Chamber and committees

While there are examples in manyparts of Scotland of close partnership working between local transportauthorities and bus operators, there are no statutory quality partnerships. Initiativesby transport authorities include bus priority lanes, new and improved bus stations,improved passenger interchanges and shelters and park and ride facilities. Initiativesin response by bus operators include increased service frequencies, improved services,increased numbers of low emission and low floor buses and improved ticketing andpassenger information.

In view of the encouraging resultsso far, the Glasgow Drugs Court pilot will be extended to spring 2005 and in thissecond phase, the court will be able to take referrals at all stages in the courtprocess in addition to the present custody route. Referrals will also be extendedto include solemn cases. The period of the independent evaluation will be extendedto take account of these changes.

The Scottish Executive is committed to working for a cleaner and safer environment and works closelywith the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), Scottish Water and theagricultural sector to ensure that all sectors play their part in reducing pollutionto the water, reduce pollution to the water environment and to encourage the applicationof best practice to protect the environment.

Since the production of the Scottish Executive’s Bathing Waters: A strategy for improvement in March 2002, SEPAhas developed an action plan approach to inspect all pollution sources and applysteps to remedy any problems found and the Scottish Executive has sanctionedthe expenditure of £1.8 billion by Scottish Water during 2002-06 to upgrade itsassets, with priority action being taken to protect bathing waters. A number ofpilot projects are being taken forward by the Scottish Executive on the range ofsources and pathways of diffuse pollution from livestock farms in bathing watercatchments to assess the most cost-effective solutions to minimise diffuse pollutionrisks.

These actions are already havingan effect, and results from this year’s bathing season (the best yet for Scotland) reflectefforts made by all parties on this complicated issue.

The Transport (Scotland) Act2001 provides a toolkit of options for local transport authorities to revitaliselocal bus services; this toolkit includes quality partnerships. Comprehensive guidanceon the act was published in October 2001 and it is now for local transport authorities,working closely with bus operators, to decide how best to use the powers to deviselocal solutions to local problems. My officials are available to provide adviceas required.

As outlined in A Partnershipfor a Better Scotland, the Executive is committed to monitoring whetherthe quality partnership powers included in the Transport (Scotland) Actare adequate to protect and enhance evening, weekend and rural bus services. Workis progressing on a detailed report on the impact of partnership working, includingaction on quality partnerships. The next steps will be decided in light of thatreport.

Quality contracts are a toolprovided by the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001 for use by local transport authorities. Theact refers to fares and frequency of service as matters which may be included ina quality contract submitted to Scottish ministers for approval. The act makes nosuch provision in relation to standards of employment.

No quality contract schemes haveso far been established.

The Executive indicated in theWhite Paper Renewing Local Democracy: The Next Steps that there would beno major review of local authority administrative boundaries in the foreseeablefuture. We continue to take that view, although views are being sought in the consultationon the Local Governance (Scotland) Bill as to whether the Local Government Boundary Commissionfor Scotland should be allowed to consider changes or merger proposalswhere these have been agreed by all the local authorities involved.

Information on contact ordersby non-resident fathers is located within the individual court records where theorders were sought. Easily accessible, in-depth national information on contactorders (and, more broadly, civil actions) is not available centrally. Only top-lineinformation is collated and published annually in the form of Civil Judicial Statistics.

However, the Executive is currentlysetting up a project to review the practical use of statistical data collected andpublished in the form of Civil Judicial Statistics. This is with a view to ensuringthat what is collected is of practical use in shaping and informing the performanceof the civil justice system in Scotland. This will include consideration of contact order data.

In the meantime, the Executiveis planning to conduct research to examine contact applications in a sample of Scottishcourts. This is primarily to address the recommendations of the National Group toAddress Violence Against Women. This research will focus upon fathers applying forcontact orders where there have been allegations of domestic violence. It will generatea “snapshot” of information at the time of research. Although the research willgenerate evidence to help assess how best to monitor contact orders, plans to collecton-going national data centrally will fall primarily within the remit of the CivilJudicial Statistics Review.

The first two documents in aseries of guidance documents making up a Child Witness Support Guidance Packare being issued today. They will cover “Interviewing Child Witnesses” and “QuestioningChildren in Court” and are the outcome of detailed consultation with a widerange of relevant interests.

Copies of the documents havebeen placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 29349).