Chamber and committees

The following table sets out the number of firms registered for criminal legal assistance in each year since registration was introduced in 1999. The figures relate to the position in December, when the register is published.

Year	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Firms	733	709	684	663	665	661

 

The civil legal assistance register formally came into being on 1 July 2004. There are currently 747 firms on the register.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The table below sets out the administration costs and staff employed in respect of the criminal legal aid registration scheme for each year since 1998-99.

	1998-99 (£)	1999-2000 (£)	2000-01 (£)	2001-02 (£)	2002-03 (£)	2003-04 (£)
Expenditure	112,475	121,173	134,943	118,473	106,782	108,478
Staff (Whole-Time Equivalent)	4.5	4.5	4.5	4.2	3.9	4.0

The cost of work undertaken in 2003-04 in connection with the establishment of the civil registration scheme was £28,547. 0.8 whole-time equivalent staff were employed on this work.

The Scottish Law Commission has published 23 reports on particular subjects since the beginning of 1999, a number of which remain unimplemented in whole or in part. The reports cover a wide range of subjects, and it has not been possible to produce the detailed information requested in the time available. I will reply to the member with the remainder of the information requested as soon as possible.

We welcome the Scottish Law Commission’s initiative in publishing the draft code, prepared by a group of leading academics, in order to stimulate discussion of the topic. We are looking forward to receiving from the commission the comments that have been submitted on the principle of codification. We will then consider what action might be taken to debate the matter further.

No. Sportscotland already operates a Building for Sport programme under the Lottery Fund, which is open to football clubs. However, any application would be considered against the criteria for the programme and how the project would contribute to the targets set out in Sport 21 and other policy objectives such as the Action Plan for Youth Football. Decisions on individual applications are a matter for sportscotland.

There are no proposals at present for the use of PPP funding. The proposed level of charges will be considered as part of the assessment process to ensure that they are affordable by user groups. There will be conditions and agreements that will regulate charges. These will be reviewed by a user advisory group on a regular basis.

The information requested isnot held centrally by Scottish Court Service. The list of safeguarders maintained bySheriff Clerks derives from the panel of safeguarders maintained by localauthorities under the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.

The Housing Improvement TaskForce reported in 2003 on policy issues concerning the quality of privatesector housing stock in Scotland. That report identified that although the Scottishhouse buying and selling system has a number of strengths, there werenevertheless a number of ways it could be enhanced, particularly in relation toincentives for property maintenance. The task force recommended that the ScottishExecutive pilot a single survey system for buying and selling that would givepotential buyers better information on house condition and encourage greaterattention to that aspect of ownership. That pilot is in progress. It aims also totest whether the single survey is an appropriate means of addressing theproblems of so-called “multiple surveys” that are a feature of some marketareas and whether the inclusion of a valuation within the single survey willact to discourage the setting of misleadingly low upset prices that can befrustrating for house buyers.

The proposed housing bill wouldinclude powers for ministers to make the provision by sellers of the singlesurvey and any additionally defined information mandatory, should this bedeemed appropriate in the light of the pilot.

The task force alsoconsidered issues around blind bidding and the setting of closing dates, butconcluded that action to enforce alternatives to these conventions would beheavy-handed and out of proportion to the problems identified. The Executiveaccepted these conclusions and has no plans to introduce mandatory alternativessuch as open auctions or fixed prices.

The Scottish Executivewelcomes Edinburgh’s success in being granted the title: City of Literaturein the UNESCO Creative Cities Global Alliance. The Edinburgh World City ofLiterature project aims to work with UNESCO to identify potential partnercities in the developed and developing world. Through a network of world citiesof literature, Edinburgh will set out to promote international exchangebetween writers, readers, literature organisations and publishers.  Scotlandwill benefit from these exchanges in the resulting higher profile for Scottishliterature and the potential increase in cultural tourism. In addition, the project aims to provide a focus and co-ordinationfor literary activity, to encourage greater participation at all levels ofScottish society, and to attract new initiatives to Scotland.

The Scottish Executive hasawarded the project £20,000, but, as yet, no decision has been taken on futurefunding.

The UK Delegation to UNESCOis discussing a possible contribution of up to £50,000 to UNESCO's newCreative Cities Fund, to enable developing countries to benefit from Edinburgh's initiative.