Chamber and committees

Section 133 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 provides that the Scottish Ministers shall pay compensation in cases where a conviction is reversed on the ground that a new or newly discovered fact shows beyond reasonable doubt that there has been a miscarriage of justice. In addition, ministers may be prepared to make an ex gratia payment of compensation following a wrongful conviction or charge where this has resulted from serious default on the part of a member of a police force or some other public authority. There may also be exceptional circumstances that justify compensation in cases outside these categories.

In all cases, claims for compensation are considered by the Scottish Ministers following receipt of applications from individuals. If an application is accepted as a valid claim, the amount of compensation paid is determined by an independent assessor. In considering claims, the assessor applies principles analogous to those on which claims for damages arising from civil wrongs are assessed. The assessor also has the power to recommend interim payments to applicants where they provide evidence of immediate need.

Under the statutory scheme the Scottish Ministers have no power to vary the determination. In ex gratia claims the assessor’s role is strictly to advise ministers of the amount to be paid, but Ministers have agreed to be bound by the assessor’s recommendation.

We are considering whether to make a minor expansion of the statutory scheme, and to put the ex gratia scheme on a statutory basis. In contrast, the UK Government has recently abolished the ex gratia scheme operated in England and Wales, and section 61 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 will restrict eligibility for the statutory scheme.

A wrongfully-convicted person may also seek civil damages.

The information requested is not held centrally. It is possible that a successful appeal could change the length of sentence and not result in a prisoner being released. Information on the total number of appeals is published in Table 5 of the statistical bulletin Criminal Appeal Statistics, Scotland, 2006-07 which can be found on the Scottish Government website at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/09/11122246/0.

The number of cases determined by the High Court and the number of successful appeals following referral is published in the Annual Reports of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, available at www.sccrc.org.uk. In 2007-08 this information is published in Table 8 and Table 13 respectively.

I refer the member to the letter sent on 26 June 2008, a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 45495).

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-10411 on 27 June 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the Member to the letter sent on 26 June 2008, a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 45493).

The Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism has had 30 overnight hotel stays between May 2007 and March 2008 at a total cost of £2,342.31

The aim of our St Andrew’s Day programme in 2007 was to raise the profile of our national day and increase participation in St Andrew’s Day events. Evaluation found that the advertising equivalent of £500,000 worth of coverage was achieved in local, national and UK media, from a marketing spend of £40,000.

Information about revenue generated by St Andrew’s Day events around the country is not held centrally.

The question of what revenue was generated by Edinburgh’s Winter Festival is a matter for the City of Edinburgh Council, which is responsible for management and delivery of the events programme.

This is a matter for higher education institutions which are autonomous bodies with responsibility for their own governance arrangements and therefore for the content of their charters, statutes, ordinances and statutory instruments. The information requested is not held centrally.

Discrimination on the grounds of age is now unlawful in employment and vocational training. It is the responsibility of all employers, both public and private sector, to ensure that they comply with the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006.

Scottish higher education institutions are autonomous bodies and as such are responsible for ensuring that they operate in compliance with all current legislation.