Chamber and committees

The breadth of primary and secondary Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes does not permit detailed consideration of any one topic. The 1998 Guidelines, with which all courses of initial teacher education must comply, contain a set of competences which teachers are expected to have acquired by the end of their initial training course. Competences relating to personal and social development and health education offer the scope to address the issue of violence against women. These competences will be replaced, in autumn 2002, by the Benchmark Standard on ITE, which builds upon, and updates, the competencies on personal and social development, placing particular emphasis on teachers being able to impart a high regard for equality and social justice to their pupils. Courses are not prescriptive, however, and each training institution will develop its own programme within the context of the Guidelines.Earlier this year, the Executive funded a pilot of the "Respect" education package developed by the Zero Tolerance Charitable Trust. Training for teachers and youth workers is included in the "Respect" package and was provided to all those involved in delivering the materials. It is the responsibility of local authorities to ensure that a wide range of continuing professional development opportunities is available for qualified teachers. I would expect training aimed at equipping teachers to deal with issues relating to violence against women, such as that provided through the "Respect" package, to be recognised as one such appropriate opportunity.

A Chance to Change: An Intervention With Young People Who Have Sexually Abused Others, was published in 1997 and summarised research into a project for children who had sexually abused other children. The research was jointly funded by the Scottish Office and Barnardos. There have also been a number of research studies on bullying.

The Refuge Development Programme is providing £10 million for capital projects to increase and improve refuge provision. This may include furnishing. Funding for revenue costs are the responsibility of the local authorities.

The Scottish Executive is working with the Zero Tolerance Trust to make its "Respect" package available to schools. As stated in my reply to question S1W-18518 on 9 October 2001, the Scottish Executive is currently awaiting the final evaluation of the pilot project.

The National Group to Address Domestic Abuse in Scotland first met in June 2001. Its annual report will therefore be prepared in June 2002.

The National Strategy to Address Domestic Abuse in Scotland will be reviewed in 2003 in accordance with the quantitative and qualitative measures described in the strategy.

This information is not held centrally. Scottish Women's Aid Annual Reports provide a breakdown of requests for and provision of, information, support and refuge for each affiliated local group.

As stated in my answer to question S1W-19069, a working group to review legislation is currently being established. It is expected to take about three months to complete its review. Further action will then be considered.

Three working groups are currently being established, each chaired by a member of the National Group to Address Domestic Abuse in Scotland.

Keir Bloomer will chair a group to produce a Prevention Strategy. Sheriff Pamela Bowman will chair a group reviewing relevant current legislation and Jannette Forman will chair a group to review the 1991 CoSLA recommendations for refuge places. The membership and remits will be finalised shortly.

The new Crime and Criminal Justice Research Programme is likely to be published towards the end of the year. As with previous programmes, the new research programme will provide broad indications of those policy areas which might benefit from research. It is not always possible to anticipate specific needs. Domestic violence and domestic abuse more generally is likely to feature as a key policy area in the new research programme. It is not possible, however, to say at this time what specific research questions might have to be tackled and what amounts of funding might have to be devoted to such research over the next three years or so.