Chamber and committees

Prior to 1984 claimsfor damages for personal injury were subject to both the three year limitation periodand the 20 year long negative prescription. The effect of prescription is to extinguishtotally a potential claim so that it no longer exists, whereas limitation imposesa time limit of three years for bringing an action for compensation for personalinjury. However, the court has discretion to allow an action to proceed even thoughit is raised over three years after the incident giving rise to the claim whereit thinks it would be equitable to do so. The Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1984 removed personal injury actions from the scope oflong negative prescription. When the Act came into force on 26 September 1984, allclaims where the cause of action arose prior 26 September 1964 ceased to exist.We have asked the Scottish Law Commission (SLC) to consider certain aspects of thelaw in relation to both limitation and prescription.The SLC Discussion Paper (Scot Law Com No.132) is available on their website atwww.scotlawcom.gov.uk. The Executivewill carefully consider the SLC Report when it is received before taking decisionson future action.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-31393 on 22 February 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Scottish Executive has paidout £17.68 million under the Central Energy Efficiency Fund to date.

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

Relevant guidance includes aguide for staff on Religions and Cultures, an SPS Equality and DiversityPolicy and mandatory training for all staff regarding European Court of Human Rightsissues. The guidance sets out what the SPS believes to be appropriate action andis to help staff carry out their duties.

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

The SPS aims to obey the lawincluding section 43 of the Prison Rules. The Prisons’ Chaplaincy Steering Group,REMIT addresses issues in relation to Race Relations, Equality and Diversity.The SPS Chaplaincy Advisers monitor effectiveness of the arrangements in place inthe SPS.

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

The SPS operates in accordancewith the Prisons and Young Offenders’ Institutions (Scotland) Rules2006 (Rule 43) which states that every prisoner shall be allowed to observe therequirements of the prisoner’s religious and moral beliefs. Each prison appliesthat rule, and that every prison is informed of the facilities or arrangements whichexist or may be made for these purposes.

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

The SPS does not have “prisoncustody protocols”. We have The Prison and Young Offenders Institutions (Scotland) Rules2006. Denominations currently catered for include Baptists, Buddhists, Christian,Church of England, Church of Scotland, Episcopalian, Hindu, Jehovah Witnesses, Jewish,Mormon, Muslim, Roman Catholic, Sikh, Other Christian.

This list is not exhaustive itcan be amended to include other affiliations.

The Executive does not holdinformation on transport projects based on parliamentary regions or constituencies.The range and scale of transport projects in Scotland varies greatly, andmay impact over a number of constituency areas. In general projects areannounced either through a Scottish Executive or Transport Scotland newsrelease on their websites, as a ministerial announcement or through the annualreports to Parliament of grants paid under section 70 of the Transport(Scotland) Act 2001 (copies of the report are available in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre, Bib. numbers 22114,28193, 33166, 36946 and 39974).

We understand that servicefamilies accommodation in Scotland may be owned by the Ministry of Defence or may beprivately rented properties contractually provided to the Ministry. In neithercase would the Scottish Housing QualityStandard specifically applicable to Scottishsocial housing apply. Instead, theMinistry of Defence operates its own four-tier accommodation standard. Althoughthis is not directly comparable to the Scottish Housing Quality Standard, weunderstand that all or the vast majority of service families accommodationmeets the criteria defined in the Scottish Housing Quality Standard.

The commission expects to publishits report later this year.