Chamber and committees

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:No service-wide assessment has been undertaken.

The transfer of the Scottish Borders housing stock to Scottish Borders Housing Association is progressing. The independent valuation required to be updated to reflect the basis of the sale e.g. intervening right to buy sales, rent increases and capital investment undertaken by the council. This work has been completed and Scottish Borders Housing Association is in the process of updating its business plan which is now due for submission by 31 October. The formal consent of ministers' should be available thereafter, allowing the transfer to complete by the end of the year. All parties remain fully committed to concluding this complex process as soon as possible in order that the significant commitments to tenants can be actioned.

I understand that Sheriff Principal Nicholson's comments in Thomson v Thomson have been considered by the Sheriff Court Rules Council, the statutory body responsible for proposing rules on civil procedure in the sheriff court, and that a change to the rules will be recommended to the Lords of Council and Session as the rule making authority in response to those comments.

On 11 June 2001, Scottish Ministers decided to suspend the use of additional days and loss of remission in Scottish prisons. The European Court held on 15 July 2002 in the case of Ezeh & Connors v United Kingdom that there were Article 6 difficulties with the procedure for awarding Additional Days Added (ADAs).The decision to suspend the use of ADAs on 11 June 2001 didn't lead to disciplinary problems. It was therefore decided that the time was right to complete the abolition of ADAs. On 16 August 2002, ministers remitted all ADAs which prisoners in Scotland were serving or were still liable to serve, provided these days had been awarded to a person sentenced by a Scottish court.No decision has yet been taken as to whether the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1989 and other legislation will be amended to remove references to additional days. The Ezeh & Connors judgement does not require the legislation to be amended.

Only the courts and the Lord Advocate have the direct power to reduce the number of accused held on remand, by means of the grant of bail to individual accused.The Executive has, however, provided funding and guidance to all local authorities to allow bail information and supervision schemes to be provided to courts within their areas.Bail information schemes are intended to assist procurators fiscal and courts through verification of information in respect of cases where bail might otherwise have been opposed or refused. Bail supervision is intended to increase the confidence of courts of successful completion of bail periods through the availability of supervised bail with the intention of reducing the number of accused remanded to custody.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:We do not consider that there is a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. Access to toilet facilities during the day is generally unrestricted. At night, an automated system allows prisoners in single cells to access toilet facilities. For security reasons, prisoners who are sharing a cell cannot make use of the automated system. Staff require to supervise the unlocking of their doors. Night shift staffing has recently been increased to reduce the delay in unlocking doors. Furthermore, procedures are in place to ensure that women with serious medical conditions are not required to share a cell.

Information on persons with a charge proved in 1999 and 2000 where a bail aggravation was recorded in the sentence is included in Table 14 of the annual statistical bulletins Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts published for those years (Bib. numbers 11289 and 17818 respectively). Data for the year 2001 are expected to be available in November 2002. Assault and robbery falls within the Scottish Executive Justice Department's crime category of robbery.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:Scottish Prison Service (SPS) procedures for information sharing in the drugs field are outlined in the SPS Drug Strategy Partnership and Co-ordination (SPS, 2000), copies of which are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre. Joint protocols have been developed for information sharing between SPS and Drugs Action Teams (DATs). All client information is subject to the Data Protection Act.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:No.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:None.