Chamber and committees

As stated in the press release, the £2 million funding has provided an additional 42 refuge places and replaced or upgraded a further 27 refuge places. This is the first year of a three-year £10 million package to increase and improve refuge provision.

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.

Two research projects are currently being developed. The first will aim to collect data on the operation of the current law of evidence in sex offence cases, to provide a baseline for the future evaluation of the impact of any changes resulting from the Sexual Offences (Procedure and Evidence) (Scotland) Bill. The second will aim to examine the use and effectiveness of the current provisions of the law of evidence in relation to vulnerable and intimidated witnesses. It is intended to provide some base line data which could be used to assess the impact of any future changes in the law of evidence in relation to vulnerable witnesses and the impact of other provisions designed to support these witnesses during the prosecution process.

The National Group to Address Domestic Abuse in Scotland has had two meetings to date. The first meeting took place on Tuesday 12 June, and the second on Tuesday 25 September. The next meeting is due to take place on Tuesday 15 January.

The judiciary are independent of ministers and there is no requirement for compulsory training. In practice, however, all new appointees as Judges or Sheriffs have a period of induction training before sitting alone. This training includes sitting with other experienced colleagues and a residential induction course. The form and content will depend to some extent on the experience of the individual who may or may not have given previous service in a judicial capacity. The independent Judicial Studies Committee also provide new appointees with written materials and guidance on taking office.

The Executive provides funding to criminal justice social work services for the following programmes which focus solely on offenders convicted of domestic violence, as part of a probation order:

Domestic Violence Probation Project (covering City of Edinburgh and Midlothian)

Fergus Project (covering Angus)

The Scottish Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders Intensive Probation Project (covering Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling), which is similarly funded by the Executive, also includes work with perpetrators of domestic violence but as part of a broader range of interventions.

The Scottish Executive has regard to the amount of provision already available in the local authority area against the level deemed to be necessary by the 1991 CoSLA recommendations on refuge provision. The types of accommodation available against those deemed to be necessary, including the availability of special provision for women with specific needs, are also taken into account.

With regard to the Refuge Development Programme, the Executive will approve bids in the first and second years for projects in areas where provision is most obviously lacking. Applications for the third year will be considered in 2002 in accordance with recommendations resulting from a planned review of the 1991 CoSLA recommendations. This review will be carried out by a Working Group of the National Group to Address Domestic Abuse in Scotland.

In July 2001 the Scottish Executive and the UK Government jointly published proposals for amendments to the Sex Offenders Act 1997 following our review of the Act with interested groups, including ECPAT(UK). The consultation period for these ends on 19 October 2001. We have also consulted separately on related recommendations in the report of Lady Cosgrove's Expert Panel on Sex Offending. That consultation period ended last month. We will decide what legislative proposals to bring forward in the light of the responses to both these consultations.

The Scottish Executive is currently awaiting the final evaluation of the Zero Tolerance Charitable Trust's "Respect" educational pilot project which was run in schools and youth groups in Edinburgh and Glasgow earlier this year. Careful consideration will be given to this evaluation and, if it is favourable, the Executive will consider how best to proceed with plans to implement this educational package in schools throughout Scotland.

In addition, the Action Plan of the National Strategy to Address Domestic Abuse in Scotland contains a number of recommendations on work with children and young people. It is intended to refer the question of how these might be implemented to a working group established and appointed by the National Group to Address Domestic Abuse.

The judiciary are independent of the executive and there are no formal requirements to undertake refresher training. The independent Judicial Studies Committee are responsible for judicial education and their future programmes do include provision for refresher courses every three years, together with local training initiatives and special courses on particular topics.