Chamber and committees

In the SDEA’s 2003-04 Annual Report (copies of which are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre, Bib. number 33130), the director made clear that the SDEA would be taking action “across all aspects of serious and organised crime to meet the threats posed by increasingly diverse criminal networks” in line with the National Criminal Intelligence Service UK Threat Assessment and Scottish Strategic Assessment. These assessments have made clear the threat posed by immigration crime and the SDEA and Scottish Police Service have adopted a close joint working relationship with the UK Immigration Service in an effort to counter this.

An example of the impact of this joint working was highlighted at the start of October 2004 following an operation in which the SDEA led a multi-agency taskforce (which included the UK Immigration Service, Lothian and Borders Police, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise, the Department of Work and Pensions and the Inland Revenue) to target the criminal activities of an organised criminal network involved in harbouring and facilitating illegal immigrants throughout Scotland. Of the 61 individuals arrested, 58 were detained in connection with suspected immigration offences. The other three people were detained on suspicion of being involved in what is termed gang master activity.

The number of small claims and summary causes registered for each year since 1999 is shown in the following table.

Sheriff Court National Figures

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Summary Cause Registered	36,704	39,655	41,360	37,131	35,096
Small Claims Registered	48,002	43,202	37,372	34,129	32,618

 

An additional £2 million is being invested in statutory throughcare services and an additional £1.5 million in voluntary assistance, bringing the total budget to £6 million in 2005-06. The extra resources support the enhanced throughcare strategy prepared by the Tripartite Group, comprising the Scottish Executive, the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), the Association of Directors of Social Work, which has the twin aims of increasing public protection and reducing reoffending through the better reintegration of prisoners on their release. This is in addition to work which the SPS does with a range of external agencies and partners to facilitate the throughcare of prisoners returning to the community.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

The terms of employment of prison officers employed at any SPS site are and will be subject to negotiation between the SPS and the Prison Officers’ Association (Scotland).

No. Solicitors acting as duty solicitor, whether from the PDSO or a private firm, will act for any person held in custody who requests their services. This does not restrict the freedom of any individual to choose a solicitor to act for him or her.

The PDSO’s share of the summary duty plan in Edinburgh was set initially at 60% but has been reduced by the Scottish Legal Aid Board in subsequent years and for 2004 was at 40%. In solemn matters the PDSO has the same pro rata share as any comparably sized private firm.

The table shows expenditure on Criminal Legal Aid broken down into the main expenditure types, the total cost of Criminal Legal Assistance and the total cost of the PDSO for each of the last five years.

Criminal Legal Assistance	1999-2000 (£000)	2000-01 (£000)	2001-02 (£000)	2002-03 (£000)	2003-04 (£000)
Solemn Criminal	23,641	27,342	31,197	33,461	39,870
Summary Criminal	44,927	40,407	42,016	46,056	48,859
Criminal ABWOR	2,384	2,798	2,880	3,361	3,444
Criminal Advice and Assistance	7,512	8,281	8,583	8,880	9,012
Duty	870	835	813	878	945
Total	79,334	79,663	85,489	92,636	102,130
Cost of PDSO	430	390	364	319	376*

Note: *This figure includes set up costs for the new PDSO offices in Glasgow and Inverness of £17,000.

As the PDSO is not paid on a case-by-case basis, it is not possible to break down the costs for each legal aid type.

Net expenditure on substancemisuse is set out in the following table. This shows actual expenditure between1997-98 and 2002-03; along with the Provisional Outturn for 2003-04 and the BudgetEstimate for 2004-05:

1997-98	1998-99	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Expenditure (£000)	Expenditure (£000)	Expenditure (£000)	Expenditure (£000)	Expenditure (£000)	Expenditure (£000)	Provisional Outurn (£000)	Budget Estimate (£000)
9,112	7,760	8,749	9,513	11,834	23,285	22,417	23,562

Source: SE_FCSD StatisticalSupport for Local Government.

(a) Expenditure: LFR3Return.

(b) Provisional Outurn03-04, Budget Estimate 04-05: POBE 2004.

Notes:

1. Loan charges have been excludedfor all years.

2. Figures have been adjustedto reflect current prices using GDP Deflators.

3. From 2002-03 onwards, figuresinclude previously unallocated community care expenditure.

Substance misuse covers bothalcohol and drug misuse: it is understood that most of the expenditure is on drugrehabilitation services.

The Scottish Executive allocated £3 million specifically for alcohol support and treatment servicesfor the first time in 2004-05. Details of mainstream spending on these servicesby NHS boards and local authorities is not held centrally although some informationon the level of spend by NHS boards collected through Corporate Action Plans is available at www.alcoholinformation.isdscotland.org/alcohol_misuse.

The available information is given in the following table

	April to October 2004
Aberdeen	2
Airdrie	0
Alloa	1
Arbroath	1
Ayr	2
Banff	3
Campbeltown	2
Cupar	0
Dingwall	0
Dornoch	0
Dumbarton	2
Dumfries	2
Dundee	0
Dunfermline	0
Dunoon	0
Duns	2
Edinburgh	1
Elgin	1
Falkirk	0
Forfar	0
Fort William	0
Glasgow	4
Greenock	2
Haddington	2
Hamilton	1
Inverness	2
Jedburgh	0
Kilmarnock	3
Kirkcaldy	0
Kirkcudbright	0
Kirkwall	0
Lanark	1
Lerwick	0
Linlithgow	1
Lochmaddy	0
Oban	1
Paisley	3
Peebles	0
Perth	0
Peterhead	0
Portree	0
Rothesay	0
Selkirk	0
Stirling	2
Stonehaven	0
Stornoway	1
Stranraer	0
Tain	1
Wick	0
Totals	43

 

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

It is not possible to provide the annual running cost of each public prison as there are a number of significant costs which are met centrally for the SPS as a whole. The annual running cost of private prisons are in the SPS Annual Report and Accounts copies of which are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. numbers 34446, 4045, 7929, 18239, 22587, 28640).