Chamber and committees

The information requested is not held centrally. Data on waiting times for a first out-patient appointment with a consultant is collected at speciality level only. The median waiting times for a first out-patient appointment with a consultant in Neurology, following referral by a General Medical Practitioner, in the year ending 31 December 2001, by NHS board of residence, is given in the table.NHSScotland: Median Waiting Times for a First Out-patient Appointment with a Consultant in Neurology, Following Referral by a General Medical Practitioner, by NHS Board of Residence. Year Ending 31 December 2001^P

NHS Board	Median Wait
Argyll and Clyde	80 days
Ayrshire and Arran	97 days
Borders	78 days
Dumfries and Galloway	101 days
Fife	66 days
Forth Valley	70 days
Grampian	88 days
Greater Glasgow	95 days
Highland	59 days
Lanark	106 days
Lothian	28 days
Orkney	120 days
Shetland	97 days
Tayside	66 days
Western Isles	56 days
Scotland	69 days

^pProvisional.Source: ISD Scotland.

Responsibility for business support services in Scotland rests largely with Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) networks. Access to business advisers for small businesses in Scotland, including sub-postmasters, is already available. It is accessible in the Scottish Enterprise area through the Small Business Gateway and in the HIE area by contacting the Local Enterprise Company (LEC) direct. Dedicated training for subpostmasters on business planning and diversification has been offered in a number of Scottish Enterprise LEC areas, and more is planned in the HIE area.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:The Constructing the Future report bore the name of Eric Murch as he was governor of Low Moss at the time, but as stated by Mike Crossan it was prepared in conjunction with the management team at Low Moss.

It is, by statute, one of the duties of a police officer to attend any court of law for the purpose of giving evidence. Procurators Fiscal have been instructed in the following terms: "Procurators Fiscal should take steps to ensure that no more witnesses are cited than are necessary to prove a particular case. Procurators Fiscal are therefore urged to examine carefully the question of who should be cited to attend in a particular case, with the aim of ensuring that unnecessary witnesses are not cited. Police witnesses speaking only to a non-reply to caution and charge or to forms raised by the police in terms of the detention provisions of section 14 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 are unlikely to be necessary witnesses. In summary cases Procurators Fiscal should therefore rely where appropriate on the presumption offered by section 280(A) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 and should take steps to ensure that such witnesses are not normally cited (or, where they have been cited, countermand them once the position becomes clear). Where there is ample other evidence consideration should also be given to the need to cite both police witnesses speaking to an incriminating reply by an accused. For the avoidance of doubt two police witnesses will of course be required to speak to 'special knowledge' replies".

The adjournment of a trial on the date of the trial usually involves the payment of expenses to witnesses who have been inconvenienced. The adjournment of a trial at any time means that staff time in preparing for the trial (including administrative staff time in citing witnesses, arranging for productions to be in court and paper handling) has been wasted. The extent of that wasted expense depends on how long before the trial date it is known that there is to be an adjournment.

Procurators Fiscal are instructed that cases which may be competently taken in the district court should be taken there unless there is some good reason for prosecuting in the sheriff court or the Lord Advocate directs otherwise. The Lord Advocate has directed that: (a) proceedings should not be taken in the district court for a breach of a Sex Offenders Order, or any offence aggravated by a breach of a Sex Offender Order; (b) proceedings should not be taken in the district court where the prosecutor considers a Non-Harassment Order to be appropriate, and (c) proceeding should not be taken in the district court where the offence is racially aggravated or contrary to section 50A of the Criminal Law (Consolidated) (Scotland) Act 1995. The criteria for the use of alternatives to prosecution are set out in the Prosecution Code which has been published and made available on the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service website.

The training received and written guidance held by procurators fiscal identifies particular classes of case as generally requiring priority. These include, for example, cases involving children, cases in which the accused is in custody and cases in which a time bar is approaching. The allocation of priorities as between the several cases which a given member of staff or a given office requires to deal with at a particular time is a matter for professional judgement in light of training and experience and depends on consideration of all of the circumstances of each case.

We are addressing the timeliness of reporting with the police and other reporting agencies.

The proportion of these cases is very small, having risen from 205 to 451. There are likely to be a number of factors leading to this, including the need to devote resources to serious cases and other competing pressures on the time of Procurators Fiscal.

This information is not available.