Chamber and committees

The key recommendation of the report, relating to GP out-of-hours, has been included on the Technical Advisory Group on Resource Allocation''s work plan for 2011-12.

The meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on Resource Allocation (TAGRA) on 30 November 2010 was cancelled due to the severe weather disruption. The issues which were due for discussion were:

Updates to the morbidity and life circumstances adjustment within the NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) formula;

Options for the future development of the NRAC formula;

TAGRA''s 2011-12 work plan; and

Potential changes to the Costs Book which may affect NRAC formula data.

These issues have been discussed through correspondence with members.

The meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on Resource Allocation (TAGRA) on 30 November 2010 was cancelled due to the severe weather conditions. TAGRA''s work plan for 2011-12 has been discussed through correspondence with members, and will cover:

GP out of hours services;

Moving from episodes to spells within specialty as the basis of acute activity costs;

Commencing a review of the morbidity and life circumstances adjustment, and

Reviewing the split between fixed and variable costs.

A new working group will also be established between members of TAGRA and the North of Scotland Planning Group to progress issues concerning the provision of healthcare in remote and rural areas.

Criminal proceedings data for 2009-10, covering the period April 2009 to March 2010, is planned for release on 25 January 2011.

The information requested is not held centrally.

There were 7,976 prosecutions with a domestic aggravator recorded in 2008-09.

It should be noted that statistics dealing with court proceedings and recorded crime are not directly comparable as a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime involving more than one victim and there is the possibility that the crime recorded by the police may be altered in the course of judicial proceedings. Also a crime may be recorded by the police in one year and court proceedings concluded in a subsequent year.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The information requested is given in the following table.

Persons Convicted for an Offence with a Domestic Aggravator Recorded¹, Receiving a Custodial Sentence in 2008-09

Sentence	2008-09
6 months or less	668
Over 6 months	121
All	789

Note: 1. Where main offence.

It should be noted that statistics dealing with court proceedings and recorded crime are not directly comparable as a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime involving more than one victim and there is the possibility that the crime recorded by the police may be altered in the course of judicial proceedings. Also a crime may be recorded by the police in one year and court proceedings concluded in a subsequent year.

Criminal proceedings data for 2009-10, covering the period April 2009 to March 2010, is planned for release on 25 January 2011.

It is encouraging that there has been an increase in the percentage of cases referred by the police to procurators fiscal. It is important that domestic abuse perpetrators receive strong messages about the unacceptability of their actions, and that any criminal offences are dealt with as such. Police forces across Scotland have been working to improve the quality of the police response and in particular their understanding of the issues and their investigative techniques. They have much improved their information and partnership working, which has been focussed towards identifying repeat and serial offenders and the profile of these investigations has been raised substantially across the Scottish Police Service. In particular, better use of special bail conditions and much more stringent enforcement is likely to have led to increased reports to procurators fiscal.