Chamber and committees

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

Contract Section	Reason for Omission
	Security	Commercial in Confidence	Lengthy and/or Unnecessary Material
Minute of Agreement		3
Schedule A			3
Schedule B			3
Schedule C
Schedule D	3	3
Schedule E		3
Schedule F
Schedule G
Schedule H		3
Schedule I
Schedule J		3
Schedule K			3
Schedule L
Schedule M			3
Schedule N		3
Schedule O
Schedule P		3
Schedule Q
Direct Agreement
Price Variation Guidelines		3

In the 11 months to the end of February 2002, there were 1,867 cases.

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

	2000-01	2001-02
Cases referred to Procurator Fiscal Service	60	72
Cases proceeded court	46	20
Still on-going	3	45
(i) Number led to convictions	37	20
(ii) Percentage led to convictions	62%	28%

The figures are shown in the following table. The figure for time barred cases in 2000-01 is slightly smaller than that given in answer to S1W-16140 on 15 June 2001 because that answer was given before the figures for that year had been finally reconciled.

No Proceedings	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02 (11 months)
Insufficient Admissible Evidence	12,305	12,786	12,257	9,932
Trivial	10,996	11,539	10,487	9,956
Civil Remedy More Appropriate	3,866	3,159	2,550	1,925
Mitigating Circumstances	3,119	2,383	2,266	1,765
Delay Police/ Reporting Agency	2,731	6,087	4,114	5,316
Delay by PF	205	92	368	451
Lack of Court Resources	3	3	3,770	7
PF Staff Shortage	99	3	1	3
Time-bar	1,278	1,533	1,976	1,867
Not a Crime	816	778	701	927
No Jurisdiction	106	103	151	100
Age of Offence	354	485	1,233	1,207
Other Specified Reason	4,714	5,007	4,106	5,888
Total No Proceedings	40,592	43,958	43,980	39,344

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:The costs of reception are not separately identified.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:The costs of reception are not separately identified.

The numbers of sheltered dwellings built in the years 1999-2000 to 2001-02 are shown in the following table:

	1999-2000		2000-01		2001-02
New Build	Very Sheltered	Sheltered	Very Sheltered	Sheltered	Very Sheltered	Sheltered
Aberdeen City	0	0	0	0	0	0
Aberdeenshire	0	32	0	0	0	0
Angus	0	0	0	0	0	0
Argyll and Bute	0	0	0	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	0	0	N/A	N/A
Dundee City	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
E. Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Lothian	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
City of Edinburgh	0	0	0	0	0	0
Falkirk	0	0	0	0	0	0
Fife	0	0	0	0	0	0
Glasgow City	0	0	0	0	0	0
Highland	0	0	0	0	0	0
Inverclyde	0	0	0	0	N/A	N/A
Midlothian	0	0	0	0	0	0
Moray	0	0	0	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
North Lanarkshire	0	12	0	25	0	0
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross	0	0	0	0	0	0
Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
Scottish Borders	0	0	0	0	0	0
Shetland	0	0	0	0	N/A	N/A
South Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
South Lanarkshire	0	0	0	0	N/A	N/A
Stirling	0	3	0	2	N/A	N/A
W. Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
West Lothian	6	16	0	0	0	0
Scotland	6	63	0	27	0	0

Source: Housing Capital Programme 1999-2000 to 2001-02.Housing associations also build sheltered housing. Information is collected by Communities Scotland but is not held at local authority level. However, national new build totals for the years 1999-2000 to 2001-02 are as follows:

1999-2000	148
2000-01	173
2001-02	78

Two formal reviews are in progress. Lord Bonomy is examining the efficiency of the High Court and will report later this year. Sheriff Principal John McInnes chairs a committee examining the whole structure of summary criminal justice with a view to efficient and effective deliver, and is expected to report in summer 2003.The efficiency of administration is one of the issues that will be examined in each review, although the recommendations are likely to range more widely, into structure, jurisdiction and other aspects of criminal procedure.

The use of houses for multiple occupation is mainly driven by market forces. In that connection the Scottish Executive's role is to ensure as far as possible that the physical condition and management of such houses is to acceptable standards, giving protection to the tenants involved and to neighbours. The Executive introduced mandatory licensing for houses in multiple occupation in October 2000, and is currently reviewing the first year of operation of the licensing scheme. Some particular types of residential accommodation in multiple occupation are separately regulated under the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001. The Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 gives local authorities powers to provide discretionary grants for improvements by private owners including owners of houses in multiple occupation. Grants may also be paid specifically for the provision of fire escapes in houses in multiple occupation, and this will be extended to other means of escape from fire when Part 6 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 is commenced.The development funding for new housing provided by the Executive, through Communities Scotland, to Registered Social Landlords, funds a number of group homes where the occupants share facilities, usually with a care element. A small proportion of other housing provided with public funding is also likely to be occupied on a shared tenancy basis, in response to specific requests from prospective tenants.

The information requested is not held centrally. Although some properties are built or adapted specifically for use as hostel type accommodation, it is not possible to distinguish how many other houses in any housing sector will be used for multiple occupation, since this is not necessarily determined by the design of the house.