- Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many appeals against convictions have been referred to the high court in each year since 1999, broken down by grounds of appeal.
Answer
The information requested is provided in the following table.
Conviction Referrals from 1 April 1999 to 31 March 2008
| Year | Number of Referrals | Main Grounds |
| 1999-2000 | 2 | 1 x New Evidence 1 x Change in Witness Testimony |
| 2000-01 | 4 | 2 x Change in the Law 1 x New Evidence 1 x Unfair Trial |
| 2001-02 | 9 | 6 x New Evidence 1 x Defective Representation 1 x Sentencing Issue 1 x Reasonable Doubt as to Applicant''s Guilt |
| 2002-03 | 10 | 4 x New Evidence 2 x Jury Impropriety 1 x Reasonable Doubt as to Applicant''s Guilt 1 x Defective Representation 1 x Sentencing Issue 1 x Disclosure of Evidence |
| 2003-04 | 2 | 2 x New Evidence |
| 2004-05 | 6 | 5 x New Evidence 1 x Procedural Irregularity |
| 2005-06 | 3 | 1 x Misdirection by Trial Judge 1 x Change in the Law 1 x Insufficiency of Evidence |
| 2006-07 | 7 | 2 x Misdirection by Trial Judge 1 x Sentencing Issue 1 x Disclosure of Evidence 1 x Change in the Law 1 x New Evidence 1 x Abuse of Process |
| 2007-08 | 3 | 1 x Multiple Referral Grounds 1 x New Evidence 1 x Unreasonable Verdict |
| Total | =SUM(ABOVE) 46 | |
It should be noted that there may be other grounds of review. The commission''s system records only the main ground in the first instance.
- Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission holds records of the names of individual solicitors referred to the commission on grounds of defective representation.
Answer
Individual applications from members of the public and/or their legal representatives will include the names of solicitors involved in a case, as will the Statement of Reasons that the Commission provides in relation to each application.
- Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the disclosure of the names of solicitors referred to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission for defective representation would contravene section 38(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-12508 on 9 May 2008. 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: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 April 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive who is responsible for determining what is an operational matter for Chief Constables.
Answer
Under the provisions of the Police (Scotland) Act 1967, the operational deployment of individual officers is subject to the direction of the chief constable.
However, there are circumstances when chief constables are legitimately influenced in their deployment by parties external to the police service. These circumstances arise when officers are deployed in more general terms under the force''s operational priorities. The tripartite system of governance for police forces dictates that these priorities are arrived at following consultation between the chief constable, the relevant police board and Scottish ministers.
- Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether Taser weapons are defined as firearms.
Answer
Taser weapons are defined as firearms under section 5(1)(b) of the Firearms Act 1968 (as amended).
- Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the deployment of Taser weapons is an operational matter for Chief Constables and, if so, what (a) legislation or guidelines define such deployment as an operational matter and (b) the scope is of the term “operational matter”.
Answer
The deployment of Taser weapons is an operational matter for Chief Constables.
Section 17(2) of the Police (Scotland) Act 1967 states that the performance by a constable of his functions under any enactment or under any rule of law shall be subject to the direction of the appropriate Chief Constable.
- Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide details of the organisations that have benefited from the Cashback for Communities scheme, broken down by (a) amount of award and (b) activity type.
Answer
We are at present providing £2.238 million of funding under CashBack for Communities to the Scottish Football Association to roll out a range of free football activities across Scotland. These activities address playing and coach/volunteer development work. Further information is available on the CashBack website.
Regarding the agreement with YouthLink to administer the £3 million local grant scheme, decisions on funding applications will be taken in May and an announcement on successful candidates will be made following this.
Further announcements will be made over the course of the next two months.
- Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Bruce Crawford on 27 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what new arrangements the First Minister has put in place to develop and maintain the relationship between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament following the election of the SNP minority administration in May 2007.
Answer
The First Minister has appointed 14 Parliamentary Liaison Officers (PLOs), listed as follows, to play a role in contributing to the effective communication of the government''s policy within the Parliament to support Cabinet Secretaries. Parliamentary Liaison Officers are unpaid, not members of the government and are not, therefore, bound by Collective Responsibility.
| Portfolio | Parliamentary Liaison Officer |
| Office of the First Minister | Aileen Campbell Keith Brown Alasdair Allan Chris Harvie |
| Deputy First Minister/Health and Wellbeing | Stuart McMillan Ian McKee |
| Education and Lifelong Learning | Christina McKelvie Bob Doris |
| Environment and Rural Affairs | Rob Gibson Jamie Hepburn |
| Justice | Nigel Don Angela Constance |
| Finance and Sustainable Growth | Joe Fitzpatrick Shirley Ann Somerville |
- Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 25 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how organisations should bid for funding from the £200,000 to tackle gang culture, announced on 14 February 2008.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-10903 on 25 March 2008. 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: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 25 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive which organisations will receive funding from the £200,000 to tackle gang culture, announced on 14 February 2008.
Answer
The closing date for applications for a share of the £200,000 was 7 March 2008. Thirty bids from a range of statutory and voluntary organisations have been received and are currently being evaluated. All of the successful bids will deliver a range of educational, diversionary and behaviour change activities aimed at tackling gang and group violence and disorder within local communities. To support this work, 72 individuals from the police and local authorities across Scotland have been given specialist conflict resolution training and a supporting good practice toolkit to utilise during the initiative.
