The Scottish Government’s Draft Budget for 2012-13 and Spending Review 2011 was published on 21 September and can be found on the Scottish Government’s website at the following link:
The Justice Committee has agreed to focus its budget scrutiny on two specific areas of (a) prisons, and (b) the courts and legal aid. The Committee would welcome your views on the particular issues below.
Prisons
In the three year period covered by the spending review, proposed funding for the Scottish Prison Service would increase by 3.6% (without making any allowance for the impact of inflation). The Scottish Government’s latest set of prison population projections show that the daily prison population in Scotland is expected to increase from an annual average of 7,964 over 2009-10 to 8,800 by 2014-15. Furthermore, capital funding will also be required for new prisons HMP Grampian and HMP Low Moss.
- Is the Scottish Prison Service budget sufficient to cope with the current and projected prison population?
- Are sufficient funds available to properly maintain the fabric of the prison estate whilst pushing forward with planned development work?
- Are sufficient funds available to properly staff current and planned prisons?
- Are sufficient funds available to provide meaningful activity for prisoners (including activities aimed at rehabilitation)?
The Courts and Legal Aid
In the three year period covered by the spending review, proposed funding for the Scottish Court Service (SCS) would fall by 13% and for Legal Aid by 7% (without making any allowance for the impact of inflation). The SCS provide the people (around 1,500 staff), buildings and technology to support the operation of the courts. (The SCS budget does not cover judicial salaries.) The Legal Aid budget supports those with limited means in relation to both civil and criminal justice. It does this by paying the fees of lawyers in private practice, the salaries of lawyers directly employed by the Scottish Legal Aid Board and grant funding advice services (e.g. in-court advice services).
- What impact will the proposed funding reductions have on the efficient and prompt handling of both civil and criminal cases?
- In what ways could legal aid rules be changed to fairly reflect more limited resources (e.g. through more contributions or restricting the types of case covered) and promote efficiency within the justice system?
- How will the additional costs arising from the Cadder ruling impact on the legal aid budget?
- How will funding cuts impact on access to justice and will any groups be particularly affected?
- What is the future for in-court advice services?
- Will cuts to the SCS budget lead to staff redundancies and/or the closure of courts?
Other issues
- Are there any other issues that you would like to draw to the attention of the Committee?
You may wish to respond to some or all of the specific questions set out above. Alternatively you may prefer to highlight issues that you consider to be of concern in relation to other aspects of the justice budget.
Due to the short timescale available to consider the budget proposals, submissions must be received by noon on Friday 21 October 2011.
How to submit your evidence
Written submissions should normally be limited to around 4 sides of A4 but, if they need to be much longer than this, they should be accompanied by a short summary of the main points. Submissions should be set out in numbered paragraphs. Where the submission refers to existing published material, it is preferable to provide hyperlinks or full citations (rather than extensive extracts). The Committee welcomes written evidence in English, Gaelic or any other language.
Before making a submission, please read the Parliament’s policy on treatment of written evidence by subject and mandatory committees.
If possible, written submissions should be submitted electronically (preferably in Microsoft Word format) by email to:
However you may also make hard copy written submissions to:
Justice Committee
Room TG.01
The Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
EH99 1SP
Any queries about written submissions should be addressed in the first instance to the Justice Committee clerking team at the above e-mail address or on (0131) 348 5220.