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Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The Justice Committee continued hearing evidence in relation to the Offences (Aggravated by Prejudice) Bill last week, and also discussed Justice and Home Affairs in Europe with the Justice Secretary. In the Chamber there were questions for the First Minister and for the Law and Justice Officers.
The Justice Committee
Stage 1 of the Offences (Aggravated by Prejudice) Bill
The Committee continued taking evidence as part of the scrutiny of the Offences (Aggravation by Prejudice) Bill last week, hearing from spokespeople from the Equality and Human Rights Commission in Scotland, ACPOS, and the Law Society of Scotland.
The Equality and Human Rights Commissioner welcomed the proposals in the Bill, arguing that it would help criminal justice agencies take crimes motivated by prejudice more seriously than currently occurs, and echoed much of the evidence heard last week that although there are provisions under current common law for such aggravations to be taken into account, the evidence shows that this occurs very rarely in practice. He also spoke about the under reporting of offences that occur in the gay and lesbian communities and the length of time it has taken for police and prosecution agencies to take these crimes seriously.
The spokespeople from ACPOS said that if this Bill were passed it would have a significant impact on the way that police record homophobic crimes, which would result in a more consistent approach nationally, because currently it is up to each individual police force to decide how to code these types of offences. They also said that when it came to prosecuting these crimes, it was more of a problem to get people to come forward and report them in the first place, than to prosecute it once it had been reported, and that this legislation would help to give victims the courage to come forward and ask for these crimes to be taken seriously.
The final panel were from the Law Society of Scotland. In opposition to previous witnesses, they expressed concern that the Bill was doing little more than putting on statute provisions are already contained in common law. They said that although there may be some merit in, for example, sending out a message to the public that homophobic crime is wrong and will be taken seriously, there is also a loss of flexibility that occurs when common law is substituted for statutory offences, which would impose additional burdens on the Crown, and may make cases more difficult to prove.
You can read all the oral evidence from this part of the meeting in this part of the Official Report. You can also access all the information about the Bill on the Bill Homepage
Justice and Home Affairs in Europe
Following this, the Committee were joined by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice to question him about Justice and Home Affairs in Europe (JHA). This follows the Committee’s decision last November that there were a number of issues that were of potential interest tot he Parliament, including Eurojust, Prum, and the applicable law on matrimonial issues. The Cabinet Secretary begun his evidence by saying that in general this Government did not differ that much from the previous Scottish Executive with regard to JHA, although he said they perhaps wished to ‘fly the flag’ more for Scotland and ensure that it be represented as a distinct entity at international justice meetings. The Justice Secretary and his officials spoke about the Prum convention, which makes requirements on member states with regards to the sharing of DNA and fingerprint data, and he said he was happy that they had secured the appropriate balance between individuals’ rights and the rights of communities to be protected. His officials also spoke about the setting up of Eurojust, saying that it has helped to formalise cases in which there are more than one country has jurisdiction to prosecute or investigate.
You can read all the evidence relating to this part of the meeting in the Official Report, and you can also read the briefing papers given to the Committee about current JHA in pages 4 - 26 of the Committee Papers.
Subordinate Legislation
Finally, the Committee considered a piece of subordinate legislation, which would give privileges and immunities to a number of international organisations (and the UK would in return receive the same privileges and immunities abroad). There were some questions raised as to the differences between the immunities given to different officials, however it was also recognised that most of these issues are not reserved to Holyrood, and it was regarded that the international obligations did require following. After a brief discussion, the motion was agreed to.
And you can read this part of the meeting in this part of the Official Report.
You can also watch the whole meeting on Holyrood.TV.
The Chamber
First Minister’s Questions
Knife Crime
Prompted by the Summit on Knife Crime which was to be held the next day in Parliament (see below for more information), the issue of knife crime came up during First Minister’s Questions on Thursday. Iain Gray (Lab) wanted to know why there was no mention of this issue in the recent Government document “Revitalising Justice: Proposals to Modernise and Improve the Criminal Justice System” given that the First Minister is on record as saying he would ‘consider’ the issue of mandatory custodial sentences for those carrying blades. He said that it was not good enough for the Government to say that this was still under consideration, and he called on the Government response to knife crime to be ‘up–front, central, and rapid’. He urged the Government to implement the legislation passed in 2007 which would license non–domestic knives, and he questioned their urgency in dealing with this problem.
