Chamber and committees

It is our intention to publish details of unsuccessful projects across both rounds of the Town Centre Regeneration Fund including the lead applicant, project title and relevant towns. We will aim to do so by the middle of December 2009. Details will be made available via the Scottish Government website:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/regeneration/town-centres.

The second meeting of the board is scheduled for 27 January 2010. The board will meet again in March or April, and thereafter is expected to meet quarterly.

The role of the Scottish Policing Board is to be a forum for collective discussion and agreement on key strategic issues for policing in Scotland. Further detail on the remit of the board is given in the Scottish Policing Board foundation document, which was agreed at the first meeting on 23 November 2009. Copies have been placed in the Scottish Parliament''s Information Centre (Bib. number 49746). This document sets out the board''s role, remit and membership.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-28984 on 24 November 2009. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-28984, on 24 November 2009. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-28984 on 24 November 2009. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Police authorities and joint boards will be represented by the chair of the police authorities'' conveners'' forum and three other nominated conveners.

The multi-agency group is a liaison group established by Strathclyde Police B Division (Glasgow East), to consider potential security issues, including human trafficking which may arise a result of the games construction programme in that area (i.e. the NISA/Velodrome complex and the Games Village). The main construction work on both these sites has still to commence. The group last met on 25 August and agreed that the UK Human Trafficking Centre would liaise directly with Strathclyde Police Asylum Liaison Officers working in the east end of Glasgow to facilitate delivery of the Blue Blindfold awareness programme to key construction staff once on site. The group anticipates holding regular meetings as the build programme progresses but have not yet determined an advanced schedule of meetings.

The multi-agency group works within a wider governance structure. As part of its normal operational activity Strathclyde Police has a specialist Vice and Trafficking Unit which works closely with other UK law enforcement agencies addressing the threat of serious crime including that associated with human trafficking. Information from this unit is shared with the multi-agency group and the other groups within the governance structure.

There is no specific budget for the B Division G2014 group but as indicated in S3W-28500 there is an overall Games security budget in addition to the cost of routine policing.

Whilst there is no intelligence to suggest that human trafficking is occurring in association with the 2014 Commonwealth Games, with intelligence gathering mechanisms already in place, partner agencies are in a position to co-ordinate positive enforcement action and provide support to victims should problems arise in the future.

The foundation document agreed at its first meeting set out a number of guiding principles for the Scottish Policing Board. These include a commitment that the board will occupy a new role and not duplicate work already done by existing bodies, and will recognise and complement the existing statutory responsibilities of its members.

We have a comprehensive strategy in place to tackle this crime, set out in the UK Action Plan on Tackling Human Trafficking, published jointly by the Scottish Government and Home Office. The action plan was most recently updated on the 19 October and copies are available from the Scottish Parliament''s Information Centre (Bib. number 49729).

We continue to support law enforcement agencies to identify and pursuit the criminal gangs involved in this abhorrent serious organised crime. We have brought forward provision in the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill which amends and clarifies the trafficking offence provisions and which will ensure consistency of the law on this issue across the UK. We are also providing SCDEA with additional funding of £4 million over the next two years to boost capacity to tackle organised crime and, within that, provide Scotland''s first dedicated expert resource to build the intelligence necessary to support and improve human trafficking investigation.

During Pentameter 2, a police-led operation aimed at disrupting trafficking for sexual exploitation which ran between October 2007 and March 2008, there were a total of 35 arrests made. A crown office analysis in 2008 revealed that of the 35 arrests made during that period there were 22 prosecutions, resulting in 18 convictions for offences including trading in prostitution, attempting to pervert the course of justice and offences under the Identity Cards Act 2006 and the Immigration Act 1971, and that sentences ranging from imprisonment to financial penalties have been imposed. There were no prosecutions for trafficking offences due to insufficient evidence.

The Scottish Government and COPFS are working with ACPOS and those supporting victims of human trafficking to encourage victims to report these offences to the police. COPFS will continue to work with relevant agencies to raise awareness of human trafficking issues and to assist them to identify potential victims of such crime.