Chamber and committees

The culverting of ditches isregulated under the Water Environment (ControlledActivities) (Scotland) Regulations 2005 (CAR). The charging scheme associatedwith these Regulations was developed in conjunction with stakeholders and approvedby Scottish ministers following extensive public consultation. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is required to ensure its charging schemes arefair, proportionate, transparent and open to scrutiny. I am satisfied that the CARcharging scheme, including maximum charge levels, is a fair mechanism to recoverthe regulatory and monitoring costs involved in carrying out SEPA’s statutoryfunctions in respect of CAR, to protect theenvironment and human health from activities affecting watercourses. Further informationand details of the charges can be found on the SEPA website:http://www.sepa.org.uk/pdf/wfd/regimes/water_env_charging_scheme_guidance.pdf.

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

The available information onprisoners held in the open estate on 30 June by main crime and year is providedin the following table:

Main Crime	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Murder	32	47	45	40	28
Attempted murder	5	9	4	15	18
Culpable homicide	14	9	16	17	27
Serious Assault	31	40	48	54	50
Handling an offensive weapon	0	1	1	0	0
Robbery	21	13	20	26	27
Rape and attempted rape	0	0	2	1	2
Supply or possession with intent to supply	77	83	110	102	95
Possession of drugs	0	0	1	0	2
Other drug crimes	1	3	2	3	4
Petty Assault	0	5	1	3	2
Crime unknown	1	2	5	12	20
All other crimes	42	42	32	22	21
All	224	254	287	295	296

 

Statistics on the re-offending rateof non-violent offenders are not available since information on offence dates isnot held centrally. The most recent available statistics relate to the reconvictionrates of such offenders and this is given in the following table.

Reconvictions of OffendersDischarged from Custody of given Non-Custodial Sentences, 1998-99 to 2002-03, PercentageReconvicted within Two Years

	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
All offenders	42	43	44	44	45
Offenders whose index conviction1 was for a non-violent crime2 and which resulted in a non-custodial sentence	54	54	56	57	59
Offenders whose index conviction1 was for a non-violent crime2 and which resulted in a custodial sentence of less than 3 months 3	74	74	77	77	77

Notes:

1.The conviction which resulted in a non-custodial sentence being imposed or the onewhich originally led to a custodial sentence being served.

2.Crimes in groups 2 to 5 of the Scottish Executive Justice Departments classificationof crimes and offences or the offences of breach of the peace, anti-social behaviouroffences, racially aggravated harassment or conduct, miscellaneous firearms offencesand social security offences. Crimes of violence (including murder, attempted murder,culpable homicide, serious assault, robbery and assault with intent to rob, simpleassault and simple assault on an emergency worker) are not included.

3. Offenders who were sentencedto less than three months in custody. Given current early release arrangements,these offenders will have been released at half their sentenced custody period andpossibly earlier depending on time they may already have spent on remand or bail.

The average daily and maximumpopulation for each prison for each year in the period requested can be obtainedfrom the Scottish Prison Service Annual Reports published at:http://www.sps.gov.uk/default.aspx?documentid=67e156ce-a4c9-49f5-a526-0dab421427f6.

(a)All prisoners are categorised as High Supervision at the start of their sentence.

(b) The information requestedat (b) is not available.

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

The number of absconders is publishedin the SPS Annual Reports and Accounts and can be found by using the following link:

http://www.sps.gov.uk/default.aspx?documentid=67e156ce-a4c9-49f5-a526-0dab421427f6.

At 29 January 2007, 13 absconderswere still at large.

The available information isgiven in the following table. The statistics dealing with recorded crime and courtproceedings are not directly comparable for a number of reasons. A person may beproceeded against for more than one crime involving more than one victim, and acrime may be recorded in one year and proceedings taken in a subsequent year. Crimescommitted by children will also generally be dealt with through the children’s hearingssystem rather than courts, while some minor crimes can be dealt with by alternativesto prosecution such as fiscal fines. The implementation in April 2004 of the morevictim oriented Scottish Crime Recording Standard increased the numbers of minorcrimes recorded by the police, such as minor crimes of vandalism and minor thefts.

Persons with a Charge Provedin Scottish Courts Expressed as a Percentage of Crimes Recorded by the Police¹,1999-2000 to 2004-05.

Police Force Area	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Central	13	14	16	15	14	16
Dumfries and Galloway	13	16	13	12	12	12
Fife	10	9	9	8	7	7
Grampian	9	8	9	10	11	10
Lothian and Borders	7	7	7	8	7	7
Northern	12	11	11	13	14	12
Strathclyde	10	9	10	10	11	11
Tayside	12	14	14	14	15	14
Scotland	10	9	10	10	10	10

Note: 1. Scottish ExecutiveJustice Department Crime Groups 1-5.

The Scottish Executive currentlyhas two central contracts for the provision of agency staff. Administrative andclerical staff are supplied through a contract placed with Pertemps. A contractis also in place for the provision of interim managers and specialist staff withHays. For the period from 1999 to 2003 a central contract for the supply of typistswas in place with Kellys agency.

Individual departments may bringin temporary staff from employment agencies outwith these contracts, for examplewhere specific professional skills are required, or to cover work in outlying areas,but this information is not held centrally.

Employment agency staff are usedby the Executive to cover temporary staffing needs for a number of reasons includingpressures arising from maternity leave, sick leave, project work, unanticipatedcrisis and critical vacancies.

The amount paid by the ScottishExecutive for the hire of temporary staff, under the two centrally managed employmentagency contracts and the contract with Kellys, is set out in the following table.

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Pertemps	£944,393	£1,072,929	£1,070,579	£2,047,308	£3,221,652	£4,115,492	£3,132,755
Hays				£2,611	£1,031,187	£2,474,056	£2,316,461
Kellys	£128,563	£171,215	£213,603
Total	£1,072,956	£1,244,144	£1,284,182	£2,049,919	£4,252,839	£6,859,548	£5,449,216

Notes:

1. The Hays contract startedin November 2003.

2. The contract with Kellys endedin early 2003.

3. All figures are for core Executiveexcept Pertemps figures which include spend for Mental Health Tribunal, Social WorkInspection Agency and Transport Scotland for the period since they were formed. Pertemps spendto mid 2004 includes spend by Accountant in Bankruptcy, HM Inspectorate of Education,the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, General Register Office for Scotland,the National Archives of Scotland, and Local Government Boundary Commission.

4. The 2000 figure for Pertempsincludes spend over a relatively short period in 1999.

The Executive is working closelywith the business community to help improve our position with regard to businessexpenditure on research and development. In the six year period from 1999 to 2005it is worth noting that Scottish Business Enterprise Research and Development 2005(BERD) has increased by 29% in real terms as compared to the UK increase of3%

There is a comprehensive pipelineof business support from SMART, through SPUR and SPUR+ to Co-investment Fund andSVF and we are simplifying R&D grant schemes. We are also fully committed tothe Intermediary Technology Institutes which have now commissioned 19 leading R&Dprojects involving over £115 million funding. We have a world-class science-baseand are focussed on encouraging the formation of new science and technology basedbusinesses in Scotland.

All contingent liabilities recordedin the accounts of the Executive and its agencies in each of the last five yearscan be found in the notes to the consolidated accounts which are available on the Scottish Executive website http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/Recent.The contingent liabilities recorded by the Executive’s non-departmental public bodiesin each of the last five years will be found in the notes to their individual annualaccounts which can be accessed at their websites. A contingent liability will beremoved from the accounts if the circumstances which led to its original inclusionchange and it no longer fits the criteria of a contingent liability.

For the Executive and its agencies,finance teams maintain a record of all contingent liabilities throughout the year.Preparers of accounts will also consider any other information at the year-end andall items which meet the criteria of a contingent liability as outlined in the ScottishPublic Finance Manual and the Government Financial Reporting Manualare disclosed in the annual accounts. This information is audited for complianceand completeness by Audit Scotland on behalf of the Auditor General. Decisions made by non-departmentalpublic bodies are a matter for those bodies. The information requested is not heldcentrally.

It is not customary for my officialsto include guidance notes from the European Commission in scheme information packssent to farmers/crofters. Instead, they ensure that they reflect the guidance, insuch notes, in the notes for guidance (NFG) issued to farmers/crofters on the schemesconcerned. Under the Suckler Cow Premium Scheme (SCPS) 2003, the need to includea minimum of 5% heifers on claims of 14 animals or more was set out in the NFG onpage 2 under “Main Changes” and in section 2.4 under “Heifer/cow limits”. Additionally,the need to replace heifers when the heifer/cow ration fell below 5% was set outin the NFG in section 4.2.3 under “Heifers calving” and in the first paragraph ofsection 4.3 under “Replacement and notification of animals”.