Chamber and committees

Network Rail has advised that the transition process underway for Carillion’s rail projects in Scotland is expected to conclude in the forthcoming weeks. Network Rail has also advised that at the conclusion of the transition process, the impact on staff either directly employed with Carillion or through a labour only sub contract through a Carillion subsidiary will be known.

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

All victims who are registered with the Victim Notification Scheme are entitled to know the date of release of an offender. This includes the date of release on Home Detention Curfew. Those victims of offenders sentenced to 18 months or more are entitled to make representations to the Scottish Prison Service when the offender is being considered for release. These representations will inform licence conditions and where a licence condition is included which relates to the victim, or their family, the victim is informed of the licence condition. The communication of the decision and any licence conditions is in writing.

The Victims Code is available online and in hard copy in a range of languages and formats, with additional languages also available on request. We are also developing an easy read version, which will be available by Summer 2018.

As required by section 3C of the Victims and Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2014, Police Scotland are responsible for informing victims of how to access the Victims' Code. Where the victim does not have access to the internet, the victim may request a copy of the Code. This is reflected in Police Scotland’s published Standards of Service for Victims and Witnesses which state ‘We will ensure that you receive a Victims’ Care Card if you are a victim of crime which provides you with the details of your enquiry officer, the crime you report and information on how you can access victim support and the Scottish Government’s Victims Code’.

Scottish Ministers, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service, the Scottish Prison Service and the Parole Board Scotland are also required under the same legislation to provide access to the Code on request. These organisations will also routinely draw victims’ attention to the Code if it appears they are not already aware of it.

Victim support organisations, such as Victim Support Scotland, also play an important role in ensuring victims are aware of the Code and its contents.

The Home Detention Curfew (HDC) scheme came into force in July 2006 through provisions contained in the Management of Offenders etc (Scotland) Act 2005. The Act requires that the decision to release a prisoner on HDC must be taken having regard to considerations of:

The Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 prescribed the Victim Notification Scheme (VNS), which provided victims of certain prescribed offences with the rights to receive information about an offenders’ progression within prison and eventual release. At this time, the VNS applied to offenders who were sentenced to 4 years or more.

The Victim Notification Scheme (Scotland) Order 2008, then extended these rights to victims of offenders who had been sentenced to 18 months or more and the Victims and Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2014, removed the list of prescribed offences so that victims of all offences were potentially eligible.

Extending the full VNS to all victims, irrespective of sentence length, was considered during the development of the 2014 Act. It was concluded that doing so would create significant practical difficulties, particularly in cases involving a very short custodial sentence or where the offender was released early due to time spent on remand prior to sentencing.

However the Victims’ Rights (Scotland) Regulations 2015, now extend the right to receive certain information to victims of offenders sentenced to less than 18 months. Such victims can contact the Scottish Prison Service and ask to receive information on the date of release of the offender or if they have escaped from custody.

In exchanges in Parliament on 8 February, I agreed to ensure that the issues raised were highlighted to the Lord President to see whether any further progress could be made on improving how transparency in the system of sentencing could be made. I can confirm I have brought the official report of those Parliamentary exchanges to the attention of the Lord President and will raise the matter when I meet with him next.

As I indicated in Parliament in answer to S5O-01779, sentencing in any given case, including whether to publish a sentencing statement, is a matter for the court. Separate to that, the independent Scottish Sentencing Council has as one of its objectives the promotion of greater awareness and understanding of sentencing policy and practice.

Network Rail has advised that the transition process underway for Carillion’s rail projects in Scotland is expected to conclude in the forthcoming weeks. Network Rail has also advised that at the conclusion of the transition process, the impact on staff either directly employed with Carillion or through a labour only sub contract through a Carillion subsidiary will be known.

The Scottish Government do not hold the data requested.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) have advised that as of 5 March 2018, 2418 victims have joined the Victim Notification Scheme. The SPS estimate that this represents around 20 – 30% of the total number of victims who were eligible to join the Scheme.

In December 2016 the Scottish Parliament made the Home Detention Curfew Licence (Amendment) (Scotland) Order 2016 (SSI 2016/416) to specifically remove the existing prohibition on prisoners who had previously been released on licence and recalled to custody for non-compliance with their licence conditions or for committing a new crime from being considered for HDC. This was in response to a recommendation to do so made by the Electronic Monitoring in Scotland Expert Working Group in October 2016.

Allowing these prisoners to be considered for HDC provides an opportunity to recognise an individual’s progress in terms of their rehabilitation and improvements in compliance and motivation to desist from reoffending.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is responsible for the investigation of deaths where there is an ongoing criminal investigation. COPFS does not collect data regarding the length of time that bodies are retained between the death and burial/cremation. Since September 2016 COPFS has recorded the date when the body is released to the nearest relative in deaths where there is an ongoing criminal investigation.