberdeenshire	79
Angus	41
Argyll and Bute*	85
Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar	35
Clackmannanshire*	9
Dumfries and Galloway	88
Dundee	28
East Ayrshire	44
East Dunbartonshire	41
East Lothian*	36
East Renfrewshire	26
Edinburgh*	243
Falkirk*	24
Fife	101
Glasgow*	0
Highland*	72
Inverclyde	17
Midlothian	27
Moray	36
North Ayrshire*	22
North Lanarkshire*	79
Orkney*	0
Perth and Kinross	74
Renfrewshire	77
Scottish Borders	81
Shetland*	6
South Ayrshire	54
South Lanarkshire*	117
Stirling	37
West Dunbartonshire	15
West Lothian	53
Scotland	1,720

Note: *Denotes at least one missing or incomplete return.

The information is not held centrally.

Employment of staff is an operational matter for individual NDPBs to consider.

It is assumed that thequestion relates to “local child curfew schemes” of the kind which are providedfor under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, initially for under those under 10years and then subsequently by amendment to those under 15. These provisions donot apply to Scotland and there is no separate statutory provision for localchild curfew schemes in Scotland.

In 1997 Strathclyde Policein partnership with South Lanarkshire Council introduced a child safetyinitiative within Hamilton. This was not a curfew and was developed out ofcommunity concerns relating to the safety of young children out unsupervised onthe streets at night. The initiative has now been incorporated within theoverall community policing strategy for the area. Whilst the Scottish Executivesupported the principles underpinning the initiative, it is an operationalmatter for the individual Chief Constable in association with the localauthority to determine whether such measures provide the means to addressissues of particular concern in their areas. Information is not held centrallyon the use of such initiatives by police forces.

Socio-economic information on convicted persons is not collected centrally.