In financial year 2004-05, the Lothian and Scottish Borders Consortium has been allocated grant of £173,141 for its Domestic Violence Probation Project (DVPP). This funding is provided through Section 27 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968. Indicative funding has been provided on a three year basis. As part of the strategic planning process, the consortium has submitted its plan to the Executive for the period beginning April 2005. The target is to inform the consortium and all other groupings/unitary authorities of funding for 2005-06 by end January 2005. Funding decisions in respect of such programmes as DVPP will be determined on the evidence of effectiveness and value for money within the level of available national resources.

A report of an evaluation, sponsored by the Scottish Office and the Home Office, was published in 1996. The report was positive, concluding that the project was considered to be more successful than other forms of court disposal in reducing the frequency of violence. Since then, the Consortium has continued to monitor and evaluate the project, primarily through consultation with the partners of the men on the programme.

There have been 58 new referrals in 2001-02; 61 in 2002-03, and 61 in 2003-04, rising to 77, 79 and 67 men if those already on the programme are included.  In the period from April to August 2004, there were 24 new orders, reflecting a greater proportion of men assessed as suitable, as a result of the increased use of risk assessment and risk management procedures.

The notional working capacity has recently been increased to 50 men and their partners at any one point in time. The project is currently working with 60 men following imposition of a quota last July when the number of men receiving a service was 63. The project is currently carrying one vacant post which it expects to fill next month.

The consortium has submitted a bid to the Executive to increase the capacity of the scheme to approximately 70. This bid will be considered alongside bids from other groupings/unitary authorities as part of the overall funding proposals for 2005-06.

In addition, the Executive is supporting the DVPP which is working in partnership with the SACRO Falkirk Domestic Violence Project and the CHANGE project to develop a domestic violence programme that will be submitted in 2005-06 for accreditation.

Public Defence Solicitors have the same rights as any other solicitor so long as the accused person qualifies for criminal legal aid. No changes in these rights are proposed.

For the purposes of the independent evaluation submitted to Parliament in September 2001, all persons eligible for criminal legal aid prosecuted in the Edinburgh courts between October 1998 and June 2000, and born in the months of January or February, were directed to use the Public Defence Solicitors’ Office (PDSO), subject to a system of waivers, primarily relating to clients with current related cases being dealt with by other solicitors. The number of cases taken on for clients directed to the PDSO in Edinburgh in each of the three financial years or part year during which direction operated were 305, 856 and 185 (in 1998-99, 1999-2000 and 2000-01 respectively). No clients have been directed to the PDSO since the system of direction was abolished in July 2000.

The following table shows the total number of new cases taken on by the PDSO (whether or not under direction) in each year since it opened and the percentage this represents of the total number of acts of criminal legal assistance in each of those years. Criminal legal assistance includes grants of advice andassistance, assistance by way of representation, summary criminal legal aid andsolemn legal aid, as well as clients represented by duty solicitors.

	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Number of new PDSO cases*	417	1034	1456*	1684*	1538*	1464*
Number of acts of criminal legal assistance	222,348	245,844	260,367	270,162	271,769	278,151
PDSO cases as % of acts of assistance	0.2%	0.4%	0.6%	0.6%	0.6%	0.5%

Note: *These figures include cases in which the PDSO acted as duty solicitor on behalf of other solicitors. They therefore differ from those published in the Scottish Legal Aid Board’s annual reports. The PDSO only acted as duty solicitor from July 2000 onwards.

There are no plans for public defence solicitors to be paid on a case-by-case basis.

Expenditure approval was given by Scottish ministers in February 2002 to provide £5 million funding for additional resources to provide the fire service in Scotland with an enhanced operational capacity and a greater level of resilience in response to terrorist incidents. In addition, the Scottish Executive’s spending proposals for 2005–08, announced on 29 September 2004, include a further £1 million per annum in 2006-07 and 2007-08 specifically to assist the service in responding to the increased threat from global terrorism.

Funding for the provision of youth justice services is at record levels (£63 million in 2005-06) and this level of funding has been maintained in our new spending proposals. Details can be found in table 5.01 of Building A Better Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-11334, answered on 4 November 2004. 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/wa.search.

he table sets out funding under the Youth Crime Prevention Fund and the Intensive Support Fund in each year since they started in 2002-03. Around £1.5 million of this investment has gone on capital projects and investments. Budgets will be held level from 2005-06 to 2007-08.

	Youth Crime Prevention Fund	Intensive Support Fund
2002-03 (actual)	£3,447,550	£2,972,744
2003-04 (actual)	£2,423,553	£2,127,084
2004-05 (budget)	£2,624,701	£1,925,556
2005-06 (budget)	£2,608,435	£1,703,045

 

The base year is the financial year 2004-05.

An Efficient Government Fund totalling £60 million in financial years 2004-05 and 2005-06 has been established to support the Efficient Government initiative. This funding will be made available from the Finance and Public Services portfolio.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) target for financial year 2003-04 was to serve 80% of High Court bail indictments within nine months of the accused’s first appearance on petition. This target was changed in financial year 2004-05 to serve 100% of High Court bail indictments within 10 months of first appearance.

The COPFS no longer measures the number of High Court bail indictments served within nine months but the figures available for financial year 2003-04 show that 57% of indictments were served within nine months. 408 High Court bail indictments were served between April and September 2004 and 302 of them (74%) were served within 10 months of first appearance.

Prior to the passage of the Criminal Procedure (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2004, the Crown has 11 months in which to serve an indictment in bail cases. 100% of bail indictments must therefore be served within 11 months. As a result of the 2004 Act, bail indictments now have to be served within 10 months of first appearance. We therefore set ourselves a new target for financial year 2004-05 to serve 100% of High Court bail indictments within 10 months by 1 January 2005. Thiswas done to ensure that we are in a position to implement the new time limit forcases calling in the High Court after 1 April 2005. Our performance has improved since March and at the most recent month, September 2004, was 83% against this new target. We are on track to meet this commitment early in 2005 and as a consequence to meet the time limits in the 2004 act which will apply from April 2005.