Chamber and committees

The Extended Courts Working Group had its inaugural meeting on 13 January 2014. It has met on eight subsequent occasions.

The group submitted a preliminary feasibility assessment report to the Justice Board in October 2014. The board endorsed the recommendations included within this report and reached agreement on further work to be progressed.

The next multi-agency meeting for the Extended Courts Working Group is due to take place in early 2015.

Tables showing the information requested on the percentage of sheriff summary and justice of the peace cases dealt with within 26 weeks from caution and charge to verdict at courts has been prepared and a copy of this table is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib number 56443).

The following table shows the number of unique individuals convicted of a crime/offence with a domestic abuse aggravator between 2011-12 to 2012-13, and includes the number and percentage of these individuals that had at least one previous conviction with a domestic abuse aggravator.

Table: Number of unique individuals convicted of a crime/offence with a domestic abuse aggravator, 2011-12 to 2012-13

Information for 2013-14 will be available after the publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2013-14 statistical bulletin. This is due for publication on 16 December 2014.

Recording of offence aggravators has been improving over time and it is deemed that recording has only reached a sufficient level of consistency from 2009-10. Any apparent increase in the number of previous offences is likely to be the product of improved recording and an increase in the counting base. Therefore, any comparisons of aggravator information made over time should be made with caution and in particular the number of individuals with at least one previous conviction is not comparable year on year.

A domestic abuse offence aggravator could be recorded for an offence against any domestic abuse victim, not necessarily just for offences against victims of inter-partner domestic abuse. A previous conviction is counted as any previous conviction with a domestic abuse aggravator, so this measure of a ‘repeat offence’ does not necessarily mean that it was against the same victim.

Tables showing the information requested on the percentage of sheriff summary and justice of the peace cases dealt with within 26 weeks from caution and charge to verdict at courts has been prepared and a copy of this table is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib number 56443).

The available information is given in the following table.

Information for 2013-14 will be available after the publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2013-14 statistical bulletin. This is due to be published on 16 December 2014.

The dates of all Scottish Government official and national statistics publications are pre-announced, and the up to date list of future publications can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/03/18798

A person may be convicted more than once in the same year, and if so, they will appear in these figures more than once.

People proceeded against for an offence with a domestic aggravator recorded¹, 2011-12 to 2012-13

1. Where main offence.

2. Young offenders institution.

Source: Scottish Government Court Proceedings Database.

The attached table sets out how much each local authority is being allocated. This allocation has been calculated on the basis of the estimated number of two-year-olds who are in households that are in receipt of out of work benefits in each local authority area, and includes a measure of rurality.

This allocation method was agreed by the joint COSLA and Scottish Government Settlement and Distribution Group on 5 November 2014 and endorsed by council leaders at their meeting on 21 November 2014.

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

“Appointments to prison visiting committees are made by local authorities, with the exception of young offender institutions (HMYOIs Cornton Vale and Polmont). Responsibility for making these appointments lies with Scottish Ministers.

An audit of visiting committee vacancies was recently undertaken between June to October 2014. This identified that there were 46 vacancies at that time from 223 visiting committee appointment places across the 16 visiting committees operating in Scottish prisons.”

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

‘‘Appointments to prison visiting committees are made by local authorities, with the exception of young offender institutions (HMYOIs Cornton Vale and Polmont). Responsibility for making these appointments lies with Scottish Ministers.

Records identifying actual numbers in post in each year are not held centrally. The following table details the number of visiting committee posts for the period requested:

*Notes:

Aberdeen closed in December 2013 and was replaced by Grampian.

In practice Aberdeen had eight visiting committee members as this was deemed a suitable quorum to undertake the range of duties.

Addiewell opened in December 2006.

In practice Barlinnie has 25 visiting committee members as the three appointments from Dundee City Council were not filled as this does not represent the prison's prisoner catchment area.

Castle Huntly and Noranside formed the open estate visiting committee from June 2008 to Oct 2011 when Noranside closed. This reduced the combined number of visiting committee members from 16 to 15.

Grampian opened March 2014.

In practice Kilmarnock continued with 15 visiting committee members after March 2011 when Schedule 2 was changed to 25 members. The additional 10 were not deemed necessary by the committee and didn't represent the prison's prisoner catchment area.

Lowmoss closed in May 2007 and reopened in March 2012.

Noranside closed in October 2011. Castle Huntly continued as the open estate from that date.

Peterhead closed in December 2013 and was replaced by Grampian.

In practice 223 is currently the actual total number of visiting committee posts for 2014-15. The 243 total in Schedule 2 is reduced by three at Barlinnie, 10 at Kilmarnock and seven at the open estate (see notes above).

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

“Appointments to prison visiting committees are made by local authorities, with the exception of young offender institutions (HMYOIs Cornton Vale and Polmont). Responsibility for making these appointments lies with Scottish Ministers.

In general, SPS notes that visiting committees have for the most part operated near to full complement but often with vacancies as individuals leave the role and new members are recruited.”

In the last three financial years for which information is available, 2010-11 to 2012-13, where the main offence was under the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005, (a) 66, 86 and 59 received a fine and (b) 96, 107 and 97 people received a custodial sentence where these were the main results.

The information held centrally cannot provide data on people receiving a fine and a custodial sentence.

Information for 2013-14 will not be available until publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland 2013-14 statistical bulletin. This is due to be published on
16 December 2014.

The dates of all Scottish Government official and national statistics publications are pre-announced, and the up to date list of future publications can be found at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/03/18798