Criminal Justice in Scotland's Parliament

This part of the site is a weekly review of criminal justice business at Holyrood starting, in its present format, from September 2006. The page is supported by a grant awarded by the Clarke Foundation for Legal Education and is written by our Parliament correspondent, Katrina Morrison.

New: "Handy guide to criminal justice in the Scottish Parliament June 2007 - August 2008".

Glossary: 'Law Officers' = the Lord Advocate and the Solicitor-General for Scotland. 'SPICe' = Scottish Parliament Information Centre

It is possible to view Committee business on the 'Holyrood. TV' archive for up to a month following the date of the meeting.

---

25-29 October: tackling drugs debate; Audit Committee on SPS; Youth Justice Inqu.; disclosure issues

Committees
On the 26th the Auditor General reported to the Audit Committee that he wished to draw the Committee’s attention to the note in the 2003/4 Audit of the Scottish Prison Service about contingent liabilities relating to potential costs of settling with prisoners in ECHR cases.

Also on the 26th the Justice 2 Committee met to (inter alia) consider the next steps in their Youth Justice Inquiry, assisted by their advisor Fergus McNeill. Their discussion can be found from #col.1082. The Committee also had before them a summary of written evidence submitted to the Inquiry and a briefing on youth justice.

The following day the Education Committee agreed their approach to the next stages of the children’s hearings review and heard evidence from Cliff Anderson, deputy director of the Scottish Criminal Record Office, and Brian Gorman, manager of Disclosure Scotland, on disclosure issues. The meetings papers include a useful review of disclosure generally.

The Deputy Justice Minister appeared before the Justice 1 Committee, also on the 27th, to move approval of the Maximum Number of Judges (Scotland) Order 2004 (draft). This would have the effect of increasing the number of Scottish judges from 32 to 34 at the cost of approximately £427,000 pa. In discussion there was some rather confused debate about the link between the these additional permanent appointments and the temporary appointments needed to implement the Bonomy reforms. However, in the end, the motion was carried.

For press coverage of these meetings see
CjScotland 27.10.04: Audit Committee considers report on prisoner escort contract
CjScotland 28.10.04: Youth and children’s groups concern about disclosure and volunteering.
CjScotland 15.11.04: Disclosure may be required for students and teachers in further and higher education.

Chamber
The first major debate following Parliament’s return from the autumn recess was on the following motion about tackling drug abuse in the name of the Minister of Justice.

Tackling Drugs Misuse: Protecting Scotland’s Communities — That the Parliament commends the Scottish Executive’s integrated approach to reducing the supply of drugs and protecting communities from drug-related offending, improving education and information for young people about the risks from drugs and increasing the range and effectiveness of local drug treatment and rehabilitation services to help people to become free from drug dependence.

Amendments were moved by the SNP to “leave out from “commends” to end and insert “agrees that an integrated approach to reducing the supply of drugs, protecting communities from drug-related offending and improving education and information about the risks from drugs is required and that this must provide an increased range and effectiveness of local drug treatment and rehabilitation services to help people to become free from drug dependence which is available at the time each service user takes the step of acknowledging the need for help”:
by the Conservatives to “leave out from “commends” to end and insert “deplores the escalating drugs abuse problem in Scotland and the implicit reliance on methadone harm reduction programmes and calls for a radical change in policy to reduce demand for drugs by providing a route to abstinence and taking more effective action to cut the supply of drugs”:
and by the SSP to leave out from “commends” to end and insert “views with concern the growing problem in our communities due to drug misuse; views the current provision for drug treatment and support as entirely inadequate, and urges the Scottish Executive to work with all agencies with a view to integrating services and ensuring full resourcing allowing a range of appropriate services across communities.”

The debate was opened by the Minister for Justice who noted that “the criminal justice service’s repeat offender is the health service’s repeat patient and the community’s repeat problem”. Estimates are that about a third of all recorded crime in Scotland is drug related. She went on to make a series of announcements relating to tackling the issue. First, that there is to be a seized assets community fund with effect from April 2005. Also in early 2005 there is to be a major Crimestoppers campaign to encourage people to pass on information about drug dealers. Research into both drug testing and treatment orders and the review of treatment and rehabilitation services were published to co-incide with the debate as was a report focussing on the plight of children of addicted parents (“Hidden Harm”).

The Minister stressed that the ultimate aim of Executive strategy is to help addicts to manage their chaotic lifestyle and move on to become drug free.

Other key points in the debate were as follows.

#Col. 11158: call for research into the Swiss model
#Col.11159: drugs in prison
#Col. 11160: call by the Conservatives to abandon harm-reduction policies in favour of a drug-free Scotland with zero tolerance and abstinence
#Col. 11162: critique of the ‘Know the Score’ website
#Col. 11164: short term contracts of drug project workers; call for review of role of DAATs
#Col. 11170: call for de-criminalisation
#Col. 11178: broadly consensual approach of cross party committee on drugs and alcohol
#Col. 11189: urgency of need for immediate treatment
#Col. 11191: robust defence of mixed harm-reduction /methadone and abstinence strategies; detrimental impact of GP contracts on treatment services.

Division: For 88, Against 24, Abstentions 7. The motion was agreed to.

For press coverage of the debate see
CjScotland 1.11.04: Drugs debate in Parliament: low attendance criticised
CjScotland 28.11.04: Drugs debate in Parliament: treatment review published: DTTOs across Scotland by June 2005
CjScotland 28.10.04: Tories criticise drugs information website
CjScotland 29.10.04: Young victims of parent’s addiction.

Posted by MM on Thu 4th Nov 2004 at 3:02 pm
• Permalink • Tell-a-Friend

Page 86 of 91 pages « First  <  84 85 86 87 88 >  Last »