Chamber and committees

The Lord President has responsibility for the programme of the work of the Supreme Courts and is currently considering the implications, for criminal and civil business, of losing 4 Judges to serve at the Lockerbie trial in Holland. I shall discuss these matters with him shortly. The aim will be to make a sufficient number of new appointments to ensure that the normal business of the Supreme Courts is not disrupted.

The consultation paper Improving Scottish Family Law issued by The Scottish Office in March of this year encouraged a wide range of responses to the proposals, including those relating to the law on cohabitation. The responses are now being considered by the Scottish Executive, and I will make an announcement on the proposed way forward in due course.

Procurators Fiscal are authorised by Section 302 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 to issue conditional offers of a fixed penalty (commonly referred to as "fiscal fines") as an alternative to prosecution in relation to certain offences. In addition, I have issued confidential guidance to Procurators Fiscal regarding their use of fiscal fines as an alternative to prosecution which includes directions as to situations in which Procurators Fiscal must not issue a fiscal fine. These include cases involving overtones of sexual behaviour or racial motivation or aggravation and cases involving the possession of Class A drugs.

During the most recent year for which the requested information is available (April 1998 - March 1999) 13.8 per cent of the total reports received by Procurators Fiscal were marked "no proceedings".

There is no fixed complement of temporary Sheriffs and numbers are kept under regular review. Vacancies for permanent Sheriffs are advertised and filled from the field who apply. The numbers of Permanent Sheriffs are also kept under review in consultation with Sheriffs Principal.

I expect to receive soon from the UK Government drafts of a memorandum of understanding and certain supporting concordats. These documents, which will be administrative rather than statutory agreements, are intended to set out the ground rules which will govern the working relationships between the devolved administrations and the UK Government.I will consider these drafts with my colleagues. Once we have agreed their contents with the UK Government and, where necessary, the other devolved administrations, we will present them to the Scottish Parliament for its endorsement before they come into effect.

No. Local authorities were issued with indicative expenditure guidelines this year. Most authorities have exercised their own discretion sensibly. Eight authorities have set budgets in excess of the guidelines, but in the case of five authorities only by a small amount. The other three authorities - Aberdeenshire, East Dunbartonshire and Perth and Kinross - have made larger increases. I met these councils with the Secretary of State for Scotland to discuss why they have made such large increases. The Secretary of State subsequently announced in the House of Commons that the authorities would not be capped, but at the meeting we did put them on warning that we will expect them to return to guideline next year. I have also asked each council to submit to me an action plan detailing what measures they intend to take to ensure that they do return to guideline next year, and they agreed to do so before the end of July.

We believe that the new regulatory regime set out in the Water Industry Act will best serve the interests of water customers. The Act provides for a Water Industry Commissioner with the statutory function to promote the interests of customers. The Commissioner will be a professional regulator with the duty of advising Ministers on all aspects of economic and customer regulation. The Commissioner will ensure that water customers in Scotland get the best possible deal from the water authorities on price and service.The Executive intends that the new regime will become operational on 1 November. As a first step, a notice will appear in the press shortly advertising the Commissioner's post.