Chamber and committees

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:Individual crimes within crime groups such as "crimes of indecency" can vary widely in terms of seriousness and the length of imprisonment consequently imposed. The information on sentence length by crime published in the statistical bulletin Prisons Statistics Scotland, 2001 therefore presents the statistics for more specific crimes rather than aggregate information for crime groups.The published information has not given statistics on the average sentence length imposed for crimes with only a small number of receptions each year because individual cases could have had a distorting effect on the figures. Individual crimes of indecency fall into this category. In the light of this parliamentary question, however, the Executive will review this position ahead of the next publication of the statistical bulletins.The average sentence lengths imposed for those convicted of specific crimes of indecency in 2000 and 2001 are given in the table.Average Length of Sentence Imposed on Offenders Sentenced for Crimes of Indecency by Crime, 2000 and 2001

	Number of Receptions1		Average Sentence Length in Years
Main crime/offence	2000	2001	2000	2001
Rape	25	43	6.21	7.20
Assault with intent to rape	5	8	3.30	3.82
Indecent Assault	29	22	2.71	2.40
Lewd and indecent behaviour	95	119	1.94	2.36
Other indecency	39	28	3.83	4.14
All crimes of indecency	193	220

Notes:1. The table excludes those who received a life sentence (3 in 2001)"

The Scottish Executive has issued guidance on child protection in schools, Circular 10/90, which requires all education authorities in Scotland, and the Scottish Council for Independent Schools, to have in place arrangements for responding to issues of child abuse in their schools. It also clearly sets out appropriate staff responses if children or young people disclose abuse. The Scottish Executive is currently revising Circular 10/90, in line with Protecting Children - A Shared Responsibility, which comprises guidance that has been issued specifically for health professionals and also on inter-agency co-operation. The revision of guidance for schools will take account of the findings of the national review of child protection which is due for publication shortly.

It is a mandatory requirement that all teachers employed in local authority schools in Scotland be registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland, which since 1989 involves a criminal records check undertaken by the Disclosure Bureau. Teachers can be removed from the register at any time if they are convicted of a criminal offence or if they are considered to have been guilty of professional misconduct.

The Cabinet Sub-Committee on Children's Services will be holding a special meeting later this month, chaired by the First Minister, to discuss child protection, including domestic abuse, in the light of the current multi-disciplinary review, which has been informed by discussion with children and young people. In addition, the Ministers for Education and Young People, for Health and Community Care, and for Social Justice, all participated earlier this month in the launch event for the Listen Louder campaign to highlight the effects of domestic abuse on young people.The National Group is considering the effect of domestic abuse on children as part of its remit to implement the National Strategy to Address Domestic Abuse.

The notification requirements of the Sex Offenders Act 1997 apply across the UK. We are keen that this should continue to be the case, where possible. A recent review of the act made a number of recommendations to strengthen and improve its effectiveness. These include a requirement for annual notification and for a new order bringing those convicted for sex offences overseas under the notification requirements. As the Home Secretary made clear, the intention is to bring forward legislation to address these matters at the earliest opportunity.

The Scottish Executive is aware of the Home Office research report on Rape and sexual assault of women: the extent and nature of the problem - Findings from the British Crime Survey. The report utilised the sample from both the 1998 and 2000 British Crime Surveys, which provided a total household sample of just over 34,000 households in England and Wales. As noted in the answer given to question S1W-29191, the smaller Scottish sample does not make analyses of rape and other sexual crimes viable. The Scottish Executive has, however, commissioned a fundamental review of the Scottish Crime Survey that will consider matters such as sample sizes, frequency and coverage.

The Scottish Executive is not aware of any research that focuses specifically on this subject matter. The effect of abuse on children in a wider context has been the focus of numerous pieces of research by various organisations.

A circular giving details of the commencement of the act and the transitional provisions has been sent, together with a copy of the relevant commencement order, to approximately 150 organisations, mainly representative of the legal and voluntary sectors. Notices will also be appearing in two legal journals in October (The Scots Law Times and The Journal of the Law Society of Scotland) to advertise the commencement of the act on 1 November 2002.

A working group established by the National Group to Address Domestic Abuse in Scotland has carried out a review of legislation relating to domestic abuse and made a number of recommendations about how to increase the protection of women and children who experience such abuse. Discussions about how to implement the working group's recommendations are at an early stage. The working group did give consideration to the fact that domestic abuse is not a specific offence but not to the possibility of providing for an aggravated offence.

While we have no plans to commission Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary to undertake research into the investigation and prosecution of cases involving allegations of rape, we will consider further the need for research once the review mentioned in the answer given to question S1W-28798 on 13 September 2002 has been completed. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa