Chamber and committees

While we have no plans to commission Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary to undertake research into the investigation and prosecution of cases involving allegations of rape, we will consider further the need for research once the review mentioned in the answer given to question S1W-28798 on 13 September 2002 has been completed. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa

At 20 September, Disclosure Scotland had 83 outstanding valid applications from volunteers that had been routed through the Central Registered Body Scotland. Of these 83, 59 are within the 10 working day target to which Disclosure Scotland is working for processing 90% of valid applications.The remaining 24 fall into two categories: in 19 cases Disclosure Scotland is awaiting a response from a police force to a request for information about an applicant, and in the other five cases additional information has been requested from the applicant.Two of the outstanding cases date from July and these were being processed on 20 September.

Disclosure Scotland began operations on 29 April 2002. Between that date and 18 September it had issued Disclosure Certificates within 10 working days for 97.38% of valid applications.

Disclosure Scotland is currently working on disclosure documentation for people with disabilities.

Funding for particular research projects at universities is a matter for the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council and the UK Research Councils.

All Scottish Police Forces operate a continuous process of review in respect of all outstanding crime scenes stains held on the national DNA database. To date, the results of this process include a conviction for a sexually motivated murder in 1975 within the Strathclyde area and a recent serial rape and indecency case spanning the Strathclyde and Lothian and Borders Police Force areas, which was brought together by a detection on the database. Further details are available from individual forces.

The Scottish Police College which is primarily responsible for the provision of this type of training has a training evaluation policy for the review of central police training in Scotland. All courses and component parts of courses delivered at the college are subject to the same evaluation process which includes a reaction evaluation or workplace evaluation of a percentage of courses delivered by the college. Any deficiencies identified through that evaluation process are then dealt with in a way commensurate with the issues raised. This allows training to be tailored to workplace and operational requirements.At the end of each course, students are asked for their reactions as to the benefit, challenge and satisfaction that they perceived that they derived from the courses. Students are asked to rate each category in terms of how the course met their needs from zero (Not at All) to four (Completely). The following table lists the three courses delivered by the college which include the investigation of rape and sexual assault, and shows the average results obtained, together with a mean value of how each course was rated in 2001-2002.

Course	Benefit	Challenge	Satisfaction	Mean
Advanced Detective Training	3.91	3.36	3.73	3.67
Initial Detective Training Course	3.08	3.43	3.03	3.18
Child Protection Course	3.80	2.96	3.63	3.46

The introduction of an ombudsman-type body is one of the options for change the Executive is currently considering to enhance the independence of the police complaints system following last year's consultation. The information requested in relation to complaints against police officers is given in the following tables:Complaints Cases Received by Police Forces

Force	Central	D & G	Fife	Grampian	L & B	Northern	Strathclyde	Tayside	Scotland
1999-2000	102	27	76	240	347	69	496	83	1,440
2000-01	84	24	90	155	340	71	502	152	1,418
2001-02	151	51	240	123	726	101	1,173	348	2,913

Complaints Allegations Substantiated

Force	Central	D &G	Fife	Grampian	L & B	Northern	Strathclyde	Tayside	Scotland
1999-2000	5	2	28	42	109	2	11	12	211
2000-01	8	2	52	25	87	4	12	41	231
2001-02	29	4	49	19	92	6	85	29	313

Source: Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary.Notes: (i) Each case may have one or more complaint(s) within it, and not all cases are disposed of in the same year in which they are received. The cases received do not therefore tally with the complaint allegations substantiated.(ii) The increase in cases for 2001-02 is in part attributable to the introduction of new nationally agreed recording procedures.

Between 1998-99 and 2000-01 in Scotland, secure units reported no children having a clinically diagnosed mental health illness. However, many young people in secure accommodation do have mental health problems. The Health Department is conducting a review of the need for a secure facility for such young people. This should be completed by the end of the year.

Prosecutors will have a pivotal role in implementing the changes being introduced by the Sexual Offences (Procedures and Evidence) Act that comes into force on 1 November 2002. The act tightens up the rules about using evidence of a rape victim's sexual history and will prohibit cross-examination of sexual offence victims by the accused. We have also just completed a major review of our investigation and prosecution of serious cases and, as a consequence, are about to embark on a significant exercise to ensure that we have the most effective working practices, supervision and training possible. This will, of course, include rape cases.