Chamber and committees

The latest figures for Community Service Orders (CSOs) relate to the period 1 April 2001 to 31 March 2002:

CSOs Issued	4,564
Breach Applications	1,154
Terminations due to Breach	957

Monitoring of CSOs is regulated through provisions set out in National Objectives and Standards for Social Work Services in the Criminal Justice System. These include general compliance with the conditions of the order, work performance and personal conduct. The standards set out in detail the disciplinary procedures to be followed when an offender fails, without reasonable cause, to comply with the requirements of the order

The Scottish Executive is committed to continuing the existing principle of protecting subsistence levels of income from arrestment. It recognises that there can be practical difficulties in achieving this when benefits are paid direct into a bank account, and it consulted on possible ways to tackle this issue in the consultation document Enforcement of Civil Obligations in Scotland in April 2002. An independent analysis of the responses was published in November 2002. Both these documents are available on the Scottish Executive website at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations/justice/CivOb-00.asp. andhttp://www.scotland.gov.uk/socialresearch.Views were divided on the question, and the Executive is now working to find a practical solution. It is intended to come forward with proposals in due course: but decisions on the way forward will be for the future administration following the elections in May 2003.

A range of Executive policies is delivering real improvement in Scotland's towns and cities. In Glasgow,the 80,000 tenants transferring from council to community ownership will benefit from a £1.6 billion pound investment in warm, dry homes over the next 10 years. In Edinburgh, nearly £50 million is being invested in improving transport links in the city and its surrounding region. And across Scotland over 2,000 CCTV cameras and related community safety initiatives are reducing crime and the fear of crime in our urban streets.

We remain committed to regulating the private security industry and are still considering how to do this. We will make an announcement as soon as we are in a position to do so.

I announced the publication of the national standards for Scotland's youth justice system earlier today. The report National Standards for Scotland's Youth Justice Services is available at the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 25683).

The Scottish Executive has carried out extensive consultation over the proposed framework for the review. The first stage will be to research good and innovative practice within and outwith Scotland. The Executive will establish a reference group to oversee stage one of the review and advise on stage two, which will aim to take forward identified best practice. I expect the first stage of the review to be completed no later than autumn 2003 and the second stage to commence shortly after.

The Executive established the Scottish Refugee Integration Forum to allow Scotland's statutory and voluntary agencies to work in partnership to support refugees more effectively. Where appropriate, the forum has also considered the needs of asylum seekers. It will publish its action plan early next year following a recent consultation on a draft plan. In addition, £700,000 was assigned from the Social Inclusion Partnership Budget in September 2001 to assist community projects in dispersal areas.

Local authorities have the discretion to decide how and where their allocations will be spent and some local authorities in urban areas have chosen to fund "dial-a-ride" and other community transport services. The Executive is committed to improving access to transport, and is supporting public transport improvements for many groups who would benefit from community transport. It has introduced free travel for blind people and is improving concessionary bus fare arrangements for pensioners and disabled people so that they now benefit from free local off-peak bus travel.In addition, the Executive recently launched the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland to give disabled people the chance to air their views on transport matters and advise ministers of any practical improvements which could be put in place. The committee's work programme for the coming year will include an investigation into on demand "door-to-door" community transport services.

Provision for the establishment of the Bus User Complaints Tribunal was made in section 41 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001. Detailed regulations setting out the operational framework for the tribunal were made on 22 April 2002 in the Bus User Complaints Tribunal Regulations 2002.Since the regulations came into force on 23 April 2002, Scottish ministers have appointed a Convener and two members to the tribunal and the Executive has been engaged in resolving a number of legal, financial and administrative issues to enable the Tribunal to begin work early next year.

An evaluation of the Crown Office Victim Information and Advice Service is under way and it is anticipated that the results will be published early in 2003.