Chamber and committees

The safety of all groups whouse this, or any, community facility is of paramount importance. The ScottishExecutive would expect the City Council to continue to consult with itscommunity planning partners, including the police, to assess risk to any useron an on-going basis.

However, draft amendmentregulations have been discussed with the Law Society of Scotland (LSS) and the ScottishLegal Aid Board (SLAB) and are anticipated to be laid before Parliament by the endof 2006. These regulations will effect a number of changes that were directly identifiedto ministers by both the LSS and SLAB and will improve the level of reward for solicitorsfor work done, as well as providing greater flexibility in contentious family cases.

Furthermore, Hugh Henry announced at the Stage 1 debate of the Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill on 7 September 2006 that he had askedthe Scottish Legal Aid Board to set up a network of employed solicitors to providecivil legal assistance. Ministers are pleased that the board has begun to recruit a solicitor to work in the Highlands andIslands to work with local organisations and women suffering domestic abuse.

We will be kept informed of theseas they are developed. Such changes will be monitored to ensure as effective a systemas possible for those involved.

The board already directly employssolicitors to provide advice and representation on criminal matters through thenetwork of Public Defence Solicitors Offices. We announced on 20 October 2006 that the existing offices in Glasgow, Edinburghand Inverness would be augmented by the establishmentof an additional six offices in Dundee, Aberdeen, Falkirk, Ayr, Dumfries and Kirkwall. This will provide additional competition and choiceand will help address gaps in the provision of advice in criminal matters. Workis under way to recruit staff and identify suitable premises and we envisage thatthese new offices will open in 2007.

In addition, the board currentlyruns five partnership projects where it employs a solicitor to work in collaborationwith a local advice organisation. On  26 October 2006 SLAB announced the launchof a new project to provide specialist legal advice to clients with disabilitiesin the Lanarkshire area which adds to existing provision in Fife, Argyll andBute, Inverness, and Edinburgh.

We made a commitment to monitorthe impacts of The Civil Legal Aid (Scotland) (Fees) Amendment Regulations 2003 which were introducedon 1 October 2003. A Report prepared by the Scottish Legal Aid Board withinput from, and in consultation with, the Law Society of Scotland and the ScottishExecutive is currently being finalised andwill be published soon.

The changes appearto be working reasonably well. However, we can see that there are lessons to belearned from the monitoring report. These issues will be taken forward in consultationwith both the Scottish Legal Aid Board and the Law Society of Scotland.

We will also lookto review the feeing structures regularly to ensure that solicitors are adequatelyreimbursed for work necessarily undertaken.

A numberof the suggested improvements, such as the development of grant funding and adviceprovision by non-lawyers, require changes to primary legislation. The Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill containsprovisions to facilitate changes such as the transfer of the power to grant legalaid in solemn cases from the courts to the Scottish Legal Aid Board; the extensionof the Advice and Assistance scheme to non-lawyers providing advice on civil mattersin prescribed circumstances; the provision of grant funding to support or developlegal advice on civil matters, and the relaxation of the severe hardship test insection 19 of the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986. Other issues, such as greater useof the Public Defence Solicitors’ Office where appropriate, do not require changesto primary legislation and are being taken forward by the Scottish Legal Aid Board.

Further improvements to the planningand co-ordination of publicly funded legal advice, such as better assessment ofadvice needs or the possible establishment of a national co-ordinating body, willbe considered jointly by the board and the Justice Department in the New Year.

The rise in the number of reportedincidents can also be attributed to the highly successful publicity campaign, evaluationof which has shown that over 78% of the population have seen or heard of the campaign.

As stated in the answer to questionS2W-19517 on 21 October 2005, the Scottish Executive’s strategic approach to domesticabuse focuses around the themes of protection, prevention and provision. All threethemes contribute not only to stopping abuse occurring but also to tackling repeatincidents.

For example, we have committedover £34.5 million between 2000 and 2006 to support organisations working with womenand children and young people who have experienced domestic abuse or other violenceagainst women. We have piloted a domestic abuse court in Glasgow in order to providea swift and effective justice response and support for victims. We support programmesthat work with perpetrators to challenge and change offending behaviour and aredeveloping accreditation of existing programmes. We are rolling out the domesticabuse training strategy to ensure consistent and high quality services from allpublic agencies. We continue to develop our awareness raising campaign to make clearthe unacceptability of domestic abuse.

We will continue to take whateversteps are necessary to end domestic abuse in Scotland.

The bill contains provisionswhich will help enable the board to proactively address issues around the supplyof civil legal aid or advice and assistance on matters of civil law. It will providea grant funding power for the board to support the development or provision of suchassistance and enable the Legal Aid Fund to be more flexibly used to meet the costsof assistance provided by solicitors employed by the board.

It is important that these resourcesare targeted where they are most needed and where they will be most effective. Wewill be working with the board to develop processes to ensure that areas of needcan be identified at both a local and national level.

Working in partnership with keystakeholders funding has been made available to support the First Minister’s commitmentto double the number of BSL/English interpreters. In addition to the developmentof the Graduate Diploma in Teaching BSL, the Executive is recruiting a specialistproject manager to explore ways in which numbers can be increased.

During 2006, 25 healthcare staff and 28 deaf people undertook awareness raising training developed andaccredited by the Council for the Advancement for Communication with Deaf People(CACDP) under the direction of NHS Education for Scotland and the Scottish Council on Deafness. The course equipped them to delivera Communication Tactics with Deaf People course for another 312 NHS staff. The project has resulted in a training infrastructurebeing established in 13 out of 19 health boards (including special health boards)and the University of Dundee Clinical Skills Centre. The onus is now on boards tomaintain the infrastructure and training provision.

Guidance published last year(Bib. number 38922) informed approaches for improved access to mainstream and specialistservices for those with sensory loss and a mental health condition.