Seòmar agus comataidhean

I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Court Service to respond. His response is as follows:The feasibility study, which was commissioned after the discovery of dry rot, was prepared with regard to the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act and contains proposals to comply with the requirements of the legislation. No further report has been commissioned.

The ministerial targets set for the Scottish Court Service include targets relating to quality of service. Quality of service in the sheriff courts is measured by the percentage of sheriff courts achieving administrative standards agreed with the Sheriff Principal and by the percentage of court houses meeting the Coming to Court standards. The results are reported in the Scottish Court Service Annual Report and Accounts.

Where a person is accused on petition, all pre-trial procedures are held in private including the consideration of applications for bail. This is because bail applications are considered at hearings which also cover confidential matters.Where a person convicted on indictment applies for interim liberation pending the determination of his appeal, his application is considered in private by the court on the basis of a written submission. I understand that the Crown have a system in place for alerting victims and next of kin when a person convicted of a serious crime is granted interim liberation pending appeal.We are currently considering the full range of issues around interim liberation on bail, in consultation with the Lord Justice General.

I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Court Service to respond. His response is as follows:The Scottish Court Service is currently undertaking an audit of the Court estate to determine the scale and extent of work required throughout the Estate to ensure compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act. Additional resources have been provided to the Court Service to enable any reasonable and necessary adaptations to proceed. The information is not collected centrally in respect of District Courts as responsibility for this rests with the relevant local authority.

I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Court Service to respond. His response is as follows:Tain Sheriff Court has no facility to allow easy access for disabled persons. However Lochmaddy, Dingwall and Portree all have disabled access into the building and disabled toilet provisions. In addition Portree has a stair lift to gain access to the courtroom on the first floor.

I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Court Service to respond. His response is as follows:A number of rural courts have custody suites within the court building. Eleven rural sheriff courts do not have custody holding facilities within the court building. Nine of these (Duns, Fort William, Jedburgh, Kirkwall, Lerwick, Oban, Portree, Stonehaven and Wick) are adjacent to the local police station from which prisoners in custody can be taken into the court without using the public courthouse. In the case of Peebles and Rothesay prisoners are held in the police station which is located a short distance from the court.The Scottish Court Service is currently reviewing the custody accommodation across the court estate in consultation with the police to determine what, if any, improvements to that accommodation is required. No decisions have yet been taken on whether it will be necessary to provide such accommodation in locations other than Peebles.

The Cryptosporidium Directions required Scottish Water to carry out a risk assessment on all its supplies and introduced sampling appropriate to the assessed risk. The Drinking Water Quality Regulator (DWQR) audits the requirements of the directions annually. Following the recent events in Glasgow and Edinburgh I have asked the DWQR to carry out a review of the detailed workings of the directions. The outcome of this review will be available in about two months. In the meantime, my initial assessment is that the investment priorities for 2002-06 given in the Quality and Standards paper published in August 2001 were broadly correct.

Provision of a police station at Peebles is a matter for Lothian and Borders Police. I am not aware of any proposals for upgrading or refurbishing the police station at Peebles nor of any plans for building a combined police station and courthouse at Peebles. No combined police station and courthouse have been built elsewhere in Scotland in recent years.

Yes. The Scottish Court Service will be consulting with Lothian and Borders Police on the options for future provision of court services in Peebles.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:The readily available information is shown in the following table.

Date	Staff in Post	%Age
1 April 1999	250	102
1 August 1999	247	100
1 December 1999	246	99
1 April 2000	246	99
1 August 2000	248	100
1 December 2000	245	99
1 April 2001	239	97
1 August 2001	244	99
1 December 2001	254	99
1 April 2002	278	107
1 August 2002	269	103