Chamber and committees

Expenditure on Restorative Justice Action Plan activity to date is as follows:

2019-20

£345.89 - SACRO. Stakeholder Workshop, held February 2020.

£130,388 - Grant to University of Strathclyde. This is to support a 3 year (2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23), part-time Restorative Justice national co-ordinator for youth justice in the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ). .

2020-21

£8,200 - Ipsos Mori. An opinion monitor survey on Restorative Justice carried out in June 2020 - 1014 respondents were surveyed via telephone.

In addition to the above expenditure, £153,000 grant funding (£51,000 per year for 3 years) has been committed to Community Justice Scotland to support a full-time national Restorative Justice coordinator working within adult justice (in collaboration with the CYCJ post). The post is expected to be in place by the end of 2020. As with the CYCJ post, the post will be in place for 3 years (2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23).

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-31292 on 26 August 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

In response to the pandemic, the Scottish Government provided Victim Support Scotland with a grant increase for 2020-21 of £70,000 to enable them to increase the Victims’ Fund from £30,000 to £100,000.

Since April, the Fund has supported over 200 individuals who have been in urgent need of financial help. Victims are accessing support worth up to £3,000 for food vouchers, help with bills and practical assistance for domestic abuse victims who may have to urgently leave their homes, amongst other types of support.

Victim Support Scotland has subsequently been able to use more of its 2020-21 grant award of £4,708,700 from the Scottish Government to add to the Victims’ Fund.

The Victims’ Fund is supported through Victim Support Scotland’s grant award from the Scottish Government. In 2020-21 this award was for up to £4,708,700.

This grant funding originates from the 2020-21 level 3 Victim / Witness Support budget of £18.7 million, as set out in table 9.10 of the Scottish Government Budget 2020-21 https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2020-21/

The are no provisions in the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Bill that relate to the Victim Notification Scheme.

Victims of offenders sentenced to less than 18 months imprisonment are already entitled to know the date of the release or escape of the offender and can ask to receive this information by contacting the Scottish Prison Service.

The Victims Taskforce last met on 9 September 2020. The agenda covered: minutes of the previous meeting on 10 June 2020 and matters arising; 'victims voices' - feedback on victims experience of the justice system from victim support organisations; an update on the justice system Recover, Renew and Transform programme; and an update on each of the work streams in the Taskforce work plan.

Papers and minutes of meetings of the Taskforce are published on the Scottish Government website http://www.gov.scot/groups/victims-taskforce/

The Parole Board for Scotland can, and already do, use exclusion zones as part of licence conditions, to help manage the risk that a released prisoner comes into contact with their victim. These exclusion zones can be electronically monitored at present. Last year we legislated through the Management of Offenders (Scotland) Act 2019 to put in place a framework for improving monitoring capabilities, which has the potential to change how those exclusion zones are monitored. A new national contract for electronic monitoring was procured and was put in place from April this year which allows for the introduction of GPS technology into the electronic monitoring service. While Covid disruption has meant recent activity on electronic monitoring has focussed on maintaining and stabilising the current service, development of the service to incorporate new technology remains a key part of our planning for expansion of electronic monitoring in Scotland.

The Victim Notification Scheme already allows registered victims to make representations to the Parole Board for Scotland. Not all victims make representations and some find it re-traumatising to do so. Opting in to the Scheme is a matter of choice for the victim concerned. We are working to improve the victim experience of the parole process and are amending the Parole Board (Scotland) Rules 2001 to specify a process for victims to observe hearings, provided there is no impact on the safety of those concerned, nor impact to the fairness of the process. These changes will come into force early next year. The Scottish Government has also committed to bringing all relevant partners together to discuss the Victim Notification Scheme and determine where improvements could be made.

We have been working with the Parole Board for Scotland on a procedure for the publication of decision summaries which will be included in the amendments we are making to the Parole Board (Scotland) Rules 2001. Once that procedure has been agreed it will be shared with the Scottish Information Commissioner for agreement and amendment, if the Commissioner thinks that necessary.

The Parole Board (Scotland) Rules 2001 determine the factors that may be taken into account by Parole Board members when making a decision to release a prisoner. Work is currently underway to amend the rules to make it clear that the safety and security of a victim, or family member of a victim, is included as one of those factors. This change will come into force early next year.