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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: S3W-03059

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 20 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive which recommendations of the Sentencing Commission for Scotland’s report, The Scope to Improve Consistency in Sentencing, it intends to accept and what priority it attaches to the recommendations.

The Scope to ImproveConsistency in Sentencingwas presented to the previous administration and published in September 2006. Itcontains 25 recommendations which for the most part pertain to the introductionof a process for giving effect to sentencing guidelines and the creation of a newstatutory body which would be responsible for their preparation and presentationfor consideration to the Appeal Court of the High Court of Justiciary.

We believe that thereis a case for sentencing guidelines in order to deliver consistent sentencing andso improve public confidence in the criminal justice system. We are taking forwardour consideration of the case for a Sentencing Council but our immediate priorityin the context of sentencing is to improve the delivery of community sentences soas to improve judicial and public confidence in them as alternatives to custody.

Question reference: S3W-02602

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 14 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-2020 by John Swinney on 23 July 2007, what departments the 381 staff on loan to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority normally work in and how much the Home Office is paying for the loan of these staff.

The costs chargedto the Home Office for the Scottish Government employees working at the CriminalInjuries Compensation Authority (CICA) are as follows:

2001-02 - £6,389,925.64

2002-03 - £6,988,188.22

2003-04 - £7,402,028.52

2004-05 - £6,511,248.31

2005-06 - £6,811,804.67

2006-07 - £7,795,202.94.

The above costs coversalaries, NiCs and employers pension contributions.

The Scottish Governmentstaff working at the CICA are assigned to the agency. They can, however, elect totransfer to core areas of the Scottish Executive or to its Executive Agencies forcareer development reasons or when promotion opportunities arise.

Question reference: S3W-02104

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 13 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans the Cabinet Secretary for Justice has to review all existing communications interception warrants authorised by Scottish ministers in the last 12 months.

When authorising the interceptionof communications, Scottish ministers must first satisfy themselves that interceptionis both necessary and proportionate for the prevention or detection of serious crime.

I have no plans to review allinterception warrants signed in the last 12 months.

Independent statutory oversightof the powers and duties conferred on the Scottish ministers by the sections of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 which govern the authorisation ofinterception of communications is provided by the Interception of CommunicationsCommissioner, currently Sir Paul Kennedy.

The commissioner’s latest annualreport, for 2005-06, was laid before the Scottish Parliament on 19 February 2007 (documentnumber SE/2007/17).

Question reference: S3W-02548

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 13 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the parties who have access to a patient’s medical records without (a) explicit authorisation and (b) the information being anonymised and whether changes have been made to these lists in each year since 1999, identifying these changes.

Personal health information isprotected by the Data Protection Act and the common law duty of confidentiality.

NHS staff and contractors areauthorised to use personal health information for a range of activities necessaryto the provision of care and treatment, including medical diagnosis, patient care,planning, statistics, payment, clinical governance, clinical and financial audits.Unauthorised individuals are not given access to personal health information.

NHS organisations take stepsto protect personal health information from unauthorised access, such as controllingphysical access to medical records libraries and putting password protection onelectronically stored personal health information. As records are increasingly movedto an electronic storage medium, there are opportunities to not only make accesscontrols clearer, but also to audit access to the information. These issues arebeing considered within the Scottish Government’s eHealth programme.

Personal health information,once anonymised so that a patient is no longer identifiable, is not protected bythe common law duty of confidentiality or the Data Protection Act. Patients havea right to know when it is intended that their information will be anonymised forappropriate purposes, such as medical research, and NHS organisations have mechanismsin place to approve the use of anonymised data for research purposes.

Question reference: S3W-02010

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 9 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) primary and (b) secondary school classes had 25 or more pupils in each of the last four years, broken down by local authority area.

The number ofprimary school classes with 25 or more pupils is shown in the following table.Information for secondary schools is not collected.

Local Authority	2003	2004	2005	2006
Aberdeen City	282	257	258	229
Aberdeenshire	359	370	340	322
Angus	199	197	200	189
Argyll and Bute	102	98	86	75
Clackmannanshire	111	99	89	88
Dumfries and Galloway	216	207	180	161
Dundee City	252	254	251	259
East Ayrshire	218	202	198	194
East Dunbartonshire	232	226	207	198
East Lothian	188	192	168	151
East Renfrewshire	240	231	223	210
Edinburgh, City of	571	573	582	561
Eilean Siar	7	5	5	4
Falkirk	312	299	286	258
Fife	562	571	539	550
Glasgow City	797	777	755	792
Highland	263	239	252	249
Inverclyde	122	133	136	123
Midlothian	129	132	126	119
Moray	153	148	149	124
North Ayrshire	275	279	256	245
North Lanarkshire	574	578	549	531
Orkney Islands	18	15	14	14
Perth and Kinross	203	191	194	183
Renfrewshire	346	327	320	303
Scottish Borders	138	139	125	131
Shetland Islands	9	4	5	4
South Ayrshire	201	194	181	177
South Lanarkshire	535	574	548	536
Stirling	140	139	146	136
West Dunbartonshire	164	158	143	124
West Lothian	329	346	340	344

Total Number of Classes

	2003	2004	2005	2006
Aberdeen City	559	547	535	520
Aberdeenshire	900	885	872	870
Angus	385	378	374	370
Argyll and Bute	348	348	349	331
Clackmannanshire	164	160	162	161
Dumfries and Galloway	515	507	506	491
Dundee City	417	399	390	383
East Ayrshire	405	402	389	385
East Dunbartonshire	385	373	363	356
East Lothian	328	309	312	319
East Renfrewshire	320	332	329	325
Edinburgh City	1,092	1,051	1,034	1,018
Eilean Siar	155	155	156	141
Falkirk	470	463	470	459
Fife	1,208	1,172	1,169	1,136
Glasgow City	1,738	1,691	1,651	1,582
Highland	858	840	839	834
Inverclyde	283	264	259	252
Midlothian	287	279	279	275
Moray	341	320	312	309
North Ayrshire	461	447	439	429
North Lanarkshire	1,162	1,157	1,161	1,145
Orkney Islands	87	90	90	89
Perth and Kinross	453	458	455	448
Renfrewshire	562	552	551	549
Scottish Borders	396	385	383	380
Shetland Islands	117	120	113	116
South Ayrshire	355	350	343	337
South Lanarkshire	1,105	1,039	1,026	1,000
Stirling	298	294	292	293
West Dunbartonshire	320	309	306	297
West Lothian	603	591	591	591

Question reference: S3W-02301

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been paid to police informants in respect of information involving political parties each year since 1997, broken down by constabulary.

Question reference: S3W-02302

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many convictions have resulted from information passed to police forces by paid informants, expressed as a percentage of the total number of convictions in each year since 1997.

Question reference: S3W-02300

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many registered police informants were (a) charged with and (b) convicted of criminal offences during the times they were informants in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S3W-02299

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been paid to police informants in each year since 2000, broken down by police force.

Question reference: S3W-02298

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much in total has been paid to police informants in each year since 1999.