Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-04649

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what scale of contributions was requested from applicants for civil legal aid to pursue or defend actions in the civil courts relating to applications for contact, residence and parental rights and responsibilities orders under section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 in (a) 2003-04, (b) 2004-05 and (c) 2005-06 and how many applicants turned down offers of grants because they were unable to pay the contributions.

The distribution ofcontribution values and average contribution requested from legal aid applicantsin cases relating to Section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 is shown in the following table. These figures include contributionsfrom both income and capital.

Distribution and averagevalue of contributions requested from legal aid applicants:

Section 11 of theChildren (Scotland) Act 1995

	Up to £50	£51 to £100	£101 to £250	£251 to £500	£501 to £800	£800 to £1,200	£1,200 to £1,700	Over £1,700	Average
2003-04	12	24	75	130	130	155	153	86	£1,241
2004-05	12	18	46	113	111	121	140	86	£962
2005-06	10	15	68	105	102	135	154	117	£1,007

The following tableshows, for each of the years requested, the total number of grants of civil legalaid where the primary crave relates to section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act1995. The table also shows the number of grants made with a contribution and thenumber of grants subsequently terminated because the applicant either did not paytheir first installment or notified the board they did not wish to proceed.

Number of Grants ofCivil Legal Aid: Section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995

	Applications Granted	Number where Contribution Required	Number which did not Proceed
2003-04	3,186	765	43*
2004-05	2,814	647	105
2005-06	2,811	706	100

Note: *Part year figuresfor 2003-04.

The Scottish LegalAid Board grants legal aid where an application passes both merits and means tests.If the assisted person subsequently informs the board that they no longer wish toproceed, or if they fail to pay their first contribution installment, the grantof legal aid will be terminated. Prior to October 2003, where the applicant wasassessed as eligible but required to make a contribution, an offer of legal aidwould be made before it was formally granted. If the applicant did not respond tothe offer, no grant of legal aid would be made.

The board is not usuallygiven a reason for the non-payment of the installment or for the applicant choosingnot to proceed. A survey by the board in 2001 of those who turned down offers oflegal aid suggested a number of reasons for this, including inability to pay, thematter having resolved itself or the applicant having decided to pay their solicitorprivately. The board has since increased the period over which contribution installmentscan be paid which should improve affordability.

Caution should beexercised when comparing the data for the years in question, particularly in relationto cases that did not proceed (the figures for 2003-04 relate only to the periodafter the change in procedure in October 2003). The board also improved the wayit records information about applications for and grants of legal aid in 2005. Inaddition to recording more specific categories of cases the board also now recordsboth the primary crave and any ancillary craves for which legal aid is sought. Thedata for the period before 2005 only covers the primary crave.

Question reference: S3W-04645

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications to the courts for interdicts and exclusion orders under the Matrimonial Homes (Family Protection) (Scotland) Act 1981 and the Protection from Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001 and non-harassment orders under the Protection from Harrassment Act 1997 in (a) 2003-04, (b) 2004-05 and (c) 2005-06 were funded by grants of civil legal aid.

The Scottish LegalAid Board records the subject matter of the grants of legal aid it makes. I referthe member to the answer to question S3W-4646 on 22 October 2007. All answers towritten parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the searchfacility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The board is not informedwhether or not an application to the court is subsequently made. Information onthe number of applications to the courts funded by civil legal aid is not, therefore,available.

Question reference: S3W-04646

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many grants of civil legal aid for interdicts and exclusion orders under the Matrimonial Homes (Family Protection) (Scotland) Act 1981 and the Protection from Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001 and non-harassment orders under the Protection from Harrassment Act 1997 in (a) 2003-04, (b) 2004-05 and (c) 2005-06 were offered subject to payment of contributions from the applicants.

The following tableshows, for each of the years requested, the total number of grants of civil legalaid where the primary crave relates to a protective order (including interdicts,breach of interdict, non-harassment orders, exclusion orders and requests for powersof arrest). The table also shows the number of grants made with a contribution andthe number of grants subsequently terminated because the applicant either did notpay their first installment or notified the board they did not wish to proceed.

Grants of CivilLegal Aid: Protective Orders

Protective Orders	Granted	Contribution Required	Did Not Proceed
2003-04	1,461	183	18*
2004-05	1,192	165	39
2005-06	9,87	176	28

*Part Year figuresfor 2003-04.

The Scottish LegalAid Board grants legal aid where an application passes both merits and means tests.If the assisted person subsequently informs the board that they no longer wish toproceed, or if they fail to pay their first contribution installment, the grantof legal aid will be terminated. Prior to October 2003, where the applicant wasassessed as eligible but required to make a contribution, an offer of legal aidwould be made before it was formally granted. If the applicant did not respond tothe offer, no grant of legal aid would be made.

The board is not usuallygiven a reason for the non-payment of the installment or for the applicant choosingnot to proceed. A survey by the board in 2001 of those who turned down offers oflegal aid suggested a number of reasons for this, including inability to pay, thematter having resolved itself or the applicant having decided to pay their solicitorprivately. The board has since increased the period over which contribution installmentscan be paid which should improve affordability.

