Chamber and committees

The information requested is not held by local authority area, but we estimate that across Scotland there are 40,000 over 60s in the private sector without central heating or with a system which is broken and beyond repair. Over 3,500 systems have been installed to date. The remainder will be installed between now and March 2006.

The Water and Sewerage Charges (Exemption) (Scotland) Regulations 2002, made on 27 March 2002 and which came into force on 1 April 2002, provided a definition of net annual income. This was defined as any income received by a person liable to pay water and sewerage charges, less:Any funds raised and paid over by that person as a donation to a charity;Any funds raised and paid over by that person to a parent organisation, andAny grant paid to that person under any enactment for the purposes of capital expenditure.

The Scottish Maritime Museum is receiving resources of £160,000 in 2002-03 as their share of the funding injection package of £1.26 million over three years announced in December 2000 for the three main industrial museums - the Scottish Fisheries Museum, the Scottish Maritime Museum and the Scottish Mining Museum.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-24440.

The Executive is continually looking to improve the effectiveness of the criminal justice system and we seek wide public involvement in this work. Lord Bonomy, for example, placed press advertisements seeking views on his review of the High Court and the committee chaired by Sheriff Principal McInnes that is reviewing summary justice has recently issued a consultation paper seeking views from those working in the criminal justice system and from the wider public. Ministers have announced their intention to establish an independent Judicial Appointments Board whose role will be to make recommendations to the First Minister about the appointment of all new Judges and Sheriffs. The board will have equal numbers of lay and legal members.

IVF is funded in all NHS board areas and may offer an alternative where ICSI is not available.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-24462 today, which shows that all NHS boards, except Argyll and Clyde NHS Board, now fund intracytoplasmic sperm injection treatment on the NHS. NHS boards were asked to work towards implementation of the recommendations of the EAGISS report, which published in February 2000, within existing resources. Argyll and Clyde NHS board are currently reviewing their progress in implementing the recommendations of the report and this review will include the issue of funding ICSI treatment.

The following table shows the NHS boards which currently fund ICSI treatment:

NHS Board	ICSI (Yes/No)
Argyll and Clyde NHS Board	No
Ayrshire and Arran NHS Board	Yes
Borders NHS Board	Yes
Dumfries and Galloway NHS Board	Yes
Fife NHS Board	Yes
Forth Valley NHS Board	Yes
Grampian NHS Board	Yes
Greater Glasgow NHS Board	Yes
Highland NHS Board	Yes
Lanarkshire NHS Board	Yes
Lothian NHS Board	Yes
Orkney NHS Board	Yes
Shetland NHS Board	Yes
Tayside NHS Board	Yes
Western Isles NHS Board	Yes

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-24440.

The Scottish Executive is demonstrating its continuing commitment to victims and their families within the criminal justice system through the implementation of the Scottish Strategy for Victims. The strategy has been developed by the main criminal justice agencies with the objectives of improving support and information for victims as well as increasing opportunities for victims to participate in the criminal justice system. Each of the agencies has published an action plan to support the strategy and implementation is monitored by the Victims Steering Group, a multi-agency forum which promotes the interests of victims and their families within the justice system. As a result, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has established the Victim Liaison Office to improve the availability of information about the progress of individual cases reported to Procurators Fiscal for victims and bereaved next of kin. The police have also resolved the data protection issues in relation to passing information to Victim Support Scotland to make it easier for victims of crime who wish it, to get the support they need. In addition, the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill includes provisions to give victims certain rights to improve the position of victims and their families in the criminal justice system. Thus certain victims of crime, if they wish it, will have a statutory right to be informed of an offender's release from prison; to make representations to the Parole Board before a decision is taken on the release of a prisoner, and to receive information about the outcome of Parole Board reviews and licence conditions. The Executive also plans to pilot a scheme which will allow victims to make a statement about the impact of the crime to better inform decisions.