Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has made the following funding contribution to the UK Supreme Court since it started operating in 2009:

1 October 2009 to 31 March 2010: £238,779

1 April 2010 to 31 March 2011: £477,556

1 April 2011 to 30 June 2011: £119,389

The Scottish Government has not yet reached any conclusions following the recent consultation on independent monitoring of prisons. We will do so in due course.

Members of the review group will be reimbursed for reasonable expenses, but will not otherwise receive any remuneration.

The Scottish Government does not disclose internal legal advice or whether such advice has been sought.

The Scottish Government supports the European Convention on Human Rights and its incorporation into domestic law. However, we believe that he means of doing so should not place Scotland in a more difficult position than other jurisdictions.

We also believe the Scottish courts are best placed to ensure that the Scottish legal system functions in a manner which fully implements the convention, subject to the possibility of appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

The Scottish Government has recently asked Lord McCluskey to undertake an independent review of the mechanisms for applying human rights law to criminal cases in Scotland and looks forward to receiving advice from his independent specialist group later in 2011.

Lord McCluskey was approached on 2 June 2011 and the other members on 2 and 3 June 2011.

The cost of the review, inclusive of secretariat support, accommodation and expenses, is expected to be in the region of £35,000.

The Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 creates a presumption against custodial sentences of three months or less, and that provision came into force from 1 February 2011. Ministers have no plans to change this.

There are provisions for a Scottish Sentencing Council, in the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2010/13/part/1/crossheading/the-scottish-sentencing-council/enacted, which will establish a council when they are commenced. The council will produce guidelines to assist the development of sentencing policy, promote consistency in sentences and promote greater awareness and understanding of sentencing policy and practice. Options and costs for the council are currently under consideration and a decision will be made in due course. The establishment of the council would require necessary lead in time for secondary legislation, acquisition of accommodation and recruitment of members and support staff.

The following table shows the number of charges reported to Procurators Fiscal which included a Religious Aggravation element.

Charges: Religious Aggravation Included

Notes:

The information in this table has been extracted from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s case management database. The database is a live, operational database used to manage the processing of reports submitted to procurators fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies. If a Procurator Fiscal amends the aggravation in a charge submitted by a reporting agency the database will record details only of the amended charge.

The database is charge-based. The figures quoted therefore relate to the number of charges rather than the number of individuals charged or the number of incidents that gave rise to such charges.