Caution should beexercised when comparing the data for the years in question, particularly in relationto cases that did not proceed (the figures for 2003-04 relate only to the periodafter the change in procedure in October 2003). The board also improved the wayit records information about applications for and grants of legal aid in 2005. Inaddition to recording more specific categories of cases, the board also now recordsboth the primary crave and any ancillary craves for which legal aid is sought. Thedata for the period before 2005 only covers the primary crave.

Question reference: S3W-04648

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many grants of civil legal aid were made to pursue or defend actions in the civil courts relating to applications for contact, residence and parental rights and responsibilities orders under section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 in (a) 2003-04, (b) 2004-05 and (c) 2005-06.

Question reference: S3W-04647

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many offers of grants of civil legal aid for interdicts and exclusion orders under the Matrimonial Homes (Family Protection) (Scotland) Act 1981 and the Protection from Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001 and non-harassment orders under the Protection from Harrassment Act 1997 in (a) 2003-04, (b) 2004-05 and (c) 2005-06 were turned down by the applicants because they were unable to afford to pay the contributions.

Question reference: S3W-04643

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many interdicts and exclusion orders under the Matrimonial Homes (Family Protection) (Scotland) Act 1981 and the Protection from Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001 were granted by the civil courts in (a) 2003-04, (b) 2004-05 and (c) 2005-06.

Question reference: S3W-04650

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many actions have been brought to court in the last 10 years for breaches of interdicts with power of arrest attached under the Matrimonial Homes (Family Protection) (Scotland) Act 1981 or the Protection from Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001 and what the court decisions were in respect of such actions.

The available informationis given in the following table. The figures in the table provided only relate to cases where the breach ofan interdict granted under the MatrimonialHomes (Family Protection) (Scotland) Act 1981 or Protection from Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001 was the main offence. Someone breaching an interdict islikely to commit other offences at that time, such as criminal damage or assault.Therefore the table provided does not give the full picture of arrests made andcases proceeded under the act.

Persons ProceededAgainst Under the Matrimonial Homes (Family Protection) (Scotland) Act 1981 and the Protection of Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001 Section 5(3)¹

	Contempt Of Court (Matrimonial Interdict)				Protection of Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001 Section 5(3)
	Acquitted	Custody	Absolute discharge	Total	Acquitted	Custody	Admonished	Absolute discharge	Total
1997-98	2	-	2	4	-	-	-	-	-
1998-99	-	1	-	1	-	-	-	-	-
1999-2000	1	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-
2000-01	-	1	-	1	-	-	-	-	-
2001-02	1	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-
2002-03	-	-	-	-	1	1	-	-	2
2003-04	-	-	-	-	2	-	-	-	2
2004-05	-	-	-	-	3	2	2	2	9
2005-06	-	-	-	-	3	-	-	-	3

Note: 1. These offencesrelate to cases where the breach of interdict was the main offence.

Question reference: S3W-02384

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 5 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost is of each volunteering opportunity under the Project Scotland programme.

Project Scotland is a company limited by guarantee and registered as acharity whose aims and objectives are to promote the welfare and relieve the needsof the population in Scotland by encouraging and assisting young peopleto provide their skills and services voluntarily to charitable organisations. Fullinformation about the work of Project Scotland is available from its Chief Executiveat 49 Melville Street, Edinburgh, EH3 7HL.

The Chief Executiveadvises that: “From the inception of Project Scotland to the end of the latest tax year (2006-07) we placed 1,292 volunteers which,dividing total expense by the number of volunteers, shows an average cost of £8,934per volunteering opportunity of 30 hours per week for six months. Having put thenecessary infrastructure in place, the cost of an average volunteering opportunityin the current tax year is forecast at £4,995”.

Question reference: S3O-00836

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Linda Fabiani on 4 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what strategy is in place to promote the use of the Scots language.

As the member forthe West of Scotland will recall, in our pre-election manifesto the Scottish Governmentgave commitments to promote an increased awareness of Scots and its literature,and to actively encourage the use of Scots in education, broadcasting and the arts.

I am currently indiscussion with the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning and theMinister for Schools and Skills about how we may take forward these commitments,but as I said recently at a meeting of the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Lifelong Learningand Culture Committee, I am open to suggestions from individual parliamentarians,committees or cross-party groups on how we may give practical application to ourcommitments.

It may interest themember for West Scotland to know that my colleague Maureen Watt hasaccepted an invitation to attend a meeting of the Scottish Parliament’s Cross-PartyGroup on Scots.

Question reference: S3W-02386

Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 14 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the current youth volunteering arrangements ensure best value.

The LocalGovernment in Scotland Act 2003 places a statutory duty on local authorities tomake arrangements to secure Best Value. In relation to public bodies, the dutyis on Accountable Officers under the Memorandum to Accountable Officers (PublicFinance & Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000).

It is for local authorities and public bodies whodeliver public services in partnership with voluntary organisations to ensurethat the principles of Best Value are applied throughout their servicedelivery.

In taking forward these duties best valueorganisations will have regard to economy, efficiency, effectiveness, equalopportunities requirements and to the achievement of sustainable development.

Where an organisationis not covered by the act, youth volunteering arrangements are a matter foreach organisation providing volunteering opportunities.

Where the Scottish Executive has a funding relationship with such an organisation, grantis paid on the basis of a sound application and ongoing monitoring.

Chamber and committees