Chamber and committees

There are currently no plans to send a delegation to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

We have set up an IndependentCommission, chaired by Henry McLeish, to look at the purpose and use of imprisonment,which is due to report in June.

The role of the Scottish Governmentis to provide courts with a sufficient range of sentencing options in dealing withthose appearing before them and to ensure that the appropriate authorities and agenciesare adequately resourced to deliver the sentences imposed. However, responsibilityfor individual sentencing decisions rests with courts having regard to the specificcircumstances of the offence and the individual offender. It would therefore beinappropriate for the government to set a target for the number of custodial sentencespassed on any specific offender group.

The Scottish Government is implementinga range of measures which have the potential to reduce the numbers of female accusedand offenders being sent to custody. Individual remand and sentencing decisionsare a matter for the courts.

In relation to remand, we haveas part of the budget settlement for 2008-09 for Community Justice Authorities,provided an additional £0.5 million to allow extension of bail supervision schemesto all sheriff courts and increased capacity of existing schemes. In September 2007we implemented in all sheriff and district courts across Scotland therequirement to use Supervised Attendance Orders (rather than a custodial term) forthose who have defaulted on payment of fines of £500 or less. And we recently announceda pilot exercise for the use of Drug Treatment and Testing Orders with lower tariffoffenders.

In late November, we publishedthe Report of the Review of Community Sentences, which is strongly focused on deliveringtough, credible community sentences as an alternative to short prison sentences.In the review we propose to pilot a mentoring/link worker scheme for adult femaleoffenders given community penalties.

The Scottish Prisons Commissionhas been asked to consider how imprisonment is currently used in Scotland forall prisoners and how that use fits with the Government’s wider strategic objectives.The commission visited HM Prison and YoungOffenders’ Institution Cornton Vale on 17 January 2008 anddiscussed various relevant issues with both prison staff and female inmates.

I would be happy tomeet the member to discuss sports issues. The member should contact my diary secretaryto arrange a mutually convenient time.

The quality of educationin Littlemill Primary School is the responsibility of East Ayrshire Council. We expectEast Ayrshire Council to takethe necessary action to secure continuous improvement in their schools and our experienceis that this is happening.

It is for local authoritiesto determine whether they wish to support Digital Inclusion projects for olderpeople. Previous experience shows that provision of funding nationally forindividual projects has not generated sustainable or national solutions. Sharinggood practice, skills and resources, are key to avoiding duplication of effort andensuring resources are focused more effectively on the needs of disadvantagedgroups.

The security of publicwater supplies is a matter for Scottish Water and its response to the planning applicationfor the free-range egg enterprise was made to Scottish Borders Council on 25 January 2007. This is a matter of public record. In its response,Scottish Water highlighted areas of concern and requested that the developers contactScottish Water to discuss their plans in detail. Specifically, the developers wereasked to provide details of their proposals for protecting the Talla aqueduct forScottish Water’s approval. The developer was also asked for a detailed risk assessmentaddressing issues of potential contamination for Scottish Water’s review. I cannotcomment further on the planning application as it may come before Scottishministers in due course and I would not wish to fetter ministers’ discretion.

I have asked thegroup to review the existing guidance on car parking. This clearly states thatit applies whether the car parking facilities are provided by an NHS board orby a private sector provider acting on their behalf.

Any revisedarrangement recommended by the review group will, like the current guidance,apply where consideration is being given to the introduction of car parkcharging, or to the revision of existing car parking arrangements.