Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Summary Justice ReviewCommittee held its final meeting on 22 January. I have now received a copy of the text of the Committee’s final report. Arrangements for publication arecurrently being considered.

All of the services listedin the answer given to question S2W-4968 will continue to be funded by NationalServices Division from 1 April 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can befound at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

The investment programmes of the registered social landlords which have acquired stock in the three wholetransfers to date include a commitment to both central heating and other energyefficiency measures.

The Warm Deal managed byEaga delivers insulation measures across all sectors of the housing stock.Local authority stock that has been transferred and the stock of registeredsocial landlords will benefit from that part of the Warm Deal programme.

We see the management of tenancy deposits as an integral part of good management and so do not at present have proposals to establish a separate system for controlling the management of deposits.

We are committed to encouraging high standards of management in the private rented sector. The work done so far to take forward the partnership agreement commitment to develop core standards for voluntary accreditation schemes has included the issue of tenancy deposits and their return. The Housing Improvement Task Force has recommended strengthened powers of regulation to complement the voluntary route of accreditation and, as I said on 16 December when I announced by response to the task force proposals, we will explore the possibility of a national registration scheme for all private landlords.

The statistics suggest thatoffenders given community service orders generally have lower reconvictionrates than those discharged from a custodial sentence, although this differenceis less pronounced when the age and number of previous convictions of offendersare taken into account.

The figures are in the StatisticalBulletin CrJ/2003/1 published in March 2003 which provides data on reconvictionrates of offenders discharged from custody or given non-custodial sentenced in1997. The statistical bulletin is available in the Parliament’s ReferenceCentre (Bib. number. 27185).

The Executive is alwaysinterested to learn from the experience of other jurisdictions. This is why I amvisiting the United States of America next month to see at first hand if there are lessonswe can learn for the Scottish criminal justice system, including from theoperation of community courts.

I have asked Tony Cameron,Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is asfollows:

The current aim, subject toplanning permission being granted at Low Moss and Addiewell and to thenecessary financial provision being approved, is for the building of theproposed new prisons to commence in 2005.

Issues relating to thecurriculum offered by further education colleges are a matter for their boardsof management and for the Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC),which has overall responsibility for ensuring the adequate and efficientprovision of further education in Scotland. Ministers fully support the work being undertaken throughoutthe sector aimed at ensuring the provision of further education in a way whichprovides the maximum value for the record sums being invested in the sector.That includes the current consideration by the Glasgow colleges and SFEFC ofboth curriculum and estates configuration.

The Scottish Executive is committed to a world class further education sector which deliversthe maximum value for the record levels of funding now being invested. We lookto the colleges’ boards of management to work together, where possible, to identifyareas where efficiencies can be secured and further education delivered in themost rational way, to the ultimate benefit of the students and communitiesserved by the colleges. It is encouraging that discussions are continuingbetween Glasgow’s five city centre colleges on their future estatesconfiguration, but I am not aware that a proposal to merge the colleges hasemerged from these discussions.

The Scottish Executive and the Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC) are engagedin regular dialogue on a wide range of issues and developments across thefurther education sector in Scotland. Part of that dialogue involves the provision ofinformation and advice by SFEFC to ministers, including on a recent request bythe boards of Glasgow College of Building and Printing and Glasgow College ofFood Technology that ministers approve the merger of the colleges.