Chamber and committees

The recommendations of the Internationally Qualified Nurse (IQN) Working Group will be put to me for approval within the next few weeks and an announcement will be made later this month. The recommendations will outline a national model and infrastructure to support the Overseas Nurses Programme and enable locally domiciled IQNs to be matched to vacancy posts.

NHS Education Scotland (NES) will be responsible for acting as agents for the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and for the scrutiny, approval and on-going monitoring of the Overseas Nurses Programme. Currently the University of Stirling and the University of Paisley have been approved to run the Overseas Nurses Programme and other higher education institutions (HEI) awaiting approval are Glasgow Caledonian University and NHS Lothian, who have yet to agree their HEI partner.

Local authorities review and assess air quality in their area against objectives for a number of pollutants contained in the Air Quality Strategy. Where this shows the objectives are being exceeded, or are likely to be exceeded, the local authority has to declare an Air Quality Management Area and establish an action plan to deal with the problem. The circumstances leading to a need to declare vary, but experience to date has shown that traffic emissions are the main source of local air quality hotspots.

The influence of motor transport on air quality in any particular place depends on local circumstances and it is not possible to generalise concerning the relative contribution of different types of roads. Each local authority in Scotland is required to review and assess air quality in its area based on monitoring and modelling. Through this process, it is possible to identify where local circumstances, traffic related or otherwise, contribute to an air quality problem and act to address these.

The police will take suchaction as is necessary if credible and reliable information is received that acrime is being planned, is being committed, or has occurred within Scottishjurisdiction.

The Lord Advocate has not issuedinstructions to any police force to search a plane under these circumstances anddoes not have authority to instruct search without warrant. The Scottish policehave not received any specific reports of incidents involving so called renditionflights occurring at Scottish airports and have not submitted any reports toprocurators fiscal.

Article 1 of the UN Convention Against Torture states that; “torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions”.

The enactment of section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 incorporated the offence of torture into UK law. Section 134 replicates Article 1 of the Convention and provides that a public official or person acting in an official capacity, whatever his nationality, commits the offence of torture if in the United Kingdom or elsewhere he intentionally inflicts severe pain or suffering on another in the performance or purported performance of his official duties. The offence is committed regardless of the nationality of the official, the country in which the torture takes place, whether the suffering is physical or mental, and whether it is caused by an act or an omission. It is punishable by a maximum period of life imprisonment.

Conduct as described in Article 1 may also constitute the common law crime of assault, which is also punishable by a maximum period of life imprisonment.

It is an offence under Scots law to aid and abet an act which constitutes a crime in statute or common law. However, the Scottish Executive is not aware of any evidence to support allegations that the flights in question have involved any criminal activities. Where evidence exists to support allegations that war crimes, or any other crimes, have been committed within Scottish jurisdiction, or have been committed elsewhere by or at the instigation of a public official who is subject to Scottish jurisdiction, the police will be responsible for conducting appropriate investigations and reporting such cases to the Procurator Fiscal.

Torture is a crime underScots law as required by our international obligations. The investigation ofalleged crimes is a matter for the police.

As indicated in my previous answerto question S2W-21576 on 22 December 2005, to date, the police have not received any specific reports of incidents involvingsuch flights occurring at Scottish airports and have not submitted any reports toprocurators fiscal.All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.