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

Establishment	Cost (£ million)	Number of Cells
HM Prison Edinburgh	18	224
HM Young Offenders Institute Polmont	17	211

 

Although the Abolition of FeudalTenure etc. (Scotland) Act received Royal Assent in 2000 it will not take effectuntil 28 November 2004. Local authorities will have until November to preservecertain special types of right and even after that they will still be able to preservetheir rights over housing estates where they retain some properties. After the feudalsystem is abolished, local authorities will have to modify their practice when sellingland to take account of the types of title conditions which will be permitted infuture. The process by which authorities may preserve rights over housing estateswas simplified following consultation with authorities when the legislation wasbeing considered.

The Executive wrote to the Chief Executives and principal legal officers of all Scottish local authorities on 7 May 2003, outliningthe main areas of reform and suggesting actions which councils might wish to consider.The Executive will be producing further general guidance on its programme of propertylaw reform later in 2004.

No funds have been made available.It is difficult to predict the administrative costs to local authorities arisingfrom the abolition of the feudal system, but it is expected that these can be metfrom existing resources. As with any other individual or corporate body, it is amatter of choice for the local authority as to what, if any, action it wishes totake. The legislation does not require any action generating unavoidable costs forcouncils.

It is unlikely that local authoritieswill have incurred much expense to date, as the feudal system will not actuallybe abolished until 28 November 2004. It is currently possible for authorities to registernotices in the property registers in order to save certain types of feudal rightand authorities have been advised of the best way to ensure that they will retaina say in relation to housing complexes where they still own some of the properties.It is not anticipated that authorities will wish to use a large number of notices,and so the registration costs should not prove to be significant.

Prior to the introduction ofStamp Duty Land Tax, there were discussions between the Inland Revenue, the JusticeDepartment and the Law Society of Scotland in relation to the implications for Scottishproperty transactions. Registers of Scotland were also consulted in respect of the impact Stamp DutyLand Tax would have on the two property Registers (the Land Register of Scotlandand the General Register of Sasines). Those discussions resulted in a special arrangementfor certain transactions where there may be a risk to the purchaser if the titledeed is not submitted quickly for registration in the appropriate property register.

It is not possible to anticipatewith any accuracy the annual cost to the board of cases presented to the SupremeCourt. The number of cases in any year is likely to be small and the costs willvary depending on the needs of each case. However, Scottish ministers do not expectthat the costs each year will be greater than that which would have arisen in theHouse of Lords and Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

We do not expect the changesin Stamp Taxes announced in the UK March Budget to have a significant impact oneither the Executive or local authority budgets.

The figures requested are asfollows:

2003-04	Time-Bar	Delay Police/RA	Delay PF	Lack of Court Resources	PF Staff Shortage
Aberdeen	1	155	0	0	0
Airdrie	399	494	18	0	0
Alloa	4	20	0	0	0
Arbroath	0	47	0	0	0
Ayr	11	231	0	0	0
Banff	1	22	0	0	0
Campbeltown	0	6	0	0	0
Cupar	0	51	0	0	0
Dingwall	10	13	9	0	0
Dornoch	0	1	0	0	0
Dumbarton	0	117	5	0	0
Dumfries	14	48	1	0	0
Dundee	47	101	3	0	0
Dunfermline	12	51	3	0	0
Dunoon	1	26	0	0	0
Duns	4	5	0	0	0
Edinburgh	492	1,128	81	0	0
Elgin	3	26	1	0	0
Falkirk	101	89	115	0	0
Forfar	3	2	0	0	0
Fort William	0	9	1	0	0
Glasgow	957	1,812	77	0	0
Greenock	23	34	0	0	0
Haddington	1	63	0	0	0
Hamilton	226	485	10	0	0
Inverness	17	93	23	0	0
Jedburgh	0	2	2	0	0
Kilmarnock	23	178	0	0	0
Kirkcaldy	75	108	0	0	0
Kirkcudbright	3	3	1	0	0
Kirkwall	1	6	0	0	0
Lanark	10	11	0	0	0
Lerwick	0	12	0	0	0
Linlithgow	47	122	0	0	0
Lochmaddy	0	4	0	0	0
Oban	1	7	2	0	0
Paisley	23	153	10	0	0
Peebles	0	7	0	0	0
Perth	5	61	2	0	0
Peterhead	0	4	0	0	0
Portree	0	7	0	0	0
Rothesay	2	4	0	0	0
Selkirk	3	54	0	0	0
Stirling	40	64	8	0	0
Stonehaven	0	2	0	0	0
Stornoway	0	2	0	0	0
Stranraer	0	8	0	1	0
Tain	1	6	0	0	0
Wick	1	7	0	0	0

 

The effective partnership workingbetween Strathclyde Police and the Strathclyde Area Procurators Fiscal has maintainedan overall reduction in the number of cases marked no proceedings because of policedelay in Strathclyde of around 70% when compared to the previous year. Nationally,the number of cases marked no proceedings because of police delay has reduced byaround 60%.

I refer the member to the answergiven to question S2W-7724 on 5 May 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

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

The Scottish Prison Service’sKey Performance Indicators do not specify a number of prisoners.