- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 22 January 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish its new national youth justice standards, as referred to by the Minister for Education and Young People on 5 December 2002 in its press release SEED153/2002.
Answer
The
National Standards for Scotland's Youth Justice Services report was published on 19 December 2002. It is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 25683) and on the Scottish Executive website at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/justice/nssyjs-00.asp
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 22 January 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what its response is to the statement in paragraph 204 of the Audit Scotland report, Dealing with offending by young people, that, because the costs of custody in young offenders institutions are met by the Scottish Prison Service and the local authority meets the costs of secure accommodation which is five times more expensive, "this means that financial incentives and the objective of minimising costs could conflict with the objective of achieving the best results for young people who have offended" and whether it will accept the recommendation in the joint report by the Justice 1 and 2 Committees, Report on the Budget 2003-04, that funding for secure accommodation should come from the justice budget.
Answer
Audit Scotland has made no recommendations on this point.Where a child has been sentenced to be detained under section 205 or section 208 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, the place and conditions in which the child is detained are subject to the direction of ministers. Normally, as a matter of policy, the place of detention is secure accommodation.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 22 January 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to recruit retired staff, sessional staff and train other professionals to deal with young people who offend, in the light of the finding in paragraph 219 of the Audit Scotland report, Dealing with offending by young people.
Answer
We are currently in the second phase of the Care in Scotland Life Changing Work campaign launched in October 2002. The campaign deals with all areas of social care, which includes young people who offend. In June 2002 I announced new funding of £400,000 for postgraduate bursaries and a further £800,000 will be made available this year. These measures have already attracted additional graduates into social work training. The Executive is working with COSLA to identify further measures.I also announced in December 2002 that £3 million would be made available from the Intensive Support Fund. Part of this funding will improve the aftercare of young people leaving secure accommodation to return to residential units or the community.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 22 January 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has responded formally to the Audit Scotland report, Dealing with offending by young people, and, if so, whether it will make copies of its response publicly available.
Answer
The Executive responded to the Audit Scotland report
, Youth Justice in Scotland on 5 December 2002. The news release containing this response, SEED 153/2002, is available at
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/pages/news/2002/12/SEED153.aspx.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 21 January 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-32033 by Patricia Ferguson on 18 December 2002, what legal advice it seeks regarding the boundaries of the devolved responsibilities of the Parliament before seeking the agreement of the Parliament, through a Sewel motion, that the UK Parliament legislate on devolved matters.
Answer
By long-standing convention, the general policy of the Scottish Executive is that it does not disclose legal advice or whether it has taken legal advice.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 21 January 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive which of the 38 recommendations contained in the Audit Scotland report, Dealing with offending by young people, it has accepted; how it has prioritised these, and what action it has taken, or plans to take, in respect of them.
Answer
Twenty-seven of the 38 recommendations are being implemented. We are in agreement with a further six recommendations and we are developing proposals to take these forward. Recommendations 26, 27, 30, 31 and 36 require further consideration.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 21 January 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive why there is no uniformity across police forces as to what constitutes an informal or a formal warning; whether these warnings are recorded at force level, as recommended by the ad hoc Ministerial Group on Youth Crime, and why only five out of the eight police forces could provide annual figures for warnings issued, as identified in the Audit Scotland report, Dealing with offending by young people.
Answer
Action point 6 of Scotland's Action Programme to Reduce Youth Crime 2002, which we announced in summer 2002, was to develop a Scotland-wide system of cautions/warnings. At the time, we recognised that there were variations across Scotland in the approaches adopted by police forces in relation to warnings. In December 2002, following discussion with the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, we made available £250,000 to the Scottish Police Service, across all forces, to enable the police to put in place formal training and support for restorative justice methods linked to warnings. The next stage will be to commission researchers to gather information on existing activity and to produce national guidance (including guidance on standards and recording) under the auspices of a steering group involving representatives from the main public and voluntary organisations with an interest. Future funding would then be linked to the criteria set in that guidance.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 21 January 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what its response is to the statement in paragraph 44 of the Audit Scotland report, Dealing with offending by young people, that "data on the number of young people committing offences, being warned, referred to the children's hearings system or the procurator fiscals are poor" and what changes it has made to the collection and classification of such data since May 1999.
Answer
The Scottish Children's Reporter Administration has successfully implemented major changes to the collection and classification of data since May 1999. The Referrals Administration Database is now fully operational across Scotland. It records all children referred to Children's Reporters and the process in the Children's Hearings system. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) database is designed to be an operational case-tracking system rather than a purely statistical database. At the time data was requested from COPFS by Audit Scotland, there was a major roll-out of an upgraded case-tracking system. COPFS are now in a position to provide this type of data for current cases.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 21 January 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost of placing young offenders in residential care have been in (a) 1999-2000, (b) 2000-01, (c) 2001-02 and (d) 2002-03 to date.
Answer
The following table provides information on the cost of placing in secure accommodation young people who have been sentenced by the courts to be detained under sections 205 or 208 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995:
| Year | Cost (£) |
| 1999-2000 | 2,559,137 |
| 2000-01 | 2,712,498 |
| 2001-02 | 2,669,471 |
| 2002 (1 April to 31 December) | 2,427,379 |
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 21 January 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what its response is to the statement in paragraph 58 of the Audit Scotland report, Dealing with offending by young people, that "the data, as currently recorded, do not indicate the number of cases where the reporter's decision is influenced by non-availability of resources, but it is likely that there are significant numbers of young people who could benefit from a voluntary service who do not receive it."
Answer
Decisions by Reporters and Children's Hearings should be based solely on what is in the best interests of children. It is for other agencies to provide the resources to implement those decisions.
