- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what powers the Cabinet Secretary for Justice has to direct the police in relation to the investigation of alleged criminality.
Answer
None. How investigations are carried out is a matter for the police, and it would be inappropriate for ministers to seek to influence the way in which an investigation is conducted.
The operational independence of the police is enshrined in law. I believe that we have the right level of checks and balances in place in respect of that independence, through the role of procurators fiscal and their power to direct the police in specific investigations where circumstances dictate that to be appropriate, and the power of the Lord Advocate to issue instructions to chief constables with regard to the reporting of offences alleged to have been committed.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 8 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the Consumer Credit Counselling Service regarding the extension of its services to help people in debt.
Answer
I am aware of the work of the independent charity, Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) and my officials are in regular contact with CCCS. They have had no proposals from, or specific discussions with, CCCS about extending its services.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 8 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many formal complaints or allegations of bullying the Scottish Government and its agencies have received since May 2007 and what action has been taken.
Answer
In the period since May 2007, there have been 10 formal complaints of bullying raised by employees of the Scottish Government and its agencies.
These complaints were investigated under the Scottish Government''s formal dignity at work procedure. Of the 10 complaints, four complaints were established to be unfounded following investigation. The investigations into two complaints are on-going and decisions on these cases are expected very soon. In the remaining four cases, the complaints were founded and disciplinary action was taken against the members of staff found to have been responsible for the bullying.
In seven cases, recommendations were made about management actions required to address issues that came to light as a result of the investigations into the bullying complaints.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 8 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-18552 by John Swinney on 12 December 2008, how many Scottish Government staff took Monday 1 December 2008 as a holiday and what that figure represents as a percentage of its staff.
Answer
From the information available, approximately 6,900 staff in the Scottish Government Main bargaining unit and in the Senior Civil Service took Monday 1 December 2008 as a holiday. This represents 93% of staff.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 01 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 7 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what work is taking place to evaluate contributions to the National Conversation; who is conducting this work, and at what cost.
Answer
The Scottish Government and its officials are evaluating contributions to the National Conversation on an on-going basis. Work on the National Conversation is done by officials as part of their normal duties and no additional cost is incurred.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 01 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 7 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many unique visitors the National Conversation website has had.
Answer
The number of unique visitors to the National Conversation website up to 6 January, 2009 was 72,706. 460,000 hits on National Conversation themed pages; 35,000 online viewings of Choosing Scotland''s Future, and over 4,200 posted comments demonstrate the value of the National Conversation website as a platform for debate about Scotland''s future.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 01 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 7 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many comments have been removed from the National Conversation website after initially being published and what the reasons were for their removal.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-11294 on 23 April 2008. The situation remains unchanged.
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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 01 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 7 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many hits to (a) the National Conversation home page and (b) National Conversation-themed web pages have been from a Scottish Parliament or Scottish Government server.
Answer
The IP addresses of individual contributions to the National Conversation are not captured as a matter of course.
The general privacy statement on the Scottish Government''s main website, which includes the National Conversation pages, states that any analytical data collected will not be used to identify any user personally.
Because contributors to the National Conversation are able to provide as much or as little identifying information as they consider appropriate, the Scottish Government considers IP addresses to have been provided in confidence and is therefore not in a position to disclose the origin of comments beyond what individuals have provided publicly themselves.
This is consistent with section 38(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 01 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 7 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list its directorates that have (a) responsibility for an aspect of and (b) a budget allocation for the National Conversation, also showing the amount and broken down by financial year.
Answer
The Constitution, Law and Courts Directorate is responsible for co-ordinating the National Conversation. Costs of co-ordinating the National Conversation are met from within existing DG Justice and Communities allocations. All other directorates across the Scottish Government have a role in taking forward the National Conversation. The cost of National Conversation activity across all portfolios is met from within existing budgets.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 01 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 7 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what level of detail it retains regarding traffic to and from the National Conversation website.
Answer
The Scottish Government''s website employs a web analytics system that collates a range of web traffic information which is then compiled into reports as required, subject to data protection considerations. For example, the system can provide the number of page views recorded between specific dates, or the number of times a selected publication has been downloaded.
