Chamber and committees

I have asked Tony Cameron,Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is asfollows:

No female prisoners arereceived in HM Prison Greenock from the Courts - all transfer there fromCornton Vale. The number of women at Greenock has normally been about 65.

Sentencing must remain a matterfor the courts. The Executive, however, remains committed to reducing the numbersof women sentenced to custody who might benefit from a community penalty. We haveincreased the sentencing options available to the courts over the last five yearswith the introduction of Restriction of Liberty Orders and Drug Treatment and TestingOrders and pilots for the mandatory use of Supervised Attendance Orders. In addition,we are investing £1 million a year in bail information and supervision schemes andhave introduced arrest referral and deferred sentence pilots. We fund the 218 TimeOut centre in Glasgow and have provided sheriffs with Information on Non-CustodialDisposals packs to keep them informed of the options.

It is not possible todetermine what sentence or disposal might otherwise have been imposed by thecourts on women who offend, had Time Out not been available, except in veryspecific circumstances (for example, on bail with a condition of residence).

However, the independentevaluation currently being carried out by Stirling University, due for completion in October, will examine thisissue and draw on data from a range of different sources.

The Executive is in regularcontact with the 218 Time Out centre and receives monthly monitoringinformation from the pilot.

The pilot is also being evaluatedby researchers from the University of Stirling and a report is expected in October.

The following table detailsthe number of women referred to the Drug Court each month since the start of the pilot. (Where no month is given, no referrals of women were received).

No women have appeared inthe Drug Court as a result of a charge of soliciting. Soliciting isan offence in terms of section 46 of the Civic Government (Scotland)Act 1982 which does not carry a penalty of imprisonment. Such offences areusually prosecuted at the District Court and would not be eligible for the Drug Court wherethe chances of receiving a custodial sentence are much higher.

Month	Number of Women Referred
November 2001	2
December 2001	2
February 2002	1
May 2002	1
July 2002	2
February 2003	1
March 2003	1
May 2003	1
June 2003	1
January 2004	1
February 2004	3
March 2004	1
April 2004	3
May 2004	1
August 2004	2
Total	23

 

A Better Way was published in February 2002 and has formed thebasis for developing sentencing options for women who offend. The report didnot make specific recommendations but drew some important conclusions. As a result,the Executive has taken forward or introduced a number of initiatives,including:

The 218 Time Out Centre, nowestablished in Glasgow as a criminal justice focussed community resourcefor women offenders.

The current piloting ofmandatory Supervised Attendance Orders in Glasgow District Court (including theStipendiary Court) and Ayr Sheriff Court to deal with minor fine defaulters.

The national roll-out of DrugTreatment and Testing Orders, due for completion later this year.

The current piloting of sixArrest Referral schemes, three of which have a particular focus on women.

The forthcoming StructuredDeferred Sentence pilots in four areas, two of which will have a specific focuson women.

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

Provisional data for 2004 isgiven in the table:

Female Receptions to PenalEstablishments

Month	Total
January	275
February	307
March	372
April	307
May	281
June	312
July	232
August	276
September	254
October	231
November	264
December	243

 

Information on female prisonreceptions in the last three years is given in table 12B of Prison StatisticsScotland, 2003 published by the Scottish Executive in August 2004, copies ofwhich are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 33610).

This information is not available centrally. Prescription of the anti-TNF agents should be undertaken by consultant rheumatologists specialising in their use. Data on drugs dispensed in hospitals are not available centrally. Centrally collected data relate to prescribed items dispensed in the community by community pharmacists and dispensing doctors. These data are not patient specific.

Where NHS Quality Improvement Scotland or the Scottish Medicines Consortium has issued advice on the use of anti-TNF drugs, NHSScotland should take account of the advice and ensure that these drugs are made available to meet clinical need.

The National Waste Plan, published in 2003, envisages that energy recovery from municipal waste will increase to 7% by 2010 and 14% by 2020. The overall impact of the plan, including significant reductions in landfill and increased recycling and composting, is estimated to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by some 2.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2020.

The Local Government in ScotlandAct 2003 provides the statutory basis for community planning. It does not specificallymention MSPs or community councillors.

Section 15(1) places a duty onlocal authorities to initiate, facilitate and maintain a community planning processto plan and provide public services provided in their area. It specifies that thereshould be consultation among:

·             “all the public bodies (includingthe local authority)” responsible for providing services, and with

·             “such community bodies and other bodiesor persons as is appropriate”.

The Community Planning StatutoryGuidance (paragraph 2) explains that: “this duty has been placed on local authoritiesbecause they are unique as democratically accountable bodies with a broad rangeof responsibilities which impact significantly, and directly, on communities.” CommunityPlanning Advice Note 7, on the Role of Elected and Board Members, describes thedifferent levels of engagement of elected members in the community planning process.

Paragraph 5.1 of the StatutoryGuidance states that the definition of “community body” in Section 15(4) of theact is “deliberately broad in order to avoid excluding any particular communities”.It also emphasises that local authorities should consult and co-operate with a widerange of interests including “Community Councils fulfilling their role as representativesof their local area”. Further details are given in Community Planning Advice Note5 on Effective Community Engagement.

Community Planning Statutory Guidance is available online at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/localgov/cpsg-00.asp.

Community Planning Advice Notesare available online at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/localgov/cpan-00.asp.