Chamber and committees

The Shirley McKie case has cast a cloud over the individuals involved and has been a source of serious concern for the criminal justice system for the past decade. Previous reviews have helped to shed some light on matters, but they have not fully explained the events and, therefore, have not entirely dispersed that cloud. Public concern remains. The Scottish Government has given a commitment, therefore, that it will establish an independent, public, judicial inquiry into the case. The inquiry will be constituted under the Inquiries Act 2005 and subject to the Inquiries (Scotland) Rules 2007. In accordance with section 6 of the 2005 act, I am announcing today that the chairman will be Lord Justice Sir Anthony Campbell, one of the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal judges. At this point, I have no plans to appoint any other person to the inquiry panel.

Having consulted with Lord Justice Campbell, as required by section 5 of the 2005 act, I have determined that the inquiry''s terms of reference will be:

to inquire into the steps that were taken to identify and verify the fingerprints associated with, and leading up to, the case of HM Advocate v. McKie in 1999, and

to determine, in relation to the fingerprint designated Y7, the consequences of the steps taken, or not taken, and

to report findings of fact and make recommendations as to what measures might now be introduced, beyond those that have already been introduced since 1999, to ensure that any shortcomings are avoided in the future.

The Scottish legal system has served Scotland well for centuries. Occasionally things go wrong. When they do, it is to the credit of the system and the country that we seek to resolve them and set matters right. The purpose of this inquiry is not to try or retry any individual for the events of the past, nor to challenge the decisions of the prosecution, the defence or the courts in relation to any of those events. Indeed, the law is quite explicit that an inquiry cannot rule on, and has no power to determine, any person''s civil or criminal liability. The purpose is to open up and understand those events and to learn from them, in order to ensure that, for the future, Scotland has an approach to the identification, verification and presentation of fingerprints that everyone can trust. For this purpose, the inquiry will have at its disposal the full powers bestowed by the 2005 act, including powers relating to access to documents and witnesses.

For its part, the Scottish Government will volunteer any material that it holds and which might be useful to the inquiry. The Lord Advocate has also made clear that she will, exceptionally, make available to the inquiry any material that the Crown Office holds and which might be useful to the inquiry, including the Mackay report, Crown precognitions and reports by Crown Office officials. Additionally, if requested by the inquiry, Ministers and officials from both the Scottish Government and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service will appear in person to provide an account of their knowledge of events. Nothing will be hidden from the inquiry.

For the purposes of the 2005 act, the inquiry''s setting-up date is today. Lord Justice Campbell will remain focused on his existing judicial duties in Northern Ireland until the end of August and he will not be taking evidence or representations until then. It is anticipated, however, that the planning and preparatory work that is necessary for the inquiry will begin now under his guidance. Future public announcements about the conduct of the inquiry will be made by the inquiry team in due course.

The average debt owed to the Student Loans Company by Scottish borrowers entering repayment in 1999 was £2,863. The corresponding figure for 2007 was £5,808. These data were supplied by the Student Loans Company. Corresponding data for 1997 are not available.

The averages include students who did not graduate and the 2007 figure also includes loans taken out to pay the Scottish Graduate Endowment.

The letter was answered on 12 March 2008.

The information requested has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 45010).

The costs are shown in the following table. The costs of window cleaning include the costs of cleaning window surrounds, such as louvers, and removal of pigeon waste.

	Window and Vertical Cleaning	Gardening and Landscape Maintenance	Interior and Exterior Cleaning
2004-05	Nil	Nil	£338,213.88
2005-06	£ 598.00	Nil	£471,731.91
2006-07	£108,671.83	£39,059.25	£492,244.57
2007-08  to date	£ 87,279.06	£43,784.13	£460,137.90

 

This information has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. Table 1 (Bib. number 45008) shows number of emergency hospital admissions due to unintentional injury, by cause of injury, category of injury and NHS board of residence, for under 15-year-olds, for 2000-01 to 2006-07. Table 2  (Bib. number 45009) shows the number of deaths recorded due to unintentional injury by cause of injury, category of injury and NHS board of residence, for under 15 year olds, for calendar years 2000 to 2006.

An interagency collaboration was formed to develop a common dataset for injury including injury to children in 2004. As a result of this collaboration a common dataset was agreed following detailed discussion. This is available for implementation.

There are no plans currently to develop a national child injury surveillance system. However, the lessons learned in the course of a pilot project in Lanarkshire endorsed by both the Scottish Governments Justice and Health Directorates working collaboratively, will be potentially applicable to all categories of injury, including those affecting children.

The data requested is not held centrally.

The information requested is provided in the attached table.

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Cases Received	130	89	88	95	98
(a): Concluded after full review	16	48	80	91	111
(b): Referrals	2	7	8	12	5
(c): Dismissed*	0	20	12	13	29
(d): decision within 6 months**	-	-	-	-	-
(d): decision over 6 months	-	-	-	-	-
(d): decision over 12 months	-	-	-	-	-
(d): decision over 24 months	-	-	-	-	-
(d): decision over 36 months	-	-	-	-	-
(e): Under Review	-	-	-	-	-

 

	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Cases Received	118	165	104	83
(a): Concluded after full review	105	101	104	63
(b): Referrals	13	10	10	8
(c): Dismissed*	25	45	41	23
(d): decision within 6 months**	48	58	33	48
(d): decision over 6 months	48	36	62	26
(d): decision over 12 months	7	7	6	9
(d): decision over 24 months	0	0	2	2
(d): decision over 36 months	2	0	1	1
(e): Under Review	-	-	-	55

Note: *Dismissed cases are those rejected at the outset and not subject to full review.

Information on the time taken to reach a decision on a case is can be extracted from the case management system operated by the SCCRC only from 2004-05 onwards.