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Just now, prisoners stroll out of jail either half way or two thirds of the way through their total sentences. Under the First Minister's new legislation, all prisoners could stroll out of jail half way through their total sentences.
Obviously, however, the provision will have no effect until the bill is brought into force and the new body comes into being. Therefore, as things stand, the commissioner could not take part in the process of appointing the SPSA's first convener and board members.
It shows that in the last quarter of last year, of the 7,000 new addicts referred for treatment, nearly 1,000 waited more than six months just to be assessed for treatment, and 400 waited longer than a year.
He said:"The picture that is presented is a lot of new money going in, some targets being hit, quite a few targets being missed, and quite a few targets which we do not know if they have been hit or not because nobody bothered to check."
Will flexibility be built into the payment schemes? Ultimately, the new systems are simpler, so less scope should exist for the errors that have occurred in the past, because we do not have all the rules about retention periods and suchlike.
As they are not compatible, we need—at the very least—information about how the new regulation can be introduced. We should perhaps ask the Executive for clarification.
We have made it clear that we are prepared and want to produce a new guide for parents that stresses what the respective roles of local authorities and ministers are.
I welcome what Stewart Stevenson said and I agree that a bit more guidance might be helpful to both old and new members. However, I do not think that there is any reason to do nothing.