- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 1 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive in which police force areas women doctors are available at all times to conduct medical examinations following a sexual assault.
Answer
Local arrangements, varying on a force-to-force basis, exist whereby doctors are contracted to provide medical assistance when required. Victims sometimes express a preference to be examined by either a male or a female doctor. The Scottish Police Service believes such choices should be respected and forces endeavour to meet such requests wherever possible.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 1 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what support is available for male victims of rape.
Answer
Two projects are funded by the Executive specifically to support survivors of sexual abuse, including male as well as female rape victims. A number of other projects with a broader remit will also provide support to male rape victims. In addition, the Executive commissioned research in this area which is published in the report, The Experience of Violence and Harassment of Gay Men in the City of Edinburgh. Copies are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 5154).In terms of the support provided within the criminal justice system, criminal justice agencies have a shared commitment, enshrined in the Scottish Strategy for Victims, to ensure that all victims, regardless of their gender, are able to access support, assistance and information at all stages in the criminal justice process.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 1 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive which police force divisions have specialist sexual offence officers and how many such officers each division has.
Answer
Every Scottish force has specialist officers dedicated to the investigation of sexual offences. The number and allocation of these officers is a matter for individual Chief Constables.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Simpson on 1 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans there are to establish sexual assault treatment centres.
Answer
There is a growing recognition of the needs of victims of sexual offences and every Scottish police force therefore has access to a dedicated rape suite. These facilities may be situated in police stations, hospitals or other suitable locations arranged through their local social work departments. Work is also being taken forward by the Scottish Prison Service in prisons, and by local authorities, in the community to provide programmes to tackle sex offending behaviour. For example, initiatives such as the Fife Council community protection team Change Programme and the Tay Project are aimed at addressing the offending behaviour of adult sex offenders as part of criminal justice social work's statutory supervision of sex offenders.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Simpson on 1 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what methods are available to the police to screen for drugs.
Answer
Scottish police forces do not routinely screen arrestees for drugs.However, in relation to driving offences, drug recognition techniques and field impairment testing were introduced by Scottish forces in June 2001.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 25 January 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what match funding was provided by NHS boards for projects concerning domestic abuse in the last year for which figures are available.
Answer
The Domestic Abuse Service Development Fund administered by the Scottish Executive Justice Department provides £6 million over four years to strengthen local services, of which £79,000 currently supports seven projects where all or part of the matched funding is provided by an NHS board.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Elish Angiolini on 25 January 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to increase the number of incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police which are subsequently prosecuted.
Answer
The objective of the police is to investigate such incidents properly and fully. The objective of procurators fiscal is to scrutinise reports for a sufficiency of evidence and then to select from the range of available options the one which is most appropriate in the particular case. One important consideration is the probability that any given option will reduce the likelihood of further offending. Allegations of domestic abuse are treated very seriously by prosecutors who were issued in July 2000 with fresh training and guidance on this area of offending. However, it would be inappropriate to have an objective to increase the number of prosecutions. Each individual case must be considered on its own merits.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 25 January 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to tackle repeat victimisation in cases of domestic abuse reported to the police.
Answer
The Executive is committed to ensuring that women who have experienced domestic abuse get the support and protection they need. This includes providing a sufficient number of refuge places but also providing support to those who do not wish to leave. There are many reasons why women might be reluctant to leave an abusive partner and may suffer a number of incidents of abuse before doing so. Her decision must be respected. The important thing is that she should get the help and information she wants at any stage. The information on repeat victimisation in the police statistics is very helpful in building up a picture of the nature of abuse. It is for police forces to decide how they will respond to specific instances of repeat victimisation.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Simpson on 25 January 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had, or plans to have, meetings with any internet service provider or web hosting services to discuss guidelines for the protection of children using such services.
Answer
Internet regulation is a reserved issue. Matters relating to the protection of children using the internet is the responsibility of the Home Office which has established a task force involving representatives from across the UK internet industry. As a result of the group's recommendations to raise public awareness of the activities of paedophiles in internet chatrooms and steps to avoid them the Executive is contributing to the current UK-wide "know the net" campaign to alert children to the risks of the internet and how to minimise them. The Executive is also participating in a UK-wide exercise to accredit educational Internet service providers who wish to serve the education market (including libraries, community learning facilities, UK Online centres etc). The main focus of the approval process is on safety features such as content filtering.
- Asked by: Gil Paterson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Colin Boyd on 25 January 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of the 37% of recorded incidents of domestic abuse in 1999-2000 referred to the Procurator Fiscal's Office were subsequently referred to diversion from prosecution schemes and on what grounds any such referrals were made.
Answer
"Domestic abuse" may be constituted by several offences. Records relating to those offences do not distinguish those which fall into the domestic abuse category. The information is, accordingly, not available.