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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-13941

Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have received direct payments for social care in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

This information is available from the latest statistics release, Direct Payments Scotland 2007, which was published on the Internet on 25 September 2007. The document can be found using the following link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/Publications.

A copy is also available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 43799).

The Scottish Government is committed to radically improving the uptake of self-directed support. I recently convened a roundtable on self-directed support to inform government strategy in this area which will consider practical tools to achieve this aim.

Question reference: S3W-13232

Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive when it intends to implement the recommendations on disclosure contained in Review of the Law and Practice of Disclosure in Criminal Proceedings in Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-13233

Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Frank Mulholland on 28 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in implementing recommendations 29 and 30 of The ACPOS and Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service working group formed to develop joint protocols, as recommended in the Bonomy Report.

Both recommendations relate to the disclosure of evidence in criminal proceedings by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) and the Scottish police.

Recommendation 29 suggested that the police and COPFS should commit to a process of full disclosure in all solemn cases in connection with the implementation of High Court Reform in 2005.

Recommendation 30 suggested that COPFS should consider a pilot for routine disclosure of a summary of the Crown case in summary cases.

I am pleased to confirm that both recommendations have been implemented in full, Recommendation 29 was implemented in November 2004 when the then Lord Advocate Lord Boyd issued a Crown Practice Statement in relation to the disclosure of evidence by the Crown in High Court Cases.

The Crown Practice Statement took full effect from 1 January 2005 and continues to apply to all High Court cases indicted on or after 1 April 2005 and was extended to all solemn cases from 1 September 2005.

In relation to Recommendation 30, a successful pilot was conducted in Dumfries and Galloway in 2007 and the new process was rolled out nationally in September 2007 to support the Summary Justice Reform programme. All summary complaints now include a summary of evidence against the accused.

Question reference: S3W-12401

Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what powers the Cabinet Secretary for Justice has to determine what is defined as an operational matter for Chief Constables.

Question reference: S3W-12561

Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many freedom of information requests have been received by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission since the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 came into force.

Question reference: S3W-12564

Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many freedom of information requests received by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission since the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 came into force and referred to the Scottish Information Commissioner have been disclosed.

Question reference: S3W-12505

Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2008
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.

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.

Question reference: S3W-12509

Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2008
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.

Question reference: S3W-12510

Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2008
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.

Question reference: S3W-12563

Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many freedom of information requests received by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission since the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 came into force have been referred to the Scottish Information Commissioner.