The review’s report Changing Lives- Report of the 21st Century Social Work Review (Bib. number 38763), Changing Lives- Summary Report of the 21st Century Social Work Review’ (Bib. number 38764) and Changing Lives- Scottish Executive Response to the 21st Century Social Work Review (Bib. number 38765) will be published on Tuesday 7 February 2006. A detailed implementation plan will be published later in the year. Copies of all three are available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

The report provides a historic opportunity to modernise social work practice and gives focus for the work of social workers to do the things that they are best equipped and trained to do. Social work services must be designed and delivered around the needs of people who use them, their carers and communities. The Executive intends to take a series of actions to move forward issues highlighted in the report.  These will be detailed in the forthcoming implementation plan.

The potential impacts on race equality of the actions referred to in Choosing Our Future will be assessed as the strategy implementation plan is developed and put into effect. An annual summary assessment will be included in public reports on progress in delivering the strategy.

The Executive shares this goal. To develop our response to it we have set up the Strategic Group on Ethnic Minorities and the Labour Market, as detailed in my replies to the associated question S2W-22608 about the group on 1 February 2006. 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/wa.search.

As stated in response to the answer to question S2W-19177 on 3 October 2005, the group’s formal remit will be agreed at its first meeting on 20 February 2006. The short-term outcome of the strategic group will be to produce an action plan to address the current inequalities that exist for minority ethnic communities in the labour market in Scotland.

These are matters which members of the strategic group will wish to consider in developing its action plan.

The group is to be chaired by Dr Charan Gill MBE. The Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning and I will also sit on the group.

We expect tobe able to respond to Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive on the Glasgow Crossrailstudy during the spring.

The available data on closure orders granted by sheriff courts are presented in the following table and cover the period from October 2004 to September 2005. This is also available in the Standing up to Antisocial Behaviour First Anniversary Report:

www.antisocialbehaviourscotland.com.

At present we can only provide information on the number of closures by police constabulary area. However, we will be able to provide the additional information required after 30 April 2006, when we receive the first annual reports on the use of the measures of the act.

Constabulary Area	October 2004 to September 2005 Number of Closure Orders Granted
Fife	4
Tayside	3
Lothian and Borders	1
Strathclyde	1

 

The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) approached the Executive in September 2004 seeking Scottish ministers’ views on extending the operational trial of Taser as a less lethal option for Scottish forces in dealing with firearms incidents. The proposals made clear that the use of these devices would adhere to the ACPO/ACPOS Manual of Guidance on Police use of Firearms; that threat and risk assessments would be conducted so that Chief Constables could be satisfied about their force’s tactical and operational capabilities to deploy this weapon, and that before any operational deployment is made a rigorous training programme would be conducted.

On that basis, ministers supported the decision to use these devices, while recognising that it was an operational matter for chief constables to determine the appropriate response to any firearms incident in the light of circumstances in each case.

The deployment of Taser guns is an operational matter for chief constables. Ministers support the use of these devices in accordance with the policy and operational guidance which has been prepared by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland. Copies of the guidance are publicly available on request through acpos.secretariat@strathclyde.pnn.police.uk.