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-31707

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 20 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions special advisers have been consulted on responses to freedom of information requests and what the Executive’s policy is on the role of special advisers in preparing its responses to freedom of information requests.

Question reference: S2W-31648

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 20 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people died as a result of a stroke in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.

The information requested isgiven in the following table.

Deaths from CerebrovascularDisease (Stroke)¹, by NHS Board Area

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Scotland	6,621	6,722	6,497	6,155	5,789
Ayrshire and Arran	554	578	513	520	481
Borders	149	137	166	133	141
Dumfries and Galloway	204	233	228	215	185
Fife	498	501	476	459	412
Forth Valley	413	362	377	328	349
Grampian	580	622	605	539	533
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1,666	1,579	1,523	1,448	1,396
Highland	392	428	419	402	366
Lanarkshire	662	631	661	636	610
Lothian	903	956	902	862	777
Orkney	31	31	35	19	16
Shetland	27	22	17	16	9
Tayside	498	584	535	550	481
Western Isles	44	58	40	28	33

Note: 1. ICD10 codes I60 -I69.

Question reference: S2W-31605

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 20 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what its total expenditure was on (a) newspapers, magazines and periodicals, (b) landscape gardening and flora and (c) stationery in each of the last three years.

The total amounts paid in eachyear are given in the following table and cover the core Executive plus those agencieswhich use its payment system. The figures show the amounts allocated against theperiodicals and stationery codes respectively.

Year	Periodicals, Magazines and Papers	Stationery
2004-05	£323,349	£1,125,706
2005-06	£408,791	£1,098,010
2006-07*	£298,751	£613,402

Note: *Figures for 2006 to 2007year to date.

With regards to payment for landscapegardening and flora I would refer the member to the answer to question S2W-31249on 1 February 2007, which provides the relevant information for 2006-07. The correspondingfigure for 2005-06 is comparable at £37,000. Figures for the financial year2004-05 are not available.

All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Question reference: S2W-31609

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of those convicted of sexual offences have absconded while (a) on parole, (b) on early release and (c) serving a suspended sentence in each of the last seven years, broken down by police force area.

The number of offenders convictedof sexual offences who have been released on licence, and have subsequently hadtheir licence revoked but have not yet been returned to custody over the lastseven years are:

Year	Number	Constabulary
2000	0
2001	0
2002	1	Tayside
2003	1	Tayside
2004	2	Strathclyde Northern
2005	1	Strathclyde
2006	0
2007 (to date)	1	Lothian and Borders

In Scotland offendersare released subject to the provisions of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings(Scotland) Act 1993. Offenders sentenced to four years or more are eligible to bereleased on licence at the direction of the Parole Board after serving one halfof the sentence and will be released on licence at the two thirds stage of sentence.They are subject to supervision in the community by the relevant local authority.Should an offender breach the conditions of theirlicence in the community, they are liable to have their licence revoked and be returnedto custody. Sex offenders sentenced to between six months and up to four years areautomatically released on licence at the halfway point of their sentence.

Scottish courts do not have powersto suspend sentences.

The Custodial Sentences and Weapons(Scotland) Bill currently before Parliament makes provision for all offenders sentencedto 15 days or more to be subject to licence conditions for a minimum of 25% of theirsentence.

Question reference: S2W-30798

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 15 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of female prisoners are mothers.

Question reference: S2W-31709

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 15 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of women were examined by a breast cancer specialist within two weeks of a referral from their general practitioner in each of the last eight quarters.

Question reference: S2W-31639

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 15 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many consultants were employed by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency in each of the last six years for which figures are available.

Question reference: S2W-31649

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 15 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions its civil servants have been given permission to attend the Labour Party conference to carry out departmental business in each year since 1999.

Permanent civil servants areprohibited from attending party conferences in their official capacity, except inrare circumstances when their presence may be required for carrying through essentialdepartmental business unconnected with the conference. Any such attendance willbe exceptional and no record is kept of how frequently this happens.

Special advisers, who are temporarycivil servants, are allowed under the terms of their contracts to attend party functionsin their own right, but are not allowed to speak publicly at party conferences.

Question reference: S2W-31638

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 15 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost of producing and distributing SEPA View (a) was in the last year for which figures are available and (b) has been since its inception; how many recipients are on the distribution list, and how many of those recipients are (i) Scottish Environment Protection Agency staff, (ii) Executive staff and (iii) elected politicians.

Question reference: S2W-31607

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 15 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average prison sentence was for (a) violent and (b) non-violent crimes in each of the last five years and what average sentence was served by prisoners in each category who were released in each of these years.

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

The available information relatesto non-life sentenced receptions by maincrime/offence and is in the following table:

Average Sentence LengthImposed (Days)

	Non-Sexual Crimes of Violence	All Other Crimes and Offences
2001-02	882	246
2002-03	905	252
2003-04	910	257
2004-05	812	225
2005-06	815	211