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No. The incident is still subject to police procedures.

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

Performance Year	Performance Quarter	Baseline
Year 1	1	408
	2	685
	3	685
	4	685
Year 2	1	651
	2	675
	3	697
	4	690
Year 3	1	664
	2	656
	3	659
	4	700
Year 4	1	636
	2	629
	3	629

No. The Scottish Executive was represented at the Working Party on Substantive Criminal Law in Brussels on 4 to 5 March 2003 by UKRep. Scottish Executive ministers and officials do attend working group and European Council meetings as necessary as part of our regular engagement with the European Union. The Executive's views on devolved issues are taken fully into account in the development of the UK position for working groups and Councils, and Scottish Executive officials remain in close touch with Whitehall on this and other EU issues.

No minister or official attended the meeting. Scottish Executive ministers and officials do attend working group and European Council meetings as necessary as part of our regular engagement with the European Union. However, on this occasion, as explained in the answer given to question S1W-32291 on 16 December 2002, the subject matter of the framework decision is reserved and its implementation is a matter entirely for the UK Government. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_waAny issues of concern arising from the implementation in Scotland of the framework decision would be raised by the Executive with the UK Government. It would be for the UK Government to decide whether or not any such issue merited discussion at the working party meeting. No such issues were, however, brought to the attention of the UK Government.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:I understand that the director has conducted an investigation to ascertain whether there are changes which require to be made ahead of any determination which may be produced by the current Fatal Accident Inquiry.

The Key Performance Indicator (KPI) on cost per prisoner place, set out in the SPS Annual Report and Accounts 2001-02, is based on "design capacity" and not on the actual number of prisoners. The KPI measure is computed in this way to avoid the problems that fluctuations in population numbers would create and to provide a consistent base to measure performance over time.This indicator has been used since the SPS was established as an executive agency in 1993.

The available information is given in the table.Persons with a Charge Proved for Drug-Dealing Offences¹, by Type of Sentence, 2001

Sentence	2001
Number
Total	1,314
Custody
up to 6 months	230
>6 months to 2 years	243
>2 years up to 4 years	93
4 years and over	131
Total	697
Probation2	162
Community service	214
Monetary penalty	195
Other sentence	46
Percentage:
Custody
up to 6 months	18
>6 months to 2 years	18
>2 years up to 4 years	7
4 years and over	10
Total	53
Probation2	12
Community service	16
Monetary penalty	15
Other sentence	4

Notes:1. Where main offence includes illegal importation, production and supply of drugs, and money laundering and other related offences.2. Includes restriction of liberty orders and drug treatment and testing orders.

The Media and Communications Group's out-turn spend in 2001-02 was £3,052,479. The current spend for 2002-03, (as at 31 January 2003), is £2,964,876. We anticipate the total spend in 2002-03 to be in the region of £3.6 million. The effectiveness and efficiency of the group is currently being examined in a Best Value Review.

The numbers of cases involving alleged contravention of environmental protection legislation referred to the Procurators Fiscal Service by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency are set out in the table.

	2001-02	2002-03 (to date)
Cases Referred to Procurator Fiscal Service	70*	43
Cases that Proceeded to Court	44	7
Still On-Going	6	22
(i) Number Led to Convictions	37	7
(ii) Percentage Led to Convictions	84%	100%

Note:*A reassessment of 2001-02 statistics has resulted in a slight alteration to the figures quoted in response to question S1W-25070.

The information requested for the period April 2002 to end December 2002 is as follows:April 2002 to December 2002

Total Reports Received	Total No Proceedings	Delay Police or Reporting Agency	Delay PF	Lack of Court Resources	PF Staff Shortage	Time-Bar
224,779	37,776	11,533	141	0	2	1,861
As % of Total Reports	17%	5%	0.06%	0%	0%	0.8%

There is strict guidance on use of these no proceedings categories by procurators fiscal when marking cases. In particular, the "time-barred" category is only to be used when the offences are time-barred at the time the report is received from the police or other reporting agency.While the overall proportion of cases marked no proceedings has remained steady, the proportion marked no proceedings because of delay in reporting by the police has increased since 2001-02, largely because of reporting problems in the Strathclyde Area. This is attributable by the police to a number of factors around an increase in detection rates, reporting policies, technology and resources. It is a temporary problem, which has been identified and is being addressed by the police, in partnership with the Area Procurators Fiscal in Strathclyde.