Chamber and committees

I have asked Angiolina Foster,the Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

All local authorities in Scotland haveindicated that, where the tenant wanted the measure, all their properties now havea central heating system.

The Scottish House ConditionSurvey 2002 estimates that approximately 4,000 council properties in West Dunbartonshire and approximately 5,000 council properties in Argyll and Bute had partialcentral heating systems.

I have asked Angiolina Foster,the Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

All contractors engaged by EagaPartnership require to hold adequate levels of insurance that ensure any damagecaused during the installation of a free central heating system can be remedied.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, the Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

The amounts received by West Dunbartonshire Council and Argyll and Bute Council for the installation of central heating systems in council property are shown in the table.

	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
West Dunbartonshire	£180,000	£190,000	£120,841
Argyll and Bute	£70,000	£90,000	£17,500

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

Provisional figures show thaton 30 June 2003 there were 387 people serving sentences where the maincrime recorded was a crime of indecency.

Reduce, Rehabilitate, Reform, the Scottish Executive’s consultation on reducing reoffending,is inviting views on how we can improve the management of all categories of offenders– including sex offenders – in order to reduce their reoffending.

The Scottish Executive is fully committed to reducing reoffending by sex offenders and is currentlytaking forward a number of initiatives:

Delivery of sex offender treatmentprogrammes in prison.

Implementation of the 73 wide-rangingrecommendations contained in the Report by the Expert Panel on Sex Offending, chairedby Lady Cosgrove.

Strengthening of the throughcareservice available to prisoners on release from prison back into the community. Throughcareprovision for high risk and sex offenders will be considered as a priority.

Improvements to the sex offendersregister made by the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which comes into force on 1 May 2004.

Any proposals in relation tosex offenders submitted in response to the reducing reoffending consultation willtherefore be considered in the context of these on-going initiatives.

The Scottish Executive recognises the important role thevoluntary sector plays in partnership with schools and education authorities, notonly providing direct support and services to pupils facing exclusion, but alsohelping to tackle the wide range of social problems within communities that cancontribute to children’s difficulties in education.

At 31 March 2004, the number ofsex offenders recorded by the Scottish Criminal Record Office as being registeredwith Scottish Police Forces was 2,244.

The requirement to registeris an automatic requirement arising from a conviction or finding for a sexualoffence.  All of the sexual offences under the law of Scotland areunderpinned by penalties that reflect the seriousness of the crime and enablethe appropriate punishment of the offender.  Following registration, it is theresponsibility of the police in collaboration with the local authority socialwork services and other relevant agencies to carry out a risk assessment thatwill include an assessment of the level of violence and threat to society aswell as other factors.

I have asked John Ewing,Chief Executive of Scottish Court Service to respond. His response is asfollows:

The current phases of therefurbishment of Dumbarton Sheriff Court include major repairs to the roof, refurbishment of the external stonework, the creation of four new Sheriff Chambers and improvementof the custody suite.

This work will be completedin early April 2004 and the facility will be fully occupied by May 2004.

The Crown Office andProcurator Fiscal Service began introducing the first phase of the future officesystem (FOS) on 24 November 2003 at the Procurator Fiscal’s Office in Linlithgow andthe implementation is scheduled to finish at the Procurator Fiscal’s Office in Glasgow inJune 2004. By 23 March 2004 FOS was in usein half the Procurator Fiscal’s offices in Scotland.