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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S4O-01629

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what actions are required to reduce health inequalities.

Question reference: S4O-01566

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 December 2012

To ask Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Enterprise report, Spends & Trends UKCS 2012-2016.

Question reference: S4O-01542

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 November 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the curriculum for excellence will give young people the values, qualities and skills that they will need to be successful.

Question reference: S4O-01478

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 14 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many AccuVein kits there are in hospitals in NHS Lothian.

Question reference: S4T-00120

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 November 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what plans are being made to introduce a high speed rail link between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Question reference: S4O-01341

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many homes affected by external sewer flooding are listed on Scottish Water’s register of properties.

Question reference: S4O-01331

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what assessments are undertaken prior to placing people being monitored under the multi-agency public protection arrangements in unsupervised bed and breakfast accommodation.

Question reference: S4O-01235

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 August 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of pupils left education in 2012 with standard grades at level 7 only.

Question reference: S4W-08790

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 16 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how much money received through (a) court and (b) fixed penalty fines it has remitted to the Treasury in each year since 2007.

The Scottish Government has no role in the collection of fines, or in their remission to HM Treasury. These are operational matters for the Scottish Court Service (SCS).

SCS has provided the following information in response to your question:

	JP Non-Statutory Court Fines £000	Sheriff Court Fines £000	Total Court Fines £000	Fiscal Penalties £000	Police Fixed Penalties £000	Total £000
Value Collected by SCS
2007-08	0	16,086	16,086	659	0	16,745
2008-09	326	17,188	17,514	1,959	4,190	23,662
2009-10	733	13,998	14,731	3,167	9,348	27,246
2010-11	1,010	27,776	28,786	3,565	13,273	45,625
2011-12	1,013	10,179	11,192	4,107	13,476	28,775
Value Retained by SCS
2007-08	0	0	0	659	0	659
2008-09	326	0	326	1,599	840	2,764
2009-10	733	0	733	2,036	2,168	4,938
2010-11	1,010	0	1,010	2,297	3,056	6,362
2011-12	1,013	0	1,013	2,786	2,922	6,720
Value Remitted to Consolidated Fund
2007-08	0	16,086	16,086	0	0	16,086
2008-09	0	17,188	17,188	360	3,350	20,898
2009-10	0	13,998	13,998	1,130	7,180	22,308
2010-11	0	27,776	27,776	1,269	10,218	39,262
2011-12	0	10,179	10,179	1,321	10,554	22,054

Notes:

SCS commenced collecting fiscal fines in all courts from December 2007. Figures for 2007-08 are therefore not directly comparable with other years

Figures for JP court fines are not directly comparable between years prior to 2010-11 due to the progressive nature of court unification.

The total fines income remitted to HMT includes all sheriff court fines income and the non-retainable element of the JP court fines income - the JP court element (statutory) is not separately identifiable.

Total remitted to HMT includes fines, confiscations and forfeitures.

There was a significant single confiscation of £17 million in 2010-11.

Question reference: S4W-08791

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 16 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the money received through (a) court and (b) fixed penalty fines it has (i) retained and (ii) had returned to it through the block grant in each year since 2007.

The Scottish Government has no role in the collection of fines. This is an operational matter for the Scottish Court Service (SCS). Accordingly, it retains no monies from fines collection.

Please see the reply to S4W-08790 on 16 August 2012 for the amount of fine income which SCS retained in the years in question. All answers to parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

There is no direct relationship between the amounts arising from fines collection remitted to the Consolidated Fund by SCS, and the block grant to the Scottish Government.