Chamber and committees

Information has been sought from every Procurator Fiscal's Office and Crown Office Headquarters about the number of computer workstations (PCs) required by staff. Our policy is to provide all members of staff, who need them, with direct access to a PC on their desks. The department currently has approximately 1,300 PCs for use by staff.

The Future Office System (FOS) is intended to enable case marking and summary processing work to be carried out almost entirely electronically. The software programmes will permit standardisation of procedures, thereby increasing consistency, reducing the potential for errors and producing high quality case documentation. FOS should provide better management information, faster processing of initial court documentation, speedier notification of decisions to our criminal justice partners and reductions in administrative effort.

Staff vacancies are advertised in the Department's Staff Notice. When external applications are sought for trainee solicitors, Depute Fiscals and precognition officers, adverts are placed in the Herald, Scotsman and The Firm Law Magazine. Specialist posts, such as IT and audit, are also usually advertised in the national press and are trawled in other Government Departments. Administrative posts are advertised in local newspapers and job centres. Copies of adverts are sent to the Racial Equality Councils.

In accordance with the Civil Service Code, the department has a policy of providing accurate factual information to media enquiries and to organisations and individuals who express an interest in the public services which its staff provide. The department publishes an annual report and places relevant information on its publicly accessible website:www.crownoffice.gov.uk.Also, representatives from both a departmental and local level of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service regularly attend at specially organised events in such places as schools and universities to educate and inform members of the community about their role and duties performed.

The department does not currently operate a staff suggestion scheme.

Arrangements for relief cover are made by line management. Measures may include the transfer of staff from other offices, the temporary appointment of ad hoc (often recently retired) fiscals, and the appointment of casual staff. In addition, the Fiscal Offices may work with other Criminal Justice Agencies to seek to manage court commitments accordingly.

On 4 March, I announced the appointment of a Chief Executive and Crown Agent Designate who will work with senior management to take forward implementation of the recommendations on strategic planning and planning for change of the recent review of the management, allocation and planning of resources at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is currently examining proposals from a number of external providers for the provision of stress prevention training courses to its staff in the financial year 2002-03.

There are nineteen members of staff within the department's Information Systems Unit as at February 2002. This number includes staff working in the national Help Desk support facility based in the Glasgow Procurator Fiscal's Office.

The department does not operate a specific discretionary bonus scheme, but under the annual staff appraisal system managers may make recommendations for bonus payments to staff.