There is no direct relevance of the independent Miners’ Strike Review to the work of the Victims Taskforce, to improve support, advice and information for the victims of crime.

The Catalogue of Initiatives, which makes reference to the Miners’ Strike Review, was developed to provide information about the wider justice policy environment. Entries are intended to provide context and are reviewed and updated on a regular basis.

For individuals who have joined the Victim Notification Scheme, and have expressed a desire to make representations in relation to licence conditions under section 17 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003, Scottish Prison Service will write to seek their representations no less than two weeks before any decision will be taken on release. This includes prisoners who are: on Home Detention Curfew; on temporary release (but only on the first occasion that the prisoner is considered); or being considered for release by the Parole Board for Scotland.

The Children (Scotland) Bill, formerly referred to as the Family Law Bill, was introduced on 2 September 2019.

The Family Justice Modernisation Strategy was published on 3 September 2019. This will set out work that is ongoing by Scottish Government and others; work that can be done via secondary legislation or by improved guidance; areas covered by the Bill; and areas that are for longer term work.

Our Restorative Justice Action Plan https://www.gov.scot/publications/restorative-justice-action-plan/ , published in June, sets a desired outcome of having high quality restorative justice services delivered by trained facilitators.

The Plan also sets out a suite of actions to deliver this outcome, including commissioning a national training needs analysis by Spring 2020, which will identify the skills required and the scale of the requirement for training.

We have established the Victims Taskforce to improve the experiences of victims of crime as they interact with the justice system We have also committed to improving the support and information available to victims and their families in relation to temporary prison release arrangements.

Victims are informed that it is the role of the Scottish Prison Service to ensure that the sentence is served in accordance with the law, to challenge the factors that lead to the offending in the first place and to help individuals prepare for their return to the community better prepared to live a life free of offending should they wish to do so. This includes improving their work prospects by teaching new skills, providing education and work opportunities as well as ensuring that the necessary systems are in place to support the individual as well as manage any risks. However, if a representation (by individuals who have joined the Victim Notification Scheme) contains information which is relevant to risk this may prevent a prisoner from being temporarily released.

Information on the number of officer deployed in ‘on the beat’ roles is not held centrally.

Police Officer Quarterly Strength Scotland (POQS) gives the total number of full-time equivalent police officers employed by Police Scotland. First published as Official Statistics in December 2008, POQS was designed to measure the implementation of the 2007 manifesto commitment to increase officer numbers by 1,000. As such, figures include all police officers appointed by the Chief Constable of Police Scotland and senior police officers appointed by the Scottish Police Authority, excluding those on career breaks.

The latest edition of POQS was published on 6 August 2019, and reports that there were 17,259 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in Scotland on 30 June 2019, up 87 police officers (+0.5%) in the last year, from 30 June 2018 and up 1,025 police officers (+6.3%) from the position at 31 March 2007. In contrast, police officer numbers in England and Wales fell by around 19,000 (13.3 per cent) from March 2007 to March 2019.

Further information on POQS can be found in the Statistical Release Notes that accompany each publication, available online at the following link:

https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PublicationPoliceStrength/POQS2019Q2 .

Deployment of police officers is a matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland. Police Scotland publish sub-national police officer numbers on a quarterly basis in parallel with the Scottish Government’s Police Officer Quarterly Strength Statistics. A link to Police Scotland’s latest sub-national officer numbers publication, providing information on the number of police officers deployed nationally, regionally and within the 13 local policing divisions, is given below:

https://www.scotland.police.uk/assets/pdf/138327/212520/
police-scotland-officer-numbers-quarter-1-30th-june2019?view=Standard .

A person is on life licence until their death. It is not an automatic right to terminate the supervision element of the licence conditions. Supervising officers may submit requests to do so after a period of 10 years or more has elapsed. Termination of supervision will not occur without a full Risk Assessment being carried out. The Parole Board will make these decisions on a case by case basis. However two licence conditions will always remain -

• that they are of good behaviour and keep the peace; and
• they inform the local authority if they are arrested or questioned by the police.

The Parole Board can reinstate the full licence or recall the person back to prison if they do not adhere to the conditions.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

Over the period covered, in the absence of a formal process, no records were kept. However, SPS officials have in the past met informally with victims and/or their families.

More recently, SPS has been working closely with Victim Support Scotland (VSS) to put in place an agreed approach which facilitates dialogue and engagement with victims and families and which dovetails with the support services offered more generally by VSS.

In April 2019, that collaboration led to the launch of a new approach. Since that time 20 life sentence prisoners have become eligible for consideration for temporary release 9 of whom had victims registered with the Victim Notification Scheme, of these, 7 expressed an interest in making representations, with one electing to respond in writing and the other 2 by way of meetings.

The use of exclusion zones as a licence condition for parole is being considered in light of the public consultation on parole. We will reflect on whether the conclusions of this are applicable to temporary release. In addition, in implementing the Management of Offenders (Scotland ) Act 2019 we will be looking at the introduction of new technology, such as global positioning system technology, which presents opportunities to improve the effectiveness of electronic monitoring.

As part of the development of our Restorative Justice Action Plan https://www.gov.scot/publications/restorative-justice-action-plan/ , which was published in June 2019, we undertook a survey seeking evidence on the current use of restorative justice across Scotland. The survey found provision to be inconsistent, with limited opportunities for adults to take part.

This survey, alongside extensive engagement with stakeholders across the justice sector, directly informed our vision set out in the Action Plan to have restorative justice available across Scotland to all those who wish to access it, and at a time that is appropriate to the people and cases involved. The Plan also explains the steps we will take to achieve this vision.