- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 September 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 14 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-27993 by Mr Jim Wallace on 16 September 2002, why there are no plans to conduct research into the investigation and prosecution of cases involving allegations of rape.
Answer
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
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 September 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 11 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what the current position is on introduction of an independent ombudsman to oversee police complaints; how many complaints have been made against each police force in each of the last three years, and how many such complaints were upheld.
Answer
The introduction of an ombudsman-type body is one of the options for change the Executive is currently considering to enhance the independence of the police complaints system following last year's consultation. The information requested in relation to complaints against police officers is given in the following tables:Complaints Cases Received by Police Forces
Force | Central | D & G | Fife | Grampian | L & B | Northern | Strathclyde | Tayside | Scotland |
1999-2000 | 102 | 27 | 76 | 240 | 347 | 69 | 496 | 83 | 1,440 |
2000-01 | 84 | 24 | 90 | 155 | 340 | 71 | 502 | 152 | 1,418 |
2001-02 | 151 | 51 | 240 | 123 | 726 | 101 | 1,173 | 348 | 2,913 |
Complaints Allegations Substantiated
Force | Central | D &G | Fife | Grampian | L & B | Northern | Strathclyde | Tayside | Scotland |
1999-2000 | 5 | 2 | 28 | 42 | 109 | 2 | 11 | 12 | 211 |
2000-01 | 8 | 2 | 52 | 25 | 87 | 4 | 12 | 41 | 231 |
2001-02 | 29 | 4 | 49 | 19 | 92 | 6 | 85 | 29 | 313 |
Source: Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary.Notes: (i) Each case may have one or more complaint(s) within it, and not all cases are disposed of in the same year in which they are received. The cases received do not therefore tally with the complaint allegations substantiated.(ii) The increase in cases for 2001-02 is in part attributable to the introduction of new nationally agreed recording procedures.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 September 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 11 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-27000 by Mr Jim Wallace on 18 July 2002, what funding has been provided to evaluate the usefulness of hair analysis in detecting drugs in a person's system in order to provide corroborating evidence when a drug-assisted sexual assault has been alleged and when this evaluation will be completed.
Answer
Funding for particular research projects at universities is a matter for the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council and the UK Research Councils.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 September 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 11 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what evaluation has been made of police training programmes for the investigation of rape and sexual assaults; when any such evaluation was undertaken, and what the outcome was.
Answer
The Scottish Police College which is primarily responsible for the provision of this type of training has a training evaluation policy for the review of central police training in Scotland. All courses and component parts of courses delivered at the college are subject to the same evaluation process which includes a reaction evaluation or workplace evaluation of a percentage of courses delivered by the college. Any deficiencies identified through that evaluation process are then dealt with in a way commensurate with the issues raised. This allows training to be tailored to workplace and operational requirements.At the end of each course, students are asked for their reactions as to the benefit, challenge and satisfaction that they perceived that they derived from the courses. Students are asked to rate each category in terms of how the course met their needs from zero
(Not at All
) to four
(Completely
). The following table lists the three courses delivered by the college which include the investigation of rape and sexual assault, and shows the average results obtained, together with a mean value of how each course was rated in 2001-2002.
Course | Benefit | Challenge | Satisfaction | Mean |
Advanced Detective Training | 3.91 | 3.36 | 3.73 | 3.67 |
Initial Detective Training Course | 3.08 | 3.43 | 3.03 | 3.18 |
Child Protection Course | 3.80 | 2.96 | 3.63 | 3.46 |
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 September 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 11 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any police forces are reviewing old sexual assault cases using new DNA technology and, if so, which forces are doing so and what the results have been.
Answer
All Scottish Police Forces operate a continuous process of review in respect of all outstanding crime scenes stains held on the national DNA database. To date, the results of this process include a conviction for a sexually motivated murder in 1975 within the Strathclyde area and a recent serial rape and indecency case spanning the Strathclyde and Lothian and Borders Police Force areas, which was brought together by a detection on the database. Further details are available from individual forces.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 September 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 11 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications to Disclosure Scotland for checks on volunteers are currently outstanding and for how long they have been outstanding.
Answer
At 20 September, Disclosure Scotland had 83 outstanding valid applications from volunteers that had been routed through the Central Registered Body Scotland. Of these 83, 59 are within the 10 working day target to which Disclosure Scotland is working for processing 90% of valid applications.The remaining 24 fall into two categories: in 19 cases Disclosure Scotland is awaiting a response from a police force to a request for information about an applicant, and in the other five cases additional information has been requested from the applicant.Two of the outstanding cases date from July and these were being processed on 20 September.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 September 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 11 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-27002 by Mr Jim Wallace on 5 July 2002, whether Disclosure Scotland is meeting its target and how many applications it is currently processing within 10 working days.
Answer
Disclosure Scotland began operations on 29 April 2002. Between that date and 18 September it had issued Disclosure Certificates within 10 working days for 97.38% of valid applications.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 September 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 11 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether documents supplied by Disclosure Scotland are accessible to those with disabilities and what the reasons are for the position on this matter.
Answer
Disclosure Scotland is currently working on disclosure documentation for people with disabilities.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 September 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 3 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how many young people with mental health problems have been placed in secure units in each local authority area in each of the last three years.
Answer
Between 1998-99 and 2000-01 in Scotland, secure units reported no children having a clinically diagnosed mental health illness. However, many young people in secure accommodation do have mental health problems. The Health Department is conducting a review of the need for a secure facility for such young people. This should be completed by the end of the year.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 September 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 3 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-27993 by Mr Jim Wallace on 16 September 2002, who will be involved in reviewing the guidance to police regarding the investigation of sexual assaults and what information will be used to inform the review.
Answer
The review is being led by officials within the Justice Department, but is necessarily a cross-cutting exercise involving a number of interests both within and outwith the Executive. As a first stage in this process, officials will be working with ACPOS to consider how the existing guidance can be improved. The review will seek to make sure it has information about different procedures throughout the UK and that it has the benefit of the knowledge and experience of those operating and affected by these procedures, including Scottish Rape Crisis Network and Scottish Women's Aid.