Chamber and committees

I am sorry for the delay inresponding. My reply was sent on 17 January 2007.

The Finance Act 2001 (asamended) creates a number of offences in relation to the aggregates levy. Noreports in respect of such offences have been submitted to procurators fiscal.

The information requested isgiven in the tables within diagnosis and mortality rates of coronary heartdisease, chronic lung disease and cancer by parliamentary constituency since1999, a copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre (Bib. number 41484).

Note that populations byparliamentary constituency are not readily available. However, thesepopulations can be estimated by aggregating populations, which are available bydatazone geography level. There are instances where a datazone is split acrossmore than one parliamentary constituency. In these cases, the datazone population is allocatedto the parliamentary constituency that contains the highest number of postcodeareas that make up the datazone.

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

I refer themember to the answer to question S2W-25930 on 23 May 2006. All answers towritten parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, thesearch facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I have placed tables showingthe residence based claimant count unemployment rates by council ward in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 41454).For information, data onclaimant count unemployment by ward is available free of charge at the NationalOnline Manpower Information Website which can be accessed at www.nomisweb.co.uk.

I have placed tables showingthe residence based claimant count unemployment rates by council ward in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 41454).For information, data onclaimant count unemployment by ward is available free of charge at the NationalOnline Manpower Information Website which can be accessed at www.nomisweb.co.uk.

The information requested isgiven in the table Mortality rates of coronary heart disease by parliamentaryconstituency since 1997, a copy of which is available in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (Bib. number 41483).

Note that populations by parliamentaryconstituency are not readily available. However, these populations can be estimatedby aggregating populations, which are available by datazone geography level. Thereare instances where a datazone is split across more than one parliamentary constituency.In these cases, the datazone populationis allocated to the parliamentary constituency that contains the highest numberof postcode areas that make up the datazone.

Information on the number oflong-term jobs created in each year since 1999, broken down by local enterprisearea is not held centrally.

Other than statistics on homicide,information on whether or not particular crimes against the person are “alcohol-related”or linked to the use of illegal drugs is not held centrally. The latest availableinformation on the drink/drug status reported for accused persons in homicide casesis included in Table 7 of the Statistics Release Homicide in Scotland, 2005-06 published by the ScottishExecutive in November 2006, which can be found on the Scottish Executive’s websiteat:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/11/17112458/0.

The available information isgiven in the following tables. The court proceedings statistics for 2005-06 areplanned for publication in March 2007. The statistics dealing with recorded crimeand court proceedings are not directly comparable as a person may be proceeded againstfor more than one crime, and a crime may be recorded in one year and court proceedingsconcluded in a subsequent year. Charges recorded by the police may also be alteredas a result of the judicial process. Crimes alleged to have been committed by under16 year olds are also generally dealt with through the children’s hearings systemrather than the courts.

Animal Cruelty Offences¹Recorded by the Police, by Police Force Area, 2000-01 to 2005-06

Police Force Area	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Central	13	14	10	16	18	13
Dumfries and Galloway	2	3	9	17	21	4
Fife	27	8	9	6	8	7
Grampian	28	21	24	35	30	32
Lothian and Borders	7	10	10	24	14	60
Northern	21	9	14	15	15	14
Strathclyde	48	39	44	77	78	56
Tayside	18	2	7	18	13	14
Scotland	164	106	127	208	197	200

 

Persons witha Charge Proved in Scottish Courts for Animal Cruelty Offences^1,2, byPolice Force Area, 2000-01 To 2004-05

Police Force Area	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Central	5	2	2	5	1
Dumfries and Galloway	2	3	1	2	3
Fife	2	-	1	1	3
Grampian	6	2	4	8	3
Lothian and Borders	3	2	2	3	-
Northern	7	7	6	9	12
Strathclyde	13	18	14	10	23
Tayside	4	4	2	5	2
Scotland	42	38	32	43	47

Note:

1. Includes offences within theJustice Department crime and offence categories of “cruelty to animals (excludingdogs)”, “cruelty to dogs” and “cruelty to wild animals”.

2. Where main offence.