- Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 3 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what support is available for people who live in tenement accommodation in connection with people smoking on tenement landings.
Answer
As private residential accommodation, tenement flats and related stairs and closes are exempt from the provisions of the Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005. In these circumstances, any issues which individual occupiers might have in connection with people smoking in communal areas within tenement buildings require to be resolved privately.
- Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 30 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how much organisations across Scotland received in lottery funding last year, expressed also on a per capita basis.
Answer
Priorities for distribution of lottery funding in Scotland by the BIG Lottery Fund are set by Scottish ministers in policy directions made with the consent of the Secretary of State. In accordance with these priorities, decisions on distribution of lottery funds are made by the Big Lottery Fund, independently of Scottish Ministers. Information on such decisions is available from the Chief Executive, Big Lottery Fund, 1 Atlantic Quay, 1 Robertson Street, Glasgow G2 8JB, tel: 0141 242 1400.
- Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 30 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how much organisations in the Strathkelvin and Bearsden parliamentary constituency received in lottery funding last year, expressed also on a per capita basis.
Answer
Priorities for distribution of lottery funding in Scotland by the BIG Lottery Fund are set by Scottish ministers in policy directions made with the consent of the Secretary of State. In accordance with these priorities, decisions on distribution of lottery funds are made by the Big Lottery Fund, independently of Scottish Ministers. Information on such decisions is available from the Chief Executive, Big Lottery Fund, 1 Atlantic Quay, 1 Robertson Street, Glasgow G2 8JB, tel: 0141 242 1400.
- Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 29 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on findings of recent studies in Germany and the United States showing that children are at least 14% to 21% more likely to have leukaemia if they live near to a nuclear power plant.
Answer
The latest authoritative study for the UK on this matter, was the 10th Report of the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment, published in June 2005, on The incidence of childhood cancer around nuclear installations in Great Britain. This study concluded that there was no evidence of excess numbers of cases in any local 25km area around any of the nuclear power stations.
- Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 29 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive when it intends to publish national performance indicators for public procurement, as recommended by The Review of Public Procurement in Scotland.
Answer
The first set of national best practice indicators (BPIs) for public procurement in Scotland will be published today. The project is a significant step forward in the procurement reform programme and will be rolled out across the wider public sector.
The BPIs were developed by a working group with representation from all parts of the public sector, including local authorities, health, higher education/further education and government agencies and non-departmental public bodies. The project will encourage procurement teams within public sector organisations to focus on the priority areas of efficiency, collaboration, compliance, skills and e-procurement with a view to delivering improved value for money and supporting more efficient, effective and coordinated service delivery.
Copies are available at www.scotland.gov.uk/BPIprocurementsummary.
- Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 28 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps have been taken to meet the recommendations of the Scottish Sentencing Commission which reported in 2006 on improving the scope and consistency of sentencing.
Answer
The Scottish Government is aware of the recommendations made by the Sentencing Commission in August 2006, in particular that steps should be taken to introduce a procedure that gives effect to a system of sentencing guidelines.
As set out in our manifesto, we believe that such a system would deliver more consistent and transparent sentencing and intend to set up a sentencing council to take this work forward. We plan to consult with key interests and stakeholders, especially the judiciary, on the issues around establishing such a body before coming forward with detailed proposals.
- Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 27 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many vulnerable adults were called to give evidence in courts in (a) 2005, (b) 2006 and 2007.
Answer
It is currently not possible to provide information on the numbers of adult vulnerable witnesses as defined by the Vulnerable Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2004 that are called to give evidence in courts. However, the Scottish Government together with key partners are reviewing the methods for the collection of information on adult vulnerable witnesses following the completion of the implementation of the 2004 act.
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13016 on 27 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: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Linda Fabiani on 27 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what (a) funding and (b) assistance has been given to the (i) Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association and (ii) National Piping Centre to promote Scottish traditional music in each of the last nine years.
