Chamber and committees

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

SPS do not collect this information. Searches are carried out to prevent prisoners, visitors or staff bringing into the prison, or on to SPS premises, items that are unauthorised, prohibited or considered a threat to security or to good order and discipline.

Searches are undertaken in compliance with SPS Searching Procedures and are designed to ensure they are carried out with proper regard for the individual's privacy and dignity. Any person subject to searching is provided with an explanation of the procedure prior to the search commencing and given the opportunity to raise any concerns. Non-invasive body searches of prisoners are carried out and supervised by staff of the same gender.

In regards to (b) The Scottish Government does not collect information on inadmissible items found during strip searches in secure units.

The available information as provided by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) is as follows:-

(a) Between 1 March 2012 and 31 December 2012 proceedings in relation to
64 charges had been concluded with 54 charges convicted (84%) under section 1 of the Offensive Behaviour and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012.

(b) Between 1 March 2012 and 31 December 2012 proceedings in relation to 4 charges had been concluded with 1 charge convicted (25%) under section 6 of the Offensive Behaviour and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012.

The figures provided have been taken from the COPFS management system, and should be regarded as provisional. COPFS uses a live operational case management system, specifically designed to receive criminal and death reports from the police and other specialist reporting agencies and to manage these cases for prosecution purposes. The information held on the system is structured for these operational needs, rather than for statistical reporting or research purposes. National Statistics on criminal proceedings and convictions will be available from the Criminal Proceedings database in November 2013.

There were 65, 46 and 39 convictions in 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 respectively for a football related* breach of the peace

*Football related convictions are only identifiable where a specific football aggravation has been recorded against an offence. Offence aggravations are codes which are used by the police to highlight particular circumstances relating to the incident, where this information is relevant to the reporting of the case. The figures above include 1 conviction for a breach of the peace where a football banning order aggravator was recorded in 2010-11.

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings Database.

There were 33, 86 and 92 football banning orders issued in the calendar years 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively.

Source: Scottish Football Banning Orders Authority, Football Co-ordination Unit for Scotland (FoCus).

The available information as provided by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) is as follows:-

(a) Between 1 March 2012 and 31 December 2012 there were 64 charges reported to COPFS under section 1 of the Offensive Behaviour and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012 in respect of cases which had completed by the latter date. An additional 154 charges were reported under section 1 in respect of cases which were not completed by 31 December 2012, giving a total of
218 charges.

(b) Between 1 March 2012 and 31 December 2012 there were 4 charges reported to COPFS under section 6 of the Offensive Behaviour and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012 in respect of cases which had completed by the latter date. An additional 14 charges were reported under section 6 in respect of cases which were not completed by 31 December 2012, giving a total of 20 charges.

The figures provided have been taken from the COPFS management system, and should be regarded as provisional. COPFS uses a live operational case management system, specifically designed to receive criminal and death reports from the police and other specialist reporting agencies and to manage these cases for prosecution purposes. The information held on the system is structured for these operational needs, rather than for statistical reporting or research purposes. National Statistics on criminal proceedings and convictions will be available from the Criminal Proceedings database in November 2013.

The consultation responses were made available publicly for anyone wishing to view them shortly after the consultation ended on 31 January 2012.

Arrangements can be made to view the responses by contacting the Scottish Government Library at Victoria Quay, Edinburgh on 0131 244 4556 or by emailing [email protected] to make an appointment.

Information relating to arrests is not held centrally.

This information is published as additional tables to the Reconviction Rates in Scotland: 2009-10 Offender Cohort statistical publication. These are available on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Datasets/ReconvictOffendDatasets/reconchar0809

and the relevant information is in the ‘disposals’ worksheet.

The Scottish Government are currently in the process of taking forward amendments to the Act following the McManus Limited Review Report and other minor technical issues identified by external stakeholders in the Mental Health and Adults With Incapacity Amendment Bill and does not intend to commission a review into these matters at this time.

The Scottish Government do not hold figures which specify the number of deaths of patients whilst receiving compulsory treatment under the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003.