- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 20 January 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what evaluation has been carried out into projects developed with funds from the Better Neighbourhood Services Fund (BNSF).
Answer
BNSF councils are required to put in place their own arrangements for monitoring and evaluating pathfinder projects. The Executive will also undertake an overall evaluation at the end of the programme.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 16 January 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many sex offenders have been recalled for breach of licence in each year since 1999.
Answer
The information is not available in the form requested. Information relating to the recall to custody of prisoners released on licence is published in the annual report of the Parole Board for Scotland. The board's report for 2001 was laid before the Parliament on 30 May 2002 and copies are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 21650).
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 December 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 14 January 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-31209 by Mr Jim Wallace on 6 December 2002, how many offenders in secure accommodation have taken part in offence-related and offence-specific work in each of the last three years.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 14 January 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers are currently being investigated as a result of Operation Ore regarding the activities of suspected paedophiles.
Answer
The investigations surrounding Operation Ore, which cover all eight Scottish police force areas, are on-going. I am advised that two police officers are among those being investigated and that a report on each case has been sent to the procurator fiscal. At this stage, it would be inappropriate to give any further details.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 December 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 10 January 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many social work departments have received training from CHANGE in respect of developing court-mandated perpetrator programmes.
Answer
As at 31 March 2002, 15 authorities had received the awareness training and nine had progressed to the full skills training.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 December 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 10 January 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many court-mandated perpetrator programmes for domestic abuse offenders there are and how many such programmes have parallel partner-support workers.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally. Court-mandated programmes are delivered by local authority criminal justice services.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 December 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 6 January 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the homicide victims shown as being the partner of the main accused in Homicides in Scotland Statistics 2001 were (a) women and (b) men and what the sex of the main accused was in each case.
Answer
Of the 14 homicide victims in 2001, where the main accused was known to be a partner of the accused, 12 were female and two were male. The main accused of the 12 female killings were all male. The main accused of one of the male killings was male and the other was female.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 November 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 11 December 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether voluntary organisations that are involved in working with children are under any legal obligation to carry out Scottish Criminal Record Office checks.
Answer
Criminal record checks are now mostly carried out under Part V of the Police Act 1997 through the issue of criminal conviction and criminal record certificates. There is, however, no provision in Part V which requires a person to apply for a certificate. Nevertheless, those making appointments, whether paid or unpaid, to positions which give access to children or vulnerable adults have a responsibility to do as much as they can to ensure that those being appointed are suitable persons to have access to children and vulnerable adults. Asking potential recruits to apply for a criminal conviction certificate under Part V of the Police Act will help organisations make safer recruitment decisions. We are making available £1 million per annum so that volunteers working with children and vulnerable adults in voluntary organisations may be able to obtain certificates without cost.Regulations made under the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 require that providers and managers of care services are fit persons and that any person they employ (paid or unpaid) is a fit person. These regulations apply to all types of organisations that provide care services. One of the fit person criteria relates to criminal conviction information. Access to that information is available only through Part V of the Police Act 1997. This means that a Part V certificate will be needed to satisfy the requirements of the regulations.When the Protection of Children (Scotland) Bill is enacted it will be an offence for an organisation to employ in a child care position a person who is on the list of people deemed unsuitable to work with children. Access to names on the list will only be available through Part V certificates. This will effectively mean that child care organisations in all sectors will have to ask those they intend to employ to apply for a criminal record certificate.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 November 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 9 December 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-29188 by Dr Richard Simpson on 30 October 2002, what its estimate is of the extent of drug-assisted sexual assault.
Answer
The nature of drug-assisted sexual assault makes it difficult to obtain reliable information. Information is collected about the number of people proceeded against and convicted for sexual offences, but drug-related sexual assaults are not separately identifiable.The Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency's Strategic Assessment includes some estimates, but these cover many cases where the use of drugs in sexual assaults was suspected. As such, we consider that the figures are not sufficiently comprehensive or robust for publication.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 November 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 6 December 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what programmes are available to people in secure accommodation that have been convicted of a sexual offence to help them address their behaviour.
Answer
Information obtained from providers of secure accommodation indicates that in certain establishments offence-related and offence-specific work is being undertaken with offenders convicted of sexual offences or that this is in the process of being developed. This work includes addressing issues such as the identification of triggers and risk factors that contribute to sexually aggressive behaviour, the development of a personal development plan, cognitive skills training, offence analysis, violence reduction, victim empathy and relapse prevention.
