- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 11 December 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many dwellings there were with a single adult discount in each of the last five years.
Answer
The information requested is as follows:
Number of Dwellings with a Single Adult Discount
| | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
| Scotland | 906,788 | 918,432 | 918,199 | 929,326 | 929,246 |
Source: CTAXBASE (Council tax taxbase) returns made by councils each September.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 11 December 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many civil servants visited (a) Iceland, (b) Norway, (c) Ireland and (d) Denmark in 2008.
Answer
The numbers below show how many Scottish Government civil servants visited these countries to end November 2008:
Iceland: 3
Norway: 28
Ireland: 65
Denmark: 26.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 10 December 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive why some police boards are able to report on the incidence of fuel theft while others do not collect such information.
Answer
The detailed classification of crimes and offences used by the Scottish Government and the eight police forces across Scotland to collect criminal statistics records around 360 separate offences. This ensures consistency and uniformity in crime recording standards throughout Scotland. Below this level it is a matter for police forces to decide if more detailed classifications are required to support local operational requirements.
A Scottish Crime Registrars Group Counting Rules Sub-Group has been set up and is presently working towards the introduction of additional markers on crime records to allow such information to be collected.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 10 December 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive why the systems and codes used for capturing and recording crime figures are not generic across police boards.
Answer
Police forces in Scotland have their own reporting systems and structures in place that they use to capture and record crimes and offences reported to them. The systems that each police force use are at their own discretion.
In terms of the actual recording of crimes, the Scottish Crime Recording Standard (SCRS) was introduced throughout all Scottish police forces on 1 April 2004. The main aim of this was to provide a more victim orientated approach that ensures greater consistency and uniformity in crime recording standards throughout Scotland. Further to this, the list of crime codes used to record crimes is consistent across all police forces in Scotland, and allows Scotland-level statistics to be created. This ultimately ensures a greater degree of comparability between forces than there was previously.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 10 December 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to reform the rules regarding crime reporting to improve consistency and the prospects for cross comparison across Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Crime Recording Standard (SCRS) was introduced throughout all Scottish Police Forces on 1 April 2004. The main aim of this was to provide a more victim-orientated approach that ensured uniformity in crime recording standards throughout Scotland. Further to this, the list of crime codes used to record crimes is consistent across all police forces in Scotland, and allows Scotland-level statistics to be created. This ultimately ensures a greater degree of comparability between forces than there was previously.
The Scottish Crime Registrars Group (SCRG), created to oversee change in all forces, has helped achieve a standardised approach to recording. The group consists of the eight police force crime registrars, as well as representatives from British Transport Police, the Ministry of Defence Police and the Justice Analytical Services Division of the Scottish Government. The group meets every two months to review, maintain and improve the SCRS and its use and implementation.
The Scottish Government continually strives to improve the way in which crimes and offences are recorded in Scotland, and will work with all police forces across Scotland, the SCRG and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) to ensure that the rules in place ensure as much consistency and uniformity as possible.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 December 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive when the last offensive weapons amnesty took place in Scotland and how many weapons were collected in each police board area.
Answer
The last offensive weapons amnesty (knives and sharp objects) was the Safer Scotland Knife Amnesty which was from 24 May 2006 and lasted until 30 June 2006. The total of 12,642 offensive weapons were collected. The following table gives a breakdown by police force.
Safer Scotland Knife Amnesty
| Force | |
| British Transport Police | 96 |
| Central | 566 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 446 |
| Fife | 658 |
| Grampian | 846 |
| Lothian and Borders | 1,840 |
| Ministry of Defence | 8 |
| Northern | 510 |
| Strathclyde | 6,647 |
| Tayside | 968 |
| Violence Reduction Unit | 57 |
| Total | 12,642 |
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Maureen Watt on 8 December 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what mechanisms are in place to record incidents in local authority schools involving offensive weapons, in particular knives, or the possession of such weapons.
Answer
Recording mechanisms are a matter for individual local authorities. Each local authority has established its own system for collecting information about incidents of violence against local authority school staff based on guidance issued by the Scottish Executive in June 2003.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 5 December 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-9955 by John Swinney on 3 March 2008, what the turnover of staff has been in the private office of the (a) First Minister, (b) Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, (c) Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, (d) Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, (e) Cabinet Secretary for Justice and (f) Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment since May 2007.
Answer
The detailed information requested is currently being collated and I will write to the member as soon as the information is available. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 47096 ).
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2008
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Current Status:
Awaiting answer
To ask the Scottish Executive what change will be made to its procurement practices in light of VAT rising to 21.5% in Ireland.
Answer
Awaiting answer
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 November 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 4 December 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive which of its contracts for services have been awarded for the first time to private contractors since May 2003.
Answer
In June 2003 the Scottish Executive awarded a response handling contract to a private contractor. The contract expired in March 2008 and the service is now provided by in-house resource.
