Chamber and committees

Section 3 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 was amended by the Crime and Punishment (Scotland) Act 1997 on 1 May 2004 and increased the maximum sentencing powers of the sheriff, sitting with a jury from three to five years imprisonment, meaning that some cases which would previously have been indicted in the High Court are now indicted in the sheriff court. Individual cases are not, however, recorded as being indicted in the sheriff court on that basis. The main provisions of the Criminal Procedure Amendment (Scotland) Act 2004 came into force on 1 February 2005.

The following table shows the total number of cases disposed of in the High Court and the total number disposed of in sheriff and jury courts in each year since 2003-04.

Court Disposals - Solemn Cases

Year	High Court Cases	Percentage Change from Previous Year	Sheriff and Jury Cases	Percentage Change from Previous Year
2003-04	1,170	+3.3%	3,352	+1.5%
2004-05	864	-26.2%	3,611	+7.7%
2005-06	836	-3.2%	3,905	+8.1%
2006-07	839	+0.4%	4,224	+8.2%

 

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

The review undertaken by the Scottish Prison Service will be in two parts. It will consider the individual circumstancesof the decision to transfer Robert Foye to the SPS Open Estate and allow his accessto the community, and it will review the operation of the open prison estate, itsrole and the process of transferring prisoners there from closed prisons.

The review will be carried outby members of staff from the Partnerships and Commissioning Directorate of the ScottishPrison Service and not those who are already involved in the management of the openestate or the transfer of prisoners to it.

I will consider the requirementfor a ministerial statement when I have seen the review currently being undertakenby the Scottish Prison Service.

We remain committed to thedelivery of our offender management strategy but we must ensure that any changedoes not compound current problems of unrelenting pressure on high prisonnumbers and put intolerable pressures on prisons, courts and community justiceservices. We will be informed by the Commissions findings and recommendations.

The previous administrationmay have passed the Custodial Sentences and Weapons Act 2007 in the final daysof the last Parliament. However, because of the impact on resources, it hasalways been clear that implementation would unlikely to be before 2009-10.

I have asked MikeEwart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond.

His response is asfollows:

The information yourequested is not available, because we do not hold information on the start dateof the trial.

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond.

His response is as follows:

The information you requested is not available, because we do not hold information on the start date of the trial.

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.

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.

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.

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.