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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: S4W-02914

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 7 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether local authorities must allow construction of infrastructure for utilities supply on land that they own when planning permission has been granted and, if so, whether mobile telephone masts are considered such infrastructure.

Planning permission does not in itself allow developers to construct on other people’s property. The powers, responsibilities, obligations and other requirements to construct on local authority land, or other parties’ land, are set out in various pieces of legislation dependent on the type of utility infrastructure involved.

The Telecommunications Act 1984, as amended by the Communications Act 2003 (link below), includes, in Schedule 2, the Electronic Communications Code which makes such provision for relevant developers, such as the mobile phone operators, involved in electronic communications. The code includes powers to take rights over private land either with the agreement of the landowner, or by applying to the sheriff court to set aside the need for an agreement. The code makes special provision for works by telecoms operators in relation to roads.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/12/contents.

Question reference: S4W-02915

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 7 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what procedural differences exist between the circumstances in which it (a) has to consider an appeal regarding a rejected planning application and (b) decides to call in a planning application.

Question reference: S4W-02947

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 7 October 2011

Information on the number of crimes and offences recorded by the police in which a firearm was alleged to have been used or where a firearm was stolen is published, on a financial year basis, by the Scottish Government in the Recorded Crimes and Offences involving Firearms, Scotland statistical bulletin series. The most recent year for which data is currently available is 2009-10. The number of recorded crimes and offences in which a firearm was discharged, in 2008-09 and in 2009-10, can be obtained from Tables 5 and 5A in the following link to the most recent publication.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/10/25143316/0

The corresponding information for 2010-11 will be available from the statistical bulletin Recorded Crimes and Offences involving Firearms, Scotland, 2010-11 which will be published on 25 October 2011.

Question reference: S4W-02940

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions since November 2009 the national scenes of crime examination standards and procedures have been updated.

Question reference: S4W-02942

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how the Scottish Police Services Authority checks for non-compliance with the scenes of crime examination standards and procedures and how many instances of non-compliance have been recorded since their introduction.

Question reference: S4W-02939

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive when the scenes of crime examination standards and procedures referred to by the Scottish Police Services Authority's Director of Forensic Services in evidence to the Fingerprint Inquiry on 13 November 2009 were first introduced.

Question reference: S4W-02946

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what training police officers have in relation to forensic examination of scenes of crime involving firearms and who provides such training.

The primary role of police officers at any crime scene is one of preservation of evidence. The examination of forensic evidence is the domain of forensic scientists. As recruits, police officers are trained at the Scottish Police College and must complete a module on forensic evidence. This module includes preservation of evidence, the risks of evidence contamination and initial actions to be taken at a crime scene. The Scottish Police College also provides further forensic evidence training to Detective Officers.

Question reference: S4W-02938

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, whether it will make available the scenes of crime examination standards and procedures referred to by the Scottish Police Services Authority's Director of Forensic Services in evidence to the Fingerprint Inquiry on 13 November 2009.

Question reference: S4W-02944

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what procedures are in place for the forensic investigation of scenes of crime involving firearms.

Question reference: S4W-02955

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive when the next inspection of the Scottish Police Services Authority by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland is scheduled.