Answer
Information on the funding provided to the National Piping Centre by the Scottish Arts Council in each of the last nine years is set out in the following table. The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association has not received any funding during that period. The National Piping Centre has, since 1998, received grants from the Scottish Government totalling £1 million to help clear debts. The centre also received £300,000 in 2001 to help provide high-quality music tuition. The Royal Pipe Band Association has not received any government grants.
National Piping Centre
| 1999-2000 | Towards the cost of feasibility funding to investigate setting up annual programme to run a National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland | £3,876 |
| 2000-01 | Towards the cost of an annual programme to run a National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland to bring more public focus to pipes | £69,599 |
| 2003-04 | Towards the cost of moving the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland into a training and performance phase | £49,997 |
| 2003-04 | Towards the cost of the National Youth Pipe Band consolidating core operation and activity | £68,548 |
| 2005-06 | Towards the cost of encouraging creativity, participation and skill through the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland | £70,600 |
| 2006-07 | Towards the cost of a National Youth Pipe band to encourage creativity, participation and teach new performance skills. | £82,779 |
| 2007-08 | Towards the cost of the employment of a Development Officer for the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland. | £30,000 |
| 2007-08 | Towards the cost of developing the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland | £179,494 |
| | Total | £554,893 |
The following is the original answer (published on 27 May 2008); see below.
Information on the funding provided to the National Piping Centre by the Scottish Arts Council in each of the last nine years is set out in the following table. The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association has not received any funding during that period. No other assistance has been provided to either organisation by the Scottish Government or the Scottish Arts Council.
National Piping Centre
| 1999-2000 | Towards the cost of feasibility funding to investigate setting up annual programme to run a National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland | £3,876 |
| 2000-01 | Towards the cost of an annual programme to run a National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland to bring more public focus to pipes | £69,599 |
| 2003-04 | Towards the cost of moving the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland into a training and performance phase | £49,997 |
| 2003-04 | Towards the cost of the National Youth Pipe Band consolidating core operation and activity | £68,548 |
| 2005-06 | Towards the cost of encouraging creativity, participation and skill through the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland | £70,600 |
| 2006-07 | Towards the cost of a National Youth Pipe band to encourage creativity, participation and teach new performance skills. | £82,779 |
| 2007-08 | Towards the cost of the employment of a Development Officer for the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland. | £30,000 |
| 2007-08 | Towards the cost of developing the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland | £179,494 |
| | Total | £554,893 |
- Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 27 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many children were called to give evidence in courts in (a) 2005, (b) 2006 and (c) 2007.
Answer
For criminal proceedings the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) retains information on the number of children who are required to be cited in the event of a not guilty plea. Between 2005 and 2008 the numbers were as follows:
2005-06 - 9,088 children
2006-07 - 9,673 children
2007-08 - 7,364 children.
The COPFS does not hold statistics on the number of children called to give evidence at trials, but this will be less than those marked to be cited or actually cited to give evidence since a number of cases do not proceed to trial for variety of reasons.
Information is not available on the number of child witnesses cited by the defence, but since the vast majority of witnesses are cited by the COPFS these numbers are likely to be very small.
The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of children called to give evidence in civil proceedings.
- Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 27 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to increase the statistical data collected and published on vulnerable witnesses in courts.
Answer
The Scottish Government is working with key partners across the justice system to improve the quality of information collected on child and vulnerable witnesses following the completion of the implementation of the Vulnerable Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2004 in April this year. We are also considering how best this information can be made publicly available. In undertaking this work we will take into account the findings of the early evaluation of the first phases of implementation of the 2004 act, which is nearing completion and will be published later this summer.
Examples of recent work by agencies in this area include the Scottish Court Service''s (SCS) monitoring system that captures information in relation to the throughput of applications placed before the court. The SCS is also improving the collection of information on how effectively special measures operate when evidence is being led. The police service is rolling out a revised standard police report (SPR2) which will improve the collation of information on witness vulnerability.
