Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Executive is considering what steps it may be required to take to comply with anyaspects of the Council of the European Union Directive 2003/9/EC which relate todevolved matters.

I refer the member to the answergiven to question S1W-34889 on 31 March 2003. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

This answer provided figuresfor cases of drink-driving for the year April 2001 to March 2002, but it did notinclude figures relating to the Glasgow area due to upgrading work to the computersystem within the Glasgow office. Updated figures have now been obtained, whichinclude data from Glasgow. In the year April 2001 to March 2002, a total of 10,796charges were reported to the procurator fiscal in Glasgow and 97.4% were prosecuted.A decision not to prosecute was taken in only 1.7% of cases.

The balance of 0.9% is accountedfor by cases which were transferred to another court jurisdiction or where theprocurator fiscal was able to include the charge along with another case againstthe same accused person.

A separate charge code foroffences of careless driving involving a road accident fatality was introducedin March 2002. This additional information should enable such cases to beseparately identified in the available statistics on careless driving offenceswhich are proceeded against for 2002 onwards. Final data on court proceedingsconcluded in 2002 are expected to be available by December.

Yes, it offers excellentvalue for money.

Diversionary activitiesincludes a wide variety of services, ranging from early intervention and positivealternatives for young people, to more intensive services aimed at tacklingyoung people's offending. Since 1999, allocations given as part of the LocalGovernment Finance settlement to local authorities for social work andcommunity education, to provide these services has totalled £312.5 million in1999-2000, £317.1 million in 2000-01, £331.1 million in 2001-02, £342.6 millionin 2002-03 and £360.1 million in 2003-04. Elements of local authority fundingfor health and leisure and the quality of life funding have also had a role toplay.

In addition, the Executivehas provided direct funding for these services to local authorities and thevoluntary sector through initiatives like the Changing Children's ServicesFund, the Youth Crime Prevention Fund and the Partnership Drugs Initiative. In1999-2000 there was no direct funding. Since then funding has totalled £0.9million in 2000-01, £7.5 million in 2001-02, £25.2 million in 2002-03 and £22.7million in 2003-04. £1 million was allocated for the summer 2003 initiative, toincrease access to leisure and sporting facilities for 12- to 16-year olds.

There will be continuedinvestment in these and other initiatives to take forward our commitment totackling crime and anti-social behaviour amongst young people.

The data for the Sheriffdom of Glasgow and Strathkelvin was not included in thedata provided in the answer to question S1W-34889. Glasgow Sheriff Court is the only sheriff court within this jurisdiction.

Firearms legislation is reserved. The Anti-Social Behaviour Bill, currently before the UK Parliament, introduces a number of changes to the Firearms Act 1968 which are intended to deal with the misuse of air weapons and to provide for stricter control over air weapons that are especially dangerous. These include raising the age limit at which a young person may own an air weapon from 14 to 17 and a ban on certain types of air weapon.The Executive welcomes these proposals and will continue to work with the UK Government to prevent the escalation of gun culture.

The Scottish Executive has procured a new search engine for deployment on the Scottish Executive website. The simple search component was introduced to the website on 12 February 2003. We are currently working with the solution provider to develop and test the advanced search functionality. The advanced version will be made available on the website as soon as we are satisfied that it meets requirements. The advanced search will provide concept, boolean and pattern searching along with the ability to search some other public sector websites. The Scottish Executive's own website will also be searchable by metadata.

The next meeting of the Firearms Consultative Committee is planned for mid September. A Scottish Executive official is a member of the Committee and is due to attend that meeting. The committee does not disclose details of the business it carries out at individual meetings. Instead, as required by Section 22 of the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988, it prepares an annual report on its work which is submitted to the Home Secretary. That report is then published, usually around the end of each year.

The definition of an expert group is vague, potentially covering a wide range of bodies including non-departmental public bodies, working parties and advisory groups. Information on the establishment and resourcing of all such bodies is not registered and held centrally.