- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 6 February 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many exemptions under section 18 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 it has applied to freedom of information requests in each of the last 12 months.
Answer
Records show that a notice under section 18 of the act has been issued on two occasions, one in May and one in November.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 6 February 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of any breaches of its obligations under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and, if so, what these were.
Answer
The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 is primarily enforced by the Scottish Information Commissioner. The commissioner’s decisions detail where, in the opinion of the commissioner, an authority has failed to comply, and the respect in which the authority has failed to comply, with the general entitlement of access to information, and the steps which the authority must take to comply. Decisions, including those concerning the Executive, are published on the commissioner’s website
http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/appealsdecisions/decisions/index.php.
Records indicate that the Executive has not met the statutory 20-day response time in about 20% of cases.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 3 February 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the Scottish Borders Council in respect of the council’s plans to remove the flexibility staffing allowance for secondary schools which is expected to result in the loss of 11 full-time teaching posts.
Answer
None. The staffing of individual schools is a matter for local education authorities as employers and consequently the Scottish Executive has not engaged in discussions with Scottish Borders Council about this issue. However, officials wrote to all local authorities on 19 December 2005 notifying them of the funding that will be available for additional teachers in 2006-07 and 2007-08, as well as clarifying that expenditure on teachers’ salaries was exempt from the efficiency savings identified in the 2004 Spending Review.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 3 February 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what duties it has in respect of flights through airports operated by Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd.
Answer
Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL), as the licensed operator of its 10 airports, is responsible for meeting UK Civil Aviation Authority and Department for Transport regulatory, and all statutory, requirements relating to its duties as the licensee of these airports. HIAL is also accountable via its Board of Directors to the Scottish ministers for the operation and management of its business.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 2 February 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of prisoners who have been convicted of a sexual offence have been assessed as (a) posing a definite risk, (b) posing an uncertain risk and (c) unlikely to pose a risk of reoffending, expressed also as a percentage of the total number of prisoners convicted of a sexual offence.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:
The information is not available in the format requested.
A recent Sex Offenders Audit conducted by SPS and local authorities identified that there were 459 offenders who had been convicted of a sexual offence and held in custody on the 18 May 2005. Of these, 10 were on remand, 444 had been assessed for the risk of re-offending and the remaining five were subsequently risk assessed.
These risk assessments were conducted over a period of time, as some offenders had been in custody for a number of years.
Following risk assessments, the SPS, in partnership with local authority criminal justice social work services, formulate a plan to manage the risk posed by the individual offender.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 2 February 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of individuals convicted of a child sex offence since 1999 have reoffended within one year of their release.
Answer
The following table provides information on the percentage of offenders convicted of a crime of indecency who were reconvicted for any crime within one year.
Offenders Released from a Custodial Sentence or Given A Non-Custodial Sentence, 1999-2002, Whose Index Conviction1 was for a Crime of Indecency: Percentage Reconvicted2 Within One Year.
| | Percentage Reconvicted2 within 1 year: |
| 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 |
| All crimes of indecency3 | 11 | 10 | 12 | 12 |
| Crimes of indecency with a child victim4 | 12 | 11 | 13 | 12 |
| Other crimes of indecency3,5 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 12 |
Notes:
1. For each offender in the cohort, this is the conviction which resulted in a non-custodial sentence being served or the one which had originally led to a custodial sentence being served.
2. Reconvictions for any crime or offence in the Scottish Offenders Index.
3. Excluding prostitution offences.
4. Only those crimes of indecency which by definition had child victim(s): defilement of a girl under 13, defilement of a girl under 16, person with custody and care of girl and causing her seduction; lewd and libidinous practices.
5. The Scottish Offenders Index does not otherwise hold information on victim characteristics so no data are available on how many persons were convicted of other types of crime, e.g. rape or indecent assault, which involved child victims.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 2 February 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what inquiries it has made in respect of alleged rendition flights through airports operated by Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd, following the publication of documents obtained by Amnesty International and by the Danish Government.
Answer
We have made no inquiries. Ministers have consistently made clear that if anyone has credible and reliable information regarding alleged criminal activity, it should be passed to the police.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 2 February 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has taken legal advice in respect of allegations that airports operated by Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd may have provided facilities to rendition flights.
Answer
In the absence of credible and reliable information, the Scottish Executive has no reason to take legal advice on these allegations.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 2 February 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the consequences would be for Scottish Ministers if it were subsequently proved that rendition flights had used airports operated by Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd.
Answer
It would not be appropriate for the Scottish Executive to speculate on this matter without credible and reliable information.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 2 February 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many documents it holds which examine or consider the case for Scottish independence.
Answer
The Executive holds many documents which in some way relate to the subject of Scottish independence, but no central tally of the number has been compiled.
