Chamber and committees

We welcome the wide-ranging10-year targets for each of the goals within the Equal Opportunities Commission’sGender Agenda, which was made publicly available on 23 August 2007.

As required by the Gender Equality Duty, which came intoforce in April 2007, the Scottish Government has published its Gender Equality Scheme,setting out the Government’s high level objectives for delivering on gender equality.These include objectives on some of the 10-year targets within the Gender Agenda.For example, there are objectives on closing the gender pay gap, addressing occupationalsegregation, ending pregnancy discrimination at work and violence against women.The scheme is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib.number 42934).

We will, however,be considering how best to engage with the targets as set out by the EOC in thecoming months, this will be best achieved as part of the annual reporting processrequired by the Gender Equality Duty and our own commitment to revise the schemein light of the priorities of this administration. We will be revising and reportingon our Gender Equality Scheme between December 2007 and March 2008.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-3626 on 6 September 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The availablestatistics on court proceedings and recorded crime cannot be combined in anymeaningful way to derive rates of conviction. However, the available statisticsdo illustrate that the conviction rate for rape, in particular, is very low.

The prosecutionof rape presents a particular challenge. It can be very difficult to obtaincorroborated evidence to convince a jury of the accused’s guilt beyondreasonable doubt. Prosecutors cannot raise proceedings where there is insufficientevidence in law to do so. In cases where the accused does not deny the act ofsexual intercourse but maintains that the complainer consented, the trial mayfocus entirely on the question of whether the complainer consented to sexualintercourse with the accused.

The ScottishGovernment is committed to addressing the low conviction rate for rape andserious sexual offences. It is clearly very important to have a robust legalframework that reflects the values of modern society. That is why we haveannounced that we will introduce a Bill on rape and sexual offences in thelight of the Scottish Law Commission’s forthcoming report.

It is equallyimportant that we ensure that cases are handled as effectively as possible. TheCrown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s Review of the Investigation andProsecution of Rape and Sexual Offences recommended improved specialisttraining and guidance to prosecutors. The implementation programme is wellunderway with 18 recommendations having been implemented and work ongoingtowards full implementation by June 2009.

Students domiciledin England, Wales and Northern Ireland are liable for a tuition fee of £1,735 peryear for general degree courses and £2,760 for medical courses. There are currentlyno plans to change this and no agreement in this area has been signed.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-3626 on 6 September 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The draft regulationswhich were the subject of recent consultation proposed that a seller would be allowed toalter the information contained in a property sale questionnaire.

The published Partial Regulatory Impact Assessment for the Single Survey (page 33) concluded that the provision of Single Survey by sellers would be unlikely to inflate house prices artificially. House prices are more likely to be influenced by macroeconomic factors such as interest rates.

The partial Regulatory Impact Assessment is available at:

http://www.communitiesscotland.gov.uk/stellent/groups/public/documents/webpages/cs_014679.hcsp.

The rolling stockprocurement plan continues to be developed by Transport Scotland alongside the wider procurement plan to address the requirementsof both the Major Projects, including Airdrie to Bathgate, and the increasing demandsfor rail services. Transport Scotland is confident that it can successfully procurethe rolling stock needed to continue growing Scotland’s railways, and the procurement plan is on schedule to meet the deliverydeadline for the Airdrie to Bathgate project of December 2010.

The procurement ofrolling stock for the Airdrie to Bathgate project is an operating rather than capitalcost, and therefore has no impact on the £300 to £375 million capital cost projectionfor the Airdrie to Bathgate project.

Transport Scotland has the operational responsibility for this area andcan be contacted for more information if required.

NHS Quality ImprovementScotland published a national overview in 2006 thatreviewed services across the country against four Quality Indicators for LearningDisabilities selected as strongly representative of key elements of hospital closure.These were making sure services are in place to meet people’s needs when hospitalsare no longer there; in-patient services for those who need them, and ensuring thetransition into the community is planned in partnership with people with learningdisabilities, their carers and local communities and involving people in decisionsabout their lives.

They found improvementsto all of these areas and also set out a number of recommendations for continuedimprovements to offer better services for children and adults with learning disabilitiesand their carers.

Research carriedout by Tribal Consulting Limited titled The Potential Impact of the SingleSurvey on the Property Industry’ examined the ability of the surveyingsector in Scotland to handle the increase in demand for surveying services fromthe introduction of the single survey. The research concluded that the existingcapacity of the surveying sector would be sufficient.The researchreport is available at: http://www.communitiesscotland.gov.uk/stellent/groups/public/documents/webpages/pubcs_017893.pdf.