Chamber and committees

Information on the number of under 18s arrested for purchasing or attempting to purchase alcohol is not held centrally, only the number of offences recorded. There were 115 of these offences recorded in 2007-08 and 131 in 2006-07.

Information on the number of under 18s charged for purchasing or attempting to purchase alcohol is not held centrally. Criminal proceedings data for 2007-08 is still being processed and the data is therefore not available at this time. The 2007-08 data is planned for release in April 2009. There were seven persons proceeded against in court for this offence in 2006-07.

The statistics dealing with recorded crime and court proceedings are not directly comparable as a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime involving more than one victim and there is the possibility that the crime recorded by the police may be altered in the course of judicial proceedings. Also a crime may be recorded by the police in one year and court proceedings concluded in a subsequent year.

In the 12 months to 30 September 2008, 11,146 charges indicating breach of bail conditions were reported to procurators fiscal.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service database is a live operational database which mainly tracks the processing of the substantive charges received from the Police and Specialist Reporting Agencies. While additional charges for breaching bail through failure to appear may subsequently be added as a separate charge in individual cases, accurate and complete statistical information relating to such charges is not available.

Notes:

1. The information relating to charges indicating breach of bail has been extracted from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service''s Case Management Database. The database is a live, operational database used to manage the processing of reports submitted to procurators fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies. If a Procurator Fiscal amends a charge submitted by a reporting agency the database will record details only of the amended charge.

2. The database is charge-based. The figures quoted therefore relate to the number of charges rather than the number of individuals charged or the number of incidents that gave rise to such charges.

In response to the report of the review of community penalties, the Scottish Government established a multi-agency reference group, membership of which included representation from the Sheriffs'' Association, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Law Society of Scotland, Criminal Justice Social Work, Community Justice Authority Chief Officers and Scottish Government officials. The work of the group initially focussed on the proposal for a single reparative sentence but in the light of the report of the Scottish Prisons Commission it subsequently provided advice on the proposals for a new community payback order. Legislative provisions for the latter will be included in the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill due to be introduced in Parliament in February 2009.

A separate working group comprising criminal justice social work managers and practitioners and Scottish Government officials was formed to take forward work on operational issues in relation to the immediacy and speed of orders, which was one of the key recommendations of the report. Work on revised guidance for the operation of community service orders is now well advanced and additional funding has been provided to local authorities to support the operational improvements sought.

Information on the number of complaints received by the police is not held centrally.

This information is not held centrally. However, to measure the impact of the additional £1 million being made available, it is intended to carry out an early audit of current timescales for the start of placements and a repeat of the exercise 12 months later.

This PQ was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0115-01.htm

The lighting in the main hall has been reconfigured recently and this has dramatically improved the standard in this area.

Additionally, a survey of the garden lobby lighting has been carried out. This has shown that the light levels in some areas are marginally below the desired level.

It is intended to address this during a planned improvement of the lighting for energy efficiency which we expect will take place during the summer recess.

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

There have been 90 foreign national prisoners released to the UK Border Agency between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2008.

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

There have been 592 sentenced foreign national prisoners released between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2008.

Pay offers made by Scottish Water to their staff are a matter for them.