Chamber and committees

This information is already in the public domain. It was published by the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) for a public board meeting on 30 January 2014, and can be found on the SPA website at:

http://www.spa.police.uk/news/2014/jan2014/207240/

The Scottish Government has procured the services of five registered social landlords who administer the Open Market Shared Equity Scheme throughout Scotland. The scheme is being promoted to first time buyers through local authorities, advice agencies, local financial advisors, and estate agents. Registered social landlords are currently promoting the scheme on the radio in some areas and in some local newspapers.

For New Supply Shared Equity Scheme, it is the responsibility of the developing registered social landlord to promote available homes to prospective buyers.

For New Supply Shared Equity with Developers, it is the responsibility of the home builder approved to participate in the scheme to promote its developments to prospective buyers.

The Scottish Government provides information for buyers on all three schemes at: www.scotland.gov.uk/LIFT.

Police Scotland are continuing to work with health boards to put in place appropriate facilities for the provision of enhanced healthcare and forensic medical services. The position with regard to the number of rooms to be upgraded is still developing but a risk based approach is being taken and the current priority is the upgrade of facilities in the west of Scotland and Fife. It is not possible to confirm how much of the £665,700 has been spent because invoices for completed works have not yet been processed. The full upgrade project is expected to be completed by April 2015; it will not be known until that time whether the work will be delivered within budget.

It is not possible to provide a financial breakdown of costs solely associated with monies spent on healthcare practitioners by legacy policing divisions or forces, due to the manner in which data were held by Police Scotland and legacy forces.

The following table shows the number of unoccupied properties in each local authority area based on the number of dwellings on the council tax valuation list that are entitled to a discount or increase for being long term empty or an exemption for being unoccupied.

As at 2 September 2013

1. Long term empty properties are properties liable for council tax, which have generally been empty for six months or more.

2. Unoccupied exemptions are properties which are empty and exempt from paying council tax.

3. Clackmannanshire Council is unable to separately identify long term empty properties from those that are second homes, and therefore a long term empty figure has not been provided.

Source: Council Tax Base 2013 statistical return provided by councils to the Scottish Government.

The estimated cost of providing this information is over £1880. This is calculated on the basis that the information would require to be manually extracted from claims. Therefore the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

While the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service make every effort to accommodate witnesses, there are occasions when trials, particularly in the High Court, require to be scheduled for dates that do cause inconvenience for some of the witnesses. However, Crown witnesses will only be flown back from holiday to give evidence at a trial when this is absolutely necessary.

The annual Consular Corps dinner was held on 26 March 2014 and was attended by the professional group of the Consular Corps based in Scotland. In light of recent events in Ukraine, the invitation to the Consul General of Russia was rescinded.

The discussion focused on major events taking place in Scotland in 2014.

There are currently 42 primary custody suites across the Police Scotland estate. Since the launch of the single police service on 1 April 2013, all prisoner management arrangements from the eight legacy forces became the national responsibility of Police Scotland’s Custody Division. The custody division provides a single command structure which delivers a professional and consistent model throughout Scotland to support local policing. These new arrangements are helping to optimise capacity and meet demand across the Police Scotland estate, overcoming the previously restrictive force and divisional boundaries. Given flexibility of these new arrangements, it is not possible to provide a breakdown of details of male/female cell capacity or the number of observation cells by police division. Any plans to upgrade cell capacity, is an operational matter for Police Scotland.

The information is not held centrally in the format requested. However, the following table sets out the types and numbers of road ambulances across the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) fleet, broken down by SAS operating division:

*information provided by the Scottish Ambulance Service

Across this fleet, there are 19 Accident and Emergency Units, 117 Patient Transport Vehicles, and 28 mid/urgent tier ambulances that have bariatric capabilities. In addition, the National Risk and Resilience Division operates 66 vehicles across the country, including those utilised by the Special Operations Response Teams.

Police Scotland’s Custody Division has 53 secondary custody suites and 7 contingency suites across Scotland. Since the launch of the single police service on 1 April 2013, all prisoner management arrangements from the eight legacy forces became the national responsibility of Police Scotland’s Custody Division. The custody division provides a single command structure which delivers a professional and consistent model throughout Scotland, which supports local policing. Given the flexibility of these new arrangements, it is not possible to provide a breakdown by each police division.