Chamber and committees

Following a discussion in the Criminal Justice Forum, we have been discussing with a number of interests how the enforcement of fines might be improved, with a view to reducing the use of imprisonment as a last resort.

The Scottish Law Commission published its Report on the Law of the Tenement (Scot Law Com No 162) in 1998. Following the publication of the subsequent Report on Real Burdens (Scot Law Com No 181) in October 2000, the Executive asked the commission to update its recommendations on the law of the tenement to take account of its subsequent work on real burdens and title conditions. This is because the management of tenements is governed by rules and conditions set out as rights and real burdens in the relevant title deeds. The modernisation and simplification of the law on real burdens will rationalise the application and enforcement of burdens on all property, including tenements. Reforming the law relating to real burdens and title conditions first will mean that reform of the law of the tenement should be more straightforward.

The Executive has just completed a consultation exercise based on the commission's draft Title Conditions Bill and the responses are currently being analysed. One of the issues which the consultation has highlighted are the problems which arise in relation to management, maintenance and repair in mixed tenure estates and blocks of flats where the local authority or other social landlord continue to have a significant holding.

The available information is given in the following table. Data for the year 2000 is not yet available. Information on the number of instances where the accused represented themselves in court is not readily available, though these are believed to be relatively few in number.

Persons called to court in Scotland where the main crime was rape or sexual assault 1995-99
Main Crime	Year
	1995	1996	1997	1998		1999
Rape	43	70	65	64		56
Sexual assault 1	136	122	147	142		128
Total	179	192	212	206		184

Notes:

1. Includes assault with intent to rape and indecent assault.

This is a matter for the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA). The information requested is not held centrally.

The most recent issue of Criminal Appeal Statistics, Scotland was published on 22 August 2001. The statistics relate to appeals against conviction, sentence or acquittal concluded in the High Court of Justiciary sitting in its appellate capacity during the year 2000.The statistics indicate that the overall total of such cases concluded during 2000 was in fact 2% lower than the total for 1999.It is open to any person convicted of a criminal offence in the district, sheriff or High Court to appeal to the High Court sitting in its appellate capacity against conviction alone, sentence alone or against both conviction and sentence. It is also open to the Crown to appeal against acquittal or against sentence in very limited circumstances. Crown appeals are comparatively rare. Defence appeals are far more common and are initiated on the basis of advice tendered to convicted persons by their legal representatives as to the prospects of a successful appeal. Such advice in any given case will take into account the whole circumstances of the case so far as relevant and the applicable law.One area in which there was an increase in appeal business between 1999 and 2000 concerned persons previously convicted of murder in the High Court and sentenced to life imprisonment who, following a decision of the High Court issued on 29 November 1996 in the case of Elliott v HM Advocate, appealed with a view to having the effective commencement date of such sentences "backdated" to the date on which they were first remanded in custody to await trial. The number of such appeals dealt with during 2000 was over 90, as compared with 21 during the previous year.

The information requested is not readily available and cannot be obtained without disproportionate cost.An indication of the extent to which the terms of the ECHR have been relied upon by accused persons and appellants in all Scottish criminal courts since 20 May 1999, when the Lord Advocate became subject to section 57(2) of the Scotland Act 1998, is given by the available statistics showing the number of "devolution issues" (within the meaning of Schedule 6 of the Scotland Act 1998) which have been intimated to the Lord Advocate. Rules 40.1 et seq of the Act of Adjournal (Criminal Procedure Rules) 1996 as amended require written notice of intention to raise a devolution issue in any criminal proceedings in Scotland to be given to the Lord Advocate. Between 20 May 1999 and 31 December 1999, 164 devolution issues were intimated to the Lord Advocate. Between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2000 the figure was 821 and from 1 January 2001 to date the number of devolution issues intimated to the Lord Advocate was 172. The total number of devolution issues intimated to the Lord Advocate from 20 May 1999 to date is 1,157, of which 60 (or 5.2%) were decided against the Crown (where results are available).Since 2 October 2000 accused persons and appellants have been able, in terms of the Human Rights Act 1998, to rely upon convention rights arguments in criminal proceedings without any requirement to intimate their intention to the Lord Advocate. No statistics are available to indicate the number of cases in which convention rights arguments have been relied upon in this manner.

In the period 1 April 1999 to 31 March 2000, a total of 2,401 supervised attendance orders were imposed.

Reliable figures for 2000 are not yet available. 1999 information is given in tables 29, 30, 32 and 33 of Prison Statistics Scotland, 1999 published by the Scottish Executive in 2000, a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. no. 11180).

The latest information available indicates that councils have contributed £1,496,647,482 to the Scottish non-domestic rates pool in 1999-2000 and have estimated contributions of £1,540,563,079 for 2000-01. Glasgow City Council's contribution was £239,192,865 in 1999-2000 and is estimated at £235,542,544 for 2000-01.

The Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA) was established in 1996 to ensure a consistent approach by Reporter staff is achieved.I have asked the Principal Reporter and his response is:"SCRA have placed particular emphasis on the need to share casework information amongst professional staff and several initiatives have been launched to improve the quality of such communication with the ultimate objective of improving consistency.SCRA's internal practice guidance notes give direction on the standards of service expected. The introduction of a casework investigation framework has also promoted further standardisation.Overall patterns of decision making by reporters are influenced by significant local variations in levels of need, referral practice by other agencies and the type and range of resources to work with children and families."