- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 25 January 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 February 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the extension of bail supervision schemes is restricted to certain categories of accused persons.
Answer
The £500,000 investmentin bail supervision recently announced and the updated guidelines issued extendslightly the categories of accused identified as priorities for this measure. Theguidelines suggest priority for those with mental health problems, women accused,single parents, drugs misusers and young people aged between 16 and 21. Where capacityexists and subject to safeguards in respect of public safety, other accused outwiththe priority groups can also be granted supervised bail.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 25 January 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 February 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the extension of bail supervision schemes restricts the freedom of sheriffs to determine who is suitable for bail supervision.
Answer
No. The updated guidelinesfor supervised bail identify certain priority groups for this measure but subjectto considerations of public safety and capacity issues do not preclude other accusedfrom being granted supervised bail. The decision on whether an accused person shouldbe bailed or remanded is for the court to make.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 January 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what the liability is for police pensions in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11, broken down by police authority.
Answer
The forecast liability for policepensions depends on assumptions about the numbers of police officers who actuallyretire when they are entitled to assumptions made about police rates of pay andestimates of pension entitlements. As a result, the forecasts can vary quite widely.The latest estimates provided by the Association of Chief Police Officers inScotland (ACPOS) for the total pensions liability for 2008-09 are as follows:
| Central Scotland Police | £8.5 million |
| Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary | £4.5 million |
| Fife Police | £10.5 million |
| Grampian Police | £13.0 million |
| Lothian and Borders Police | £35.1 million |
| Northern Constabulary | £8.7 million |
| Strathclyde Police | £100.6 million |
| Tayside Police | £17.1 million |
A similar breakdown is not availablefor future years but ACPOS estimate the total liability to be £232 million in 2009-10and £215 million in 2010-11.
As the Cabinet Secretary forFinance and Sustainable Development announced in his statement to Parliament on14 December, funding for police pensions is included within the overall Local GovernmentSettlement.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 January 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 25 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive when the Review of Civil Judicial Statistics Advisory Board last met and when it will publish its recommendations.
Answer
The Project Board for the Reviewof Civil Judicial Statistics last met on 13 April 2006.Correspondence with the board has occurred since this meeting via email, with themost recent communication taking place during summer 2007.
As part of the review, researchhas recently been carried out with users, and potential users, of civil judicialstatistics, to identify their data requirements and suggestions for a revised Civil Judicial Statistics publication. The next step for the review is to considereach of the responses submitted as part of this research, and develop a specificationfor the revised dataset and publication. The first draft of this specification isexpected to be produced by spring 2008.
Further details of the Reviewof Civil Judicial Statistics can be found at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/review-civjudicial-stats.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Adam Ingram on 21 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure parents seeking contact with children under the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 have the appropriate support.
Answer
Support is provided tofamilies experiencing difficulties with contact issues through funding of thefour national family support organisations - Relate Scotland, Family MediationScotland, Stepfamily Scotland and Scottish Marriage Care - as well as 13 localfamily mediation services. Family support work aims to reduce conflict and healrelationships where possible and where parental relationships have broken downirretrievably to support parents in developing child contact and maintenancearrangements which protect the health and best interests of children.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what research it has done to establish the number of cases under the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 where contact with a parent has been agreed but not implemented.
Answer
These figures are not availablecentrally. However, the Scottish Court Service (SCS) is working with Justice AnalyticalServices to improve the accuracy and level of detail of the civil judicial statisticsit collects, and as part of this work SCS has recently begun recording more informationabout craves in actions raised. This will enable researchers to identify all courtactions initiated in 2008 onwards in which child contact is craved by the pursuer,and therefore which records to access for further information.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what consultation it has undertaken on establishing pilot schemes for the appointment of court facilitators, as promised as part of the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006.
Answer
The proposed pilot projects wereto run in two sheriff courts and therefore agreement was reached with relevant sheriffson the terms of reference. Voluntary sector bodies - Scottish Women’s Aid, FamiliesNeed Fathers and Children 1st - were given the opportunity to comment before the procurementprocess began.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it has made in establishing pilot schemes on the appointment of court facilitators to help to increase contact with children in Scottish courts.
Answer
Pilot projects to place a FamilyContact Facilitator in two sheriff courts were developed and terms of referenceagreed with sheriffs. Unfortunately, the procurement exercise did not attract atender which met the specifications. It was therefore not possible to let the contractand proceed with the pilot.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 17 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-6928 by Fergus Ewing on 7 December 2007, when monies will transfer from the Safer Communities budget to NHS boards.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-7911 on 17 January 2008. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 17 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-6928 by Fergus Ewing on 7 December 2007, exactly how much of the Safer Communities budget which relates to drugs misuse will transfer to NHS boards in each year from 2008-09 to 2010-11.
Answer
We intend to allocate the majorityof resources in the Drugs Misuse budget within the Justice portfolio for the period2008-09 to 2010-11 to health boards to fund drug treatment and rehabilitation services,with a small amount being retained to fund centrally determined projects. A decisionon the breakdown of funding will be made following parliamentary approval of thebudget, and monies for 2008-9 will be released to health boards at the beginningof the 2008-09 financial year.
