To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) reports have been made to and (b) proceedings have been taken by procurators fiscal for offences under section 27(1) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 and how many convictions were obtained in each year since 1997.

Mrs Elish Angiolini:

This information is not held centrally at present, but action is currently being taking to improve how this type of information is recorded. It is hoped that it should be possible to complete the improvements to our record keeping systems in the coming months.