§ Dr. GodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many prisoners convicted for(a) theft, (b) burglary and (c) violent crimes against the person were (i) unemployed at or (ii) in receipt of income support at the time of their arrest in each of the past four years.
§ Lord James Douglas-Hamilton[holding answer 4 February 1994]: I have asked Mr. E. W. Frizzell, the chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Mr. E. Frizzell to Dr. Norman Godman, dated 7 February 1994:
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton has asked me to reply to your Question about the number of prisoners convicted for (a) theft, (b) burglary and (c) violent crimes against the person who were (i) unemployed or (ii) in receipt of income support at the time of their arrest in each of the past four years.The information is not available in the form requested. For each reception into a penal establishment information is collected on whether or not the person involved was employed or unemployed immediately prior to their reception. Information on whether a person was unemployed or on income support at the time of their arrest is not collected centrally.The table below sets out the number of receptions to penal establishments in Scotland (excluding receptions as a result of fine defaults) of persons who were unemployed and had been convicted of theft, burglary (housebreaking in Scotland) or violent crimes against the person. These figures have been obtained using the best available approximations in The Scottish Office Home and Health Department's classification of crimes and offences to produce the categories requested in your question.
1989 1990 1991 1992 (a) Theft 2,754 2,602 2,879 3,313 (b) Burglary (housebreaking) 1,549 1,604 1,697 1,715 (c) Violence against the person 1,330 1,306 1,353 1,547 This information is supplied by the prisoner on arrival at the establishment and should therefore be treated with some caution.
§ Dr. GodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many prisoners originally sentenced for murder had their sentences(a) subsequently reduced or (b) quashed on appeal while serving their sentences since 1970; and what sums of money were paid, by way of compensation, to those released from prison in such circumstances.
§ Lord James Douglas-Hamilton[holding answer 4 February 1994]: The mandatory sentence to be imposed on a person convicted of murder is imprisonment for life. Information prior to 1981 is not held centrally, nor is information on the results of retrials, but since 1981 three prisoners originally sentenced for murder had their sentence subsequently reduced, a further four had their sentence quashed on appeal and a retrial was authorised for two prisoners.
Compensation is not payable in cases where a conviction for murder is reduced or quashed on appeal within the normal time limits. Since 1970, two payments of compensation of £77,000 and £50,415 have been made to persons originally convicted of murder and whose sentences were subsequently quashed or reversed outside the normal time limits.
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