Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has an over-arching Memorandum of Understanding with the UK Government on how to work together, responsibilities of the respective governments and best practice for the relationship.

There is also a concordat agreement between the Scottish Government and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. The purpose of this document is to act as a guidance document on working practices to ensure a close and effective working relationship.

The Scottish Government is aware of the report by the Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee of the National Assembly for Wales, The future outlook for the media in Wales.

There is a commonality between many of the report’s recommendations such as on developing the Welsh broadcasting sector, increased production levels and greater accountability of broadcasting institutions to the Welsh people and recommendations previously made by the Scottish Broadcasting Commission.

Ofcom is the independent regulator and competition authority for the communications industries, including telecommunications, broadcasting and the postal service.

Since June 2009 Ofcom has conducted 234 consultations on a broad range of subject areas. The Scottish Government responds to consultations when appropriate; including responding to the recent consultation on licensing local television.

The answer to S4W-05956 contained the number of dog control notices issued by local authorities between implementation of the legislation on 26 February 2011 and 5 March 2012. Therefore, the information in S4W-05956 covered the first full year of operation of the dog control notice regime.

We will likely collect further information from local authorities early next year when the legislation has been in force for two years i.e. information on the full second year of operation of the dog control notice regime will be available then.

The Protection from Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001 does not create any criminal offences and there can therefore be no prosecutions under this legislation.

A public consultation on the Inquiry Rules (Scotland) 2007 was completed on 8 June 2012 and we will be considering all aspects of the current Rules in the light of the consultation responses.

There have been four public inquiries established under the Inquiries Act 2005. The ICL Inquiry and the Fingerprint Inquiry have both reported but have not been officially closed. Their near final costs are:

ICL Inquiry - £1.9 million* – shared equally between the Scottish Government and the Department of Work and Pensions

Fingerprint Inquiry - £4.75 million

Note: *It should be noted that these costs included modifications to the Inquiry venue which have benefitted subsequent inquiries.

Two further Inquiries have yet to report. The interim costs of the Penrose Inquiry were provided in response to S4W-07071 on 4 May 2012. The Vale of Leven Inquiry is also ongoing and their costs are not available.

No breakdown of these total costs has yet been done.

The costs of the Holyrood Inquiry were published in an account of expenditure and the breakdown is as follows:

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Scottish Government supports openness and transparency in the administration of justice, but the specific circumstances in which court proceedings may be televised is a matter for the Lord President.

The Statement of Reasons produced by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission in the Al-Megrahi case provides details of the grounds on which the commission referred the case to the Court of Appeal.

The only appropriate forum for the determination of Mr Al-Megrahi’s guilt or innocence is the Appeal Court. The court would have had the opportunity to consider the material contained in the Statement of Reasons had Mr Al-Megrahi not withdrawn his appeal. It remains open to Mr Al-Megrahi or to other interested parties to ask the commission to refer the case to the Appeal Court again.

There are currently six staff employed in the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) communications department.

In 2009-10 the cost of employing its communications officials was £259,142. This figure includes salaries and expenses for the staff employed. During 2009-10 the number of staff employed varied between six and seven.

In 2010-11 the cost of employing its communications officials was £248,059. This figure includes salaries and expenses for the staff employed. During 2010-11 the number of staff employed varied between four and six.