Mr Salmond’s reply hinted that Members would be able to bring amendments forward to the forthcoming Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill, which would address any issues they might consider outstanding. He also said that it was important not to demean the work that is currently under way, such as the Violence Reduction Unit based in Strathclyde, which is tackling knife crime. He said that the Government’s proposals on knife crime will be brought forward, though he did not say when, and he said that all legislation has to be correct in its definition and its implications and should therefore not be rushed before it was ready
You can read this question in the Official Report. See also the links below.
Jury Trials
There was a question from Jamie Hepburn (SNP) about the current Government consultation on modernising the jury system, specifically about the response from ACPOS which was in favour of the idea of abolishing jury trials in certain long and complex trials. Mr Hepburn argued that trial by jury is a fundamental pillar of the Scottish justice system and therefore great caution should be exercised before any such move could occur. The Fist Minister said that all the responses to the consultation were in the process of being independently analysed and that this analysis would be published shortly. He emphasised however, that the possibility of abolishing trial by jury was, at this stage they merely wanted to collect the views of the relevant bodies. In response to a further question from Robert Brown (LD) he argued that the question was not whether or not juries were capable of understanding complex information, rather the question was whether it was acceptable to ask people to give up such a long period of their lives if they were to sit as jury on a long trial.
You can read this question in the Official Report, and you can also read the consultation on jury reform including all the responses and the press coverage in the CJScotland Newsblog.Questions to the Law and Justice Officers
Direct Measures
Gavin Brown (Con) asked the Government about the recent summary justice reforms which increased the number of offences for which direct measures could be issued. Gavin Brown argued that the fact that 9% of all charges of assault over a five month period were dealt with by means of a direct measure clearly went against the Government’s assertion that all violent crime should be treated seriously. The Solicitor General for Scotland replied on behalf of the Government and he argued that the guidance given to Fiscals says that only non–serious assaults should be dealt with in this way, and that by using direct measures a great deal of police and court time has been freed up so they are more able to deal with more serious crimes more efficiently. See the press coverage of this story in the CJScotland Newsblog
Serious Fraud Investigations
In his question about the investigation of serious fraud, David McLetchie (Con) accused the Government of the slow implementation of the Tompkins report, which has resulted in the Serious Fraud Office in England and Wales being unable to investigate the possible extent of the alleged fraud committed by Bernard Madoff in Scotland. The Minister for Community Safety, Fergus Ewing, replied that this issue was one for the police and the Crown office to investigate, and he disagreed that the Government have been slow to implement to the recommendations of the Tompkins report.
Reinvestment of Proceeds of Crime
Aileen Campbell (SNP) asked a question which allowed Fergus Ewing to talk about the various social programmes that are being funded by money confiscated from the proceeds of crime, and he confirmed that there was no disagreement between the Scottish and the British Government about how this money is distributed.
Low Moss Prison
Ross Finnie (LD) and David Whitton (Lab) asked a question about the naming of the new prison at Bishopbriggs, which is to replace the old Low Moss Prison. The new prison is in the process of being built, and it has been provisionally named as HMP Bishopbriggs, reflecting its location. This has resulted in considerable disquiet from the local community who would prefer it to retain its old name. The Minister emphasised several times that this was an issue for the SPS to deal with, and not Ministers, and he rejected calls that the Government could influence prison and ask them to change it.
You can read this and all the other justice questions in the Official Report, and watch them on Holyrood.TV.
Summit on Knife Crime
On Friday, there was a summit on knife crime (see FMQs above). Although this was held in the Parliament building, it fell outwith official Parliamentary business because it was not part of any legislative process or Government business. The summit was therefore not covered by the Official Report, although it was filmed on Holyrood.TV should you wish to view it. There was also a Parliamentary news release, and much press comment, which you can read in the CJScotland newsblog (though most of this focused on the absence of the Justice Secretary as opposed to the substantive issues relating to sentencing and knife crime).
Written Questions
There were a number of questions about the Children’s Hearings System and a question about the recently announced extra money to ensure that offenders serving community sentences begin their sentences without much delay. There was a question about the cost of administrating community service orders and a question in which the Minister for Community Safety praised the Street Pastor service . There was a question about the number of offences aggravated by religious hatred, about drink and drug influenced drivers and the average cost per day of administrating a DTTO. There were a number of questions about direct measures (see also questions to the Law and Justice Officers above), and about the breakdown of funding given to tackle gang culture and a number of questions about alcohol rehabilitation in prisons, and finally, there was a question about the rehabilitation of sex offenders
Posted by KM
on Tue 27th Jan 2009
at 8:32 am
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