Chamber and committees

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:I understand that the director has conducted an investigation to ascertain whether there are changes which require to be made ahead of any determination which may be produced by the current Fatal Accident Inquiry.

The available information is given in the table.Persons with a Charge Proved for Drug-Dealing Offences¹, by Type of Sentence, 2001

Sentence	2001
Number
Total	1,314
Custody
up to 6 months	230
>6 months to 2 years	243
>2 years up to 4 years	93
4 years and over	131
Total	697
Probation2	162
Community service	214
Monetary penalty	195
Other sentence	46
Percentage:
Custody
up to 6 months	18
>6 months to 2 years	18
>2 years up to 4 years	7
4 years and over	10
Total	53
Probation2	12
Community service	16
Monetary penalty	15
Other sentence	4

Notes:1. Where main offence includes illegal importation, production and supply of drugs, and money laundering and other related offences.2. Includes restriction of liberty orders and drug treatment and testing orders.

No minister or official attended the meeting. Scottish Executive ministers and officials do attend working group and European Council meetings as necessary as part of our regular engagement with the European Union. However, on this occasion, as explained in the answer given to question S1W-32291 on 16 December 2002, the subject matter of the framework decision is reserved and its implementation is a matter entirely for the UK Government. 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_waAny issues of concern arising from the implementation in Scotland of the framework decision would be raised by the Executive with the UK Government. It would be for the UK Government to decide whether or not any such issue merited discussion at the working party meeting. No such issues were, however, brought to the attention of the UK Government.

The Media and Communications Group's out-turn spend in 2001-02 was £3,052,479. The current spend for 2002-03, (as at 31 January 2003), is £2,964,876. We anticipate the total spend in 2002-03 to be in the region of £3.6 million. The effectiveness and efficiency of the group is currently being examined in a Best Value Review.

The numbers of cases involving alleged contravention of environmental protection legislation referred to the Procurators Fiscal Service by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency are set out in the table.

	2001-02	2002-03 (to date)
Cases Referred to Procurator Fiscal Service	70*	43
Cases that Proceeded to Court	44	7
Still On-Going	6	22
(i) Number Led to Convictions	37	7
(ii) Percentage Led to Convictions	84%	100%

Note:*A reassessment of 2001-02 statistics has resulted in a slight alteration to the figures quoted in response to question S1W-25070.

The information requested for the period April 2002 to end December 2002 is as follows:April 2002 to December 2002

Total Reports Received	Total No Proceedings	Delay Police or Reporting Agency	Delay PF	Lack of Court Resources	PF Staff Shortage	Time-Bar
224,779	37,776	11,533	141	0	2	1,861
As % of Total Reports	17%	5%	0.06%	0%	0%	0.8%

There is strict guidance on use of these no proceedings categories by procurators fiscal when marking cases. In particular, the "time-barred" category is only to be used when the offences are time-barred at the time the report is received from the police or other reporting agency.While the overall proportion of cases marked no proceedings has remained steady, the proportion marked no proceedings because of delay in reporting by the police has increased since 2001-02, largely because of reporting problems in the Strathclyde Area. This is attributable by the police to a number of factors around an increase in detection rates, reporting policies, technology and resources. It is a temporary problem, which has been identified and is being addressed by the police, in partnership with the Area Procurators Fiscal in Strathclyde.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:Kilmarnock Prison Services Limited.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is committed to agreeing targets covering the progress of cases through the criminal justice system as set out in target 1 for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in Building a Better Scotland - Spending Proposals 2003-2006; What the money buys. We are actively engaged in discussions with the police and the Scottish Court Service to agree such targets for the next financial year and, as the first stage of that process, have agreed to work in partnership with them in fulfilment of the Scottish Court Service's new target to dispose of all summary criminal cases within 20 weeks from first calling in court to sentence.

Spending plans for non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) as a share of total managed expenditure is as shown in the following table:

	2000-01(£ Million)	2001-02(£ Million)	2002-03(£ Million)
NDPBs	2,109	2,138	2,120
Total Managed Expenditure	17,997	19,893	21,098
%	12	11	10

In order to provide comparable information, the information given is drawn from stage 1 of the Budget Process for each of the relevant years.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:Performance points have not been applied in 13 such cases referred to the police because, so far as can be ascertained, there were no court proceedings and consequently no convictions. A trial is under way in one case and investigations are on-going in another 11 cases. It is not possible to say why there were no proceedings in the 13 cases, for the reasons given in the answer to question S1W-33537 on 11 February 2003. 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.