Chamber and committees

Estimates prepared by Scottish Government Analytical Services put the total cost of alcohol misuse to the NHS at £405 million in 2006-07. (These are the most recent annual figures available). Details of the estimates and a breakdown of the costs are available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/222103/0059736.pdf.

Our approach is to act always in the Scottish national interest.

The Lord Advocate has issued guidance to police forces in respect of offences alleged to have been committed by children which are appropriate for joint reporting by the police to the Procurator Fiscal and the Reporter to the Children''s Hearing.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-20253 on 5 February 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.

Preventing Offending by Young People: A Framework for Action (Bib. number 46408), which I published in June 2008, sets out a shared vision of what national and local agencies should do to prevent, divert, manage and change offending behaviour by young people. In the framework we have made a commitment to develop an evidence base around what works in early and effective intervention.

Over the coming months we will undertake research which will look at the wide range of preventative responses available and their effectiveness, with a view to identifying and disseminating good practice.

There are four categories of case which must be jointly reported to the Reporter to the Children''s Hearing and the Procurator Fiscal for discussion and therefore considered for prosecution.

Where a child is under the age of 16 years, and, after discussion with the reporter, the decision is taken for the Procurator Fiscal to deal with the child, Crown Counsel''s instructions must be obtained before proceedings are commenced. Where a child is in custody and the Procurator Fiscal considers that immediate solemn proceedings are justified, the child can be placed on petition and the matter reported to Crown Counsel within three days for instructions. Prosecution of a child under 16 can only proceed in certain categories of cases and on the general or specific instructions of the Lord Advocate. The categories are as follows:

1. Offences which require by law to be prosecuted on indictment or which are so serious as normally to give rise to solemn proceedings on the instructions of the Lord Advocate in the public interest.

2. Offences alleged to have been committed by children aged 15 years or over which in the event of conviction oblige or permit a court to order disqualification from driving.

3. Offences alleged to have been committed by persons of over 16 years, who are under the supervision of a Children''s Hearing and this are children as defined in section 93(2)(b)(ii) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.

4. Breaches of antisocial behaviour orders allegedly committed by children aged 12 to 15 years (although there is a presumption that the Reporter will deal with these cases).

The categories are further defined as follows:

Category 1

Offences which require by law to be prosecuted on indictment fall under two

heads:

1. common law offences which are within the exclusive jurisdiction of the High Court of Justiciary namely treason, murder and rape, and

2. statutory offences for which the statute only makes provision for prosecution on indictment or for a penalty on conviction on indictment - for example, contraventions of the Firearms Act 1968, Section 16, 17(1) and (2), and 18(1), the Road Traffic Act 1988, Section 1, and the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 Section 5(1).

Offences of culpable homicide, attempted murder, assault to the danger of life, sodomy, assault and robbery involving the use of firearms, attempted rape, incest and related offences (contrary to the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 Sections 1-3) are offences which are normally indicted in the High Court of Justiciary.

Other offences which may fall into this category as being those normally prosecuted on indictment are assault to severe injury or permanent disfigurement, assault with intent to rape, serious assault and robbery (in particular involving the use of weapons other than firearms), assault with intent to rob involving the use of firearms, fire-raising and malicious mischief causing or likely to cause great damage to property or danger to life, all Misuse of Drugs Act offences involving possession of Class A drugs and possession with intent to supply and supply of any controlled drugs.

It should be emphasised that only offences which are normally prosecuted on indictment are to be reported to the Procurator Fiscal.

Category 2

This category applies exclusively to children aged 15 years or over. Children will be prosecuted for this type of offence only if the Procurator Fiscal considers that it would be in the public interest to obtain a disqualification which would still be in force when the child became 16 and that in the event of conviction it was likely that the court would impose such a disqualification. Minor Road Traffic Act offences carrying a liability to discretionary disqualification should not normally be reported.

Category 3

There is no restriction on the forum for the prosecution of children of or over 16 years of age who can be proceeded against in the district court.

Category 4

There is a presumption that the reporter will deal with these cases, following discussion with the Procurator Fiscal. Therefore, cases where 12 to 15-year-olds have been charged with a separate offence (section 9(3) of the Antisocial Behaviour etc (Scotland) Act 2004) should not be reported to the Procurator Fiscal unless the separate offence falls to be reported under another part of these Directions. However, children will only be prosecuted where the offending behaviour accompanying the breach is serious.

When reporting to procurators fiscal cases against adults in which it is alleged that a child also committed the offence (not being an offence specified in categories 1 to 3) along with the adult, the report should state that a copy of the report has been sent to the reporter for action in respect of the child. The police should not include the child offender as a subject in the police report to the Procurator Fiscal.

This guidance is published on the COPFS website, at:

http://www.crownoffice.gov.uk/Publications/2004/10/LdAdvGuidOffChild.

This information is not held centrally. The Scottish Government provides funding to NHS boards for treatment and support to address alcohol misuse and it is for each board, working with its partners, to determine which services and programmes should receive support according to identified need.

The national entitlement card (NEC) is a local authority administered scheme. We are not aware of any local authority restricting the access to local leisure services because an individual does not have a NEC.

Alternative means of access are available for individuals who do not wish to use the NEC to access local services.

All data collected from a national entitlement card (NEC) application is collected in accordance with the Data Protection Act, 1998. Applicants are made aware of their rights under the act via the application form and a separate terms and conditions leaflet. In addition, applicants are asked whether or not they grant consent for their information to be shared with other public sector organisations. Individuals can also change this consent.

Applicants for a NEC provide their local council with personal details including their name and address, date of birth, telephone number, gender etc. This information is necessary to validate and verify an applicant''s entitlement to services and establish a card holder citizen account, which is used to administer the NEC scheme i.e. information which allows the council to issue/re-issue a card.

Each local authority has access to the records of their own residents only and is the data controller of this information. Council employees need a digital certificate (the means of allowing secure and private communications between authenticated parties) in order to access the system and all activities on the system are audited and logged (including any unauthorized attempts to access the system). Any transaction data in relation to individual services continues to be held separately by local authorities, i.e. it is not stored on the central card management system.

Plans are also in place for individual card holders to have their own secure user login and password in order to see the data that is held about them and to be able to change the data, e.g. to notify a change of circumstances such as change of address.

As of 26 January 2009, there were a total of 248,470 cards issued to young people aged between 11 to 26.

Of these, 186,492 were for those young people aged 11 to 15 and 19 to 26 inclusive i.e. those young people not eligible for the Young Persons Concessionary Travel Scheme.

These figures exclude cards issued to young disabled people who qualify for the Scotland-wide free travel scheme for older and disabled people as these are not readily available.

Not all councils use the national entitlement card (NEC) to access local services.

For those councils who do offer access to local services via the NEC it is not compulsory for individuals to use it. The NEC is an additional convenient means of accessing local services.

All councils offer alternatives for those customers who do not wish to use the NEC to access local services.