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The Scottish Executive recognises the important role thevoluntary sector plays in partnership with schools and education authorities, notonly providing direct support and services to pupils facing exclusion, but alsohelping to tackle the wide range of social problems within communities that cancontribute to children’s difficulties in education.

The requirement to registeris an automatic requirement arising from a conviction or finding for a sexualoffence.  All of the sexual offences under the law of Scotland areunderpinned by penalties that reflect the seriousness of the crime and enablethe appropriate punishment of the offender.  Following registration, it is theresponsibility of the police in collaboration with the local authority socialwork services and other relevant agencies to carry out a risk assessment thatwill include an assessment of the level of violence and threat to society aswell as other factors.

At 31 March 2004, the number ofsex offenders recorded by the Scottish Criminal Record Office as being registeredwith Scottish Police Forces was 2,244.

The Crown Office andProcurator Fiscal Service began introducing the first phase of the future officesystem (FOS) on 24 November 2003 at the Procurator Fiscal’s Office in Linlithgow andthe implementation is scheduled to finish at the Procurator Fiscal’s Office in Glasgow inJune 2004. By 23 March 2004 FOS was in usein half the Procurator Fiscal’s offices in Scotland.

I have asked John Ewing,Chief Executive of Scottish Court Service to respond. His response is asfollows:

The current phases of therefurbishment of Dumbarton Sheriff Court include major repairs to the roof, refurbishment of the external stonework, the creation of four new Sheriff Chambers and improvementof the custody suite.

This work will be completedin early April 2004 and the facility will be fully occupied by May 2004.

The Scottish Executive is today publishing its consultation “Proposals to revise existinganimal welfare legislation”. This is being placed in the Parliament’s ReferenceCentre (Bib. number 31992) and on the Scottish Executive website. It is being madewidely available and we would encourage all organisations, business andindividuals with an interest to respond.

The functional split of staff is provided in the table:

	1/4/99	1/4/00	1/4/01	1/4/02	1/4/03	1/3/04
Legal Staff (inc. trainees)	302	319.4	350.7	367.4	402.4	426.8
Administrative staff	680.4	711.5	719.8	759	853.1	882.5
Precognition Officer (PO)	83.4	85.7	91.5	103.6	103.1	113.8
Policy staff (legal & trainees)	*	*	*	14.6	12	12
Policy staff (administrative)	*	*	*	7.1	7.1	10.6
Permanent Staff Total	1065.8	1116.6	1162	1251.7	1377.7	1445.7

Note:

*Prior to 2002 the figures for Policy staff were recorded within the cumulative total and are therefore not recorded separately

The distribution of staff as at 1 March 2004 is as follows:

	Legal Staff	Administrative Staff	Precognition Officer	TOTAL
Grampian	29	34.8	6	69.8
Highland and Islands	16	26.3	2	44.3
Central	16	36.5	7	59.5
Tayside	29	47.5	7.4	83.9
Fife	19.2	34.6	4	57.8
Lothian and Borders	55.6	110.7	12.3	178.6
Argyll and Clyde	37.2	60.7	9.4	107.3
Ayrshire	22.2	36.4	6.3	64.9
Dumfries and Galloway	10	17.6	1	28.6
Lanarkshire	45.1	74.9	8	128
Glasgow	88	174	45.4	307.4
High Court, Edinburgh	1	2	-	3
High Court, Glasgow	3	11	2	16
VIA*	-	45.7	-	45.7
Crown Office (including new Criminal Confiscation Unit and Civil Recovery Unit)	67.5	180.4	3	250.9
Totals	438.8	893.1	113.8	1445.7

Note:

*VIA has staff located in Aberdeen, Airdrie, Dumfries, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hamilton, Inverness, Kirkcaldy, Paisley, Stirling and Kilmarnock.

Figures in both tables are calculated on a full time equivalent basis and do not include staff on unpaid leave (including unpaid sick and maternity), career break, secondments out of the Department or casual staff.

The Victim Information andAdvice (VIA) service is available in all Fiscal Areas. At present, thefollowing districts are covered:

Paisley, Kilmarnock, Stirling, Dumfries, Kirkcudbright,Stranraer, Kirkcaldy, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Banff, Elgin, Peterhead, Stonehaven, Inverness, Airdrie, Hamilton, Lanark, Edinburgh and Dundee.

These districts account for 73% of the totalcaseload of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).

COPFS is committed to makingthe service available to the whole of Scotland by the end of 2004.

Together with the HomeOffice and the Northern Ireland Office, I am today publishing revised Guidelinesfor Special Branch Working in the UK. The guidelines were produced inconsultation with the police service, the Security Service and other relevantpartners.

The new guidelines describe,for the first time in a publicly available document, the roles andresponsibilities of Special Branch in the UK; the legislative framework within which theyoperate; and the manner in which Special Branch work is co-ordinated across theUK.

As part of the Department’songoing modernisation programme, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Servicehas recently begun the implementation phase of its Future Office System (FOS).

FOS is an electronicworkflow and document management system which will streamline much of theadministrative and clerical work undertaken, including that arising frominitial decision making.

It was envisaged that staffsavings would be realised following implementation and that these savings wouldoccur primarily at the basic administrative grade.

In order to minimise anypossible redundancy situation, it was agreed, with trade union support, to fillvacancies at that level which occurred in the last 9 months on a temporaryfixed term basis in the expectation that a significant number of these postswould no longer be needed in 2004-05 and in order to avoid the need for redundanciesof permanent staff. The use of temporary or casual staff has indeed allowed thedepartment to avoid making staff redundant.