Chamber and committees

The costs are provided in the Annual Reports of the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman for 2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-04, copies of which are available in the Scottish  Parliament Information Centre (Bib. numbers 14580, 22484, 28277, 33250). The reports are also available at http://www.slso.org.uk/reports.html.

The Annual Report to be published in July will provide the costs for 2004-5. The current budget for the Ombudsman’s office in 2005-6 is £374,520.

The Ombudsman’s staff complement in 2000-01, 2001-02 and 2002-03 was two full-time complaints investigators and a part-time office secretary. In 2003-04 the staff complement was increased to four full-time complaints investigators and the part-time office secretary. The staff complement remained at that level in 2004-05 until it was augmented in January 2005 by the employment of a temporary full time complaints investigator on a fixed term contract. In 2005-06 the staff complement has been increased by two additional full time complaints investigators.

The information on (a), (b), (c) and (d) is available in the Annual Reports of the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman for 2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-3, 2003-4, copies of which are available in the Scottish  Parliament Information Centre (Bib. numbers 14580, 22484, 28277, 33250) and on the Ombudsman’s website at http://www.slso.org.uk/reports.html.

The Ombudsman’s current salaryis £43,340 (pro-rata £53,452) and she works 29 hours 36 minutes per week. The Ombudsmanworked full time between January and May 2005 (37 hours per week).

The Scottish Executive regularly and routinely destroys both paper and electronic documents and records as part of effective records management policies. The Scottish Executive does not keep individual details of all documents destroyed or shredded. In line with its Records Management Guidance, however, it does keep a record of the numbers of paper files which have been destroyed (see the following table). Guidance to staff on managing the Executive's paper and electronic records, from creation to destruction or permanent preservation, is provided in the Executive's Records Management Manual which is available through the Scottish Executive's Publication Scheme on www.scotland.gov.uk.

 The table below provides the numbers of Executive files destroyed in the last three years.

Year	Files Destroyed
2002	97,165
2003	59,635
2004	57,229

 

The management of the Stipendiary Magistrate Courts in Glasgow and the effective use of court time is the responsibility of Glasgow District Court.

All custody cases will be set for trial within 40 days of the pleading diet. For all other cases, as at 22 December 2004, the average period of time between pleading diet and trial diet at the Stipendiary Magistrate Courts in Glasgow varied between six and 11 months. As with all courts, non-custody cases will be set for earlier trial diets if a slot becomes available because another trial is disposed of in advance.

The available information for the relevant crime categories in the ScottishExecutive Justice Department classification of crimes and offences is given in the following table.

Persons Convicted in Scottish Courts for Handling an Offensive Weapon¹, 1992-2002

Year	Possession of an Offensive Weapon3	Having in a Public Place an Article with a Blade or a Point	Total
1992	1,493	-	1,493
1993	1,453	99	1,552
1994	1,020	471	1,491
1995	1,002	780	1,782
1996	1,139	1,101	2,240
1997	1,125	1,069	2,194
1998	1,086	976	2,062
1999	1,072	1,008	2,080
2000	1,137	1,101	2,238
2001	1,425	1,270	2,695
20022	1,331	1,256	2,587

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Figures may be underestimates due to time taken to record details of some court proceedings.

3. Knives cannot be identified separately from other types of offensive weapon in the data held for this crime category.

The available information for the relevant crime categories in the ScottishExecutive Jusice Department classification of crimes and offences is given for the years 1994 to 1998 in the following table. For information for the years 1999 to 2002, I refer the member to the answer given to S2W-1085 answered on 22 July 2003. For the equivalent information for 2003, I refer the member to the answer given to S2W-11534 answered on 11 November 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the searchfacility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

Crimes of Possession of an Offensive Weapon and having in a Public Place an Article with a Blade or a Point, Recorded by the Police 1994 to 1998

Year	Possession of an Offensive Weapon1	Having in a Public Place an Article with a Blade or Point	Total
1994	3,225	2,056	5,281
1995	3,627	2,831	6,458
1996	4,341	2,481	6,822
1997	4,079	1,901	5,980
1998	4,342	2,397	6,739

Note: 1. Knives cannot be identified separately from other types of offensive weapon in the data held for this crime category.

The available information for the relevant crime categories in the Scottish Executive Justice Department classification of crimes and offences is given in the table.

Custodial Convictions in Scottish Courts for Handling an Offensive Weapon¹, Scotland, 1998-2002

Year	Possession of an Offensive Weapon3	Having in A Public Place an Article with a Blade or a Point	Total
1998	207	298	505
1999	214	296	510
2000	254	348	602
2001	292	359	651
20022	257	417	674

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Figures may be underestimates due to time taken to record details of some court proceedings.

3. Knives cannot be identified separately from other types of offensive weapon in the data held for this crime category.

At 1 November 2004, there were 2,344 individuals resident in Scotland who are registered with Scottish police forces under Part 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

The current average waiting period, in calendar days, between sentence and commencement of a community service order is as follows:

Glasgow, 15 days

Edinburgh, 22 days

Aberdeen, 26 days

Perth,  13 days .

The waiting period will vary over time dependent on the numbers of offenders sentenced by courts to a community service order and the capacity of local schemes.