Chamber and committees

I have arranged for theinformation on the allocations to be placed in the Parliament’s ReferenceCentre (Bib. numbers 31368, 31369 and 31370). The information for financialyears 2000-01 and 2001-02 is based on audited financial statements. The data inrespect of 2002-03 is based on revised grant allocations provided to groupingsin December 2002. Auditing of financial statements for 2002-03 has still to becompleted.

Scottish Executive policy is to promote the use of community disposalsand to continue to improve the range and quality of community sentencesavailable to the courts, so as to encourage the punishment of offenders in thecommunity rather than in custody wherever appropriate and consistent withpublic safety. Whilst sentencing decisions are a matter for the judiciary, theincreases show that the courts are making greater use of probation andcommunity service. The court must seek a social enquiry report when consideringa community sentence or when considering custody for a young offender or aperson who has not previously served such a sentence. A rise in such requestsreflects an increase in demand by the courts.

Information on the serviceout-turns by local authority is published in statistical bulletins, CriminalJustice Social Work Statistics, 2000-01 (Bib. number 17695), 2001-02 (Bib. number27370) and 2002-03 (Bib. number 30274). Information in relation to StatutoryPost Release Supervision (Throughcare and home circumstances reports) was firstintroduced in the 2001-02 bulletin.

Information on the number ofsocial enquiry reports (SERs) by local authority is published in Table 4 ofstatistical bulletin, Criminal Justice Social Work Statistics, 2002-03, a copyof which is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 30274).Information on the numbers of SERs expressed as a percentage submitted on timeand broken down by local authority is available on the Audit Scotland website,pages 97-98, at the following address http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/performance/documents/2003Report/servicespdf/SW.pdf.

As with all administrations,the Executive’s resources are not limitless. We will therefore focus ourattention on the key EU issues for Scotland, rather than try and deal with every EU initiative thatcould have an impact on Scotland.

In a European Union of 15 –soon to be 25 – member states, compromises are essential in order to reach conclusionsor take decisions. This necessarily implies limitations in our negotiatingflexibility.

Crown Counsel haveconsidered the decision of the Court of Appeal in England and Wales in R vAngela Cannings in the context of criminal proceedings in Scotland.Steps are being taken by the Crown Office to identify and examine all pendingcases involving the murder and culpable homicide of a child under two years ofage and all cases over the past 10 years where a person was convicted of themurder or culpable homicide of a child under the two years of age in order toascertain whether the issues raised by the Court of Appeal arise in anyparticular cases in Scotland.

Final data on court proceedings concluded in 2002 are now expected to be available at the end ofFebruary.

There is no generalstatutory or common law offence of trafficking in humans. It was an offenceunder section 25 of the Immigration Act 1971 to assist unlawful immigration. Dataare currently available for 1989 to 2002; the information for 2002 isprovisional. In this period there were three convictions in Scottish courts foroffences under section 25.

Section 25 of the 1971 actwas replaced in February 2003 by section 143 of the Nationality, Immigrationand Asylum Act 2002. In addition, section 22 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland)Act 2003 introduced a new offence of trafficking for the purposes ofprostitution. There have been as yet no convictions under these provisions.

Negotiations in the intergovernmentalconference (IGC) were a matter for the UK Government. The Scottish Executive, however, worked closely with the UK Government from the outset of theConvention on the Future of Europe and throughout the IGC to ensure thatScottish interests were taken into account. Scottish Executive ministers andofficials raised Scottish interests in writing and at meetings with the UKGovernment.

The Scottish Executive in particular sought to ensure that the draft treaty language on the principleof subsidiarity and the role of regional governments was supported throughoutthe IGC. In addition, in the case of proposals to extend qualified majority votingor to extend competences of the EU, the Scottish Executive worked to ensure that any proposedchanges to current procedures were in the best interests of the Scottishpeople. The Scottish Executive also contributed to the UK white paperon the British Government’s Approach to the IGC.

Any death from fire is atragedy and the Executive is fully aware of Scotland’s appalling record offire fatalities. However, we take some comfort that there has been anunderlying downward trend in fire fatalities in Scotland over the past decadeand we want this trend to continue. The Executive will therefore use the newlegislation to work with the service and others to place an even greateremphasis on fire prevention to further reduce the level of deaths and injuriesfrom fire. But we do not believe that it would be appropriate or indeed helpfulto use primary legislation to set targets for the level of fire fatalities.