§ Lord McCluskeyasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their estimate of the number of persons who are still alive and who have a conviction or convictions obtained in the High Court in Scotland for any offence listed as a "qualifying offence" in the list of "Qualifying Offences" contained in Part 1 of the proposed Schedule 5A to the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, which would be inserted into that Act if Clause 1(2) of the Crime and Punishment (Scotland) Bill (H.L. Bill 76) were to be enacted.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Scottish Office (The Earl of Lindsay)Information supplied by the Scottish Criminal Records Office (SCRO) indicates that at November 1996 there were some 3,300 people for whom SCRO had a schedule of previous convictions which included a qualifying offence as defined under Clause 1 of the Crime and Punishment (Scotland) Bill and where the conviction was in the High Court.
The number above excludes those convicted of robbery with a firearm who were not also convicted of another qualifying offence. The information held by SCRO does not identify whether the robbery involved a firearm. Many of those convicted of robbery with a firearm are also convicted under one of Sections 16–18 of the Firearms Act 1968, which counts as a qualifying offence. Information on persons known to be dead is deleted from the SCRO database.