- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 26 October 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make a ministerial statement on eligibility for the Education Maintenance Allowance programme.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-10978 answered on 26 October 2004. 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.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 October 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many hours, on average, were spent by police officers on patrol in the streets in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.
Answer
This information is not held centrally and is a matter for individual chief constables.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 October 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many new police recruits there were in each year since 1997, broken down by constabulary.
Answer
The information requested is shown in the following table.
| Police Force | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-00 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 |
| Central Scotland | 49 | 35 | 26 | 39 | 16 | 49 | 40 |
| Dumfries & Galloway | 39 | 20 | 22 | 46 | 23 | 19 | 24 |
| Fife | 65 | 27 | 41 | 50 | 94 | 61 | 84 |
| Grampian | 85 | 100 | 25 | 115 | 56 | 67 | 125 |
| Lothian & Borders | 80 | 32 | 64 | 189 | 157 | 131 | 198 |
| Northern | 35 | 21 | 23 | 45 | 45 | 30 | 31 |
| Strathclyde | 343 | 91 | 257 | 503 | 312 | 446 | 415 |
| Tayside | 75 | 42 | 38 | 66 | 67 | 47 | 49 |
| | | | | | | | |
| Scotland | 771 | 368 | 496 | 1,053 | 770 | 850 | 966 |
Source: Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary’s Annual Statistical Returns from police forces.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 October 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 October 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many vacancies there are for probation officers, broken down by grade and how many probation officers have left the Scottish Prison Service in each financial year.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:
SPS do not employ probation officers.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 October 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners died while in prison in each of the last five years, stating the prisoner’s age in each case.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:
The numbers of prisoners who died in SPS custody in each of the last 5 financial years and the age range they fall into is given in the following table.
| Year | Under 21 | 21-29 | 30-39 | 40-49 | 50-59 | 60 and over | Total |
| 1999-2000 | 1 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 26 |
| 2000-2001 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 16 |
| 2001-2002 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 18 |
| 2002-2003 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 16 |
| 2003-2004 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 19 |
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 13 October 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what evaluations are carried out on entry to prison of the learning abilities of individual prisoners and whether prisons are equipped to identify conditions such as dyslexia.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:
Prisoners who co-operate and are identified at induction to prison as having a high priority requirement to address the basic skills of communication (reading and writing) and numeracy are offered support including, initially, a basic skills assessment.
All prisoners who engage in learning and who highlight or appear to have a dyslexia condition are offered support through the prison learning centre. This may include undertaking further diagnostic assessment in line with the guidelines produced by the Scottish Prison Service in consultation with Dyslexia in Scotland the charitable company of the Scottish Dyslexia Association.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 13 October 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many licensed premises were closed down by (a) the police and (b) local authorities in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
This information is not collected centrally.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 12 October 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents of (a) self-injury and (b) attempted suicide have occurred in each segregation unit in young offenders’ institutions in each of the last five years.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:
The number of incidents of self-harm and attempted suicide in HM Young Offenders' Institution, Polmont (SPS’ main young male offenders' establishment) for the years in which records have been kept is as follows:
| | 2002 | 2003 |
| Self-Harm | 43 | 23 |
| Attempted Suicide | 8 | 6 |
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 8 October 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many positive mandatory drug tests there were in (a) open and (b) closed prisons in each of the last 10 years, broken down by drug type.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:
Drug testing was introduced in the Scottish Prison Service in 1996. Results are published on an annual basis in the Drugs Misuse Statistics Scotland bulletin produced by the Information and Statistics Division of the Scottish Executive. This information is available at www.drugmisuse.isdscotland.organd includes:
drugs detected by urine testing at reception into custody;
Mandatory Drug Testing results (which includes breakdown per prison and by drug type), and
drug treatment in prisons.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 4 October 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will launch the Individual Learning Account scheme, announced by the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning on 27 January 2004.
Answer
Ministers will decide shortly on the actual launch date for the new Individual Learning Account scheme, (ILA Scotland).
Following a nationwide series of information seminars for learning providers held in May, over one hundred learning providers have applied to become registered ILA Scotland providers, of which the majority have now been approved. A number of courses have been accepted as ILA Scotland “eligible learning”.
In deciding on the appropriate timing for launching ILA Scotland, ministers will consider a number of factors, including readiness of the systems and processes for delivering the scheme, ensuring that there is a good range of courses on offer to potential ILA-funded learners, and being satisfied that the providers and intermediary bodies who will be crucial to the success of the scheme are well-prepared, so that the scheme is as effective as possible for its target audience.
