Scottish Parliament e-Brief 

Issue 161, 30^th June 2003

SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER
Parliament is in recess.

IN COMMITTEE
Parliament is in recess.

SECTION 2 - NEWS

War on drugs to continue
On the day the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency (SDEA) published its annual report showing record seizures of drugs, The Scottish Executive is promising that there will be no let up in efforts to win the war on drugs.

Welcoming the successes of the SDEA in the past year - including a near four-fold increase in the weight of Class A drug seizures and a 22% increase in arrests as a result of SDEA activities - Justice Minister, Cathy Jamieson, said that paramount in the fight was getting kingpin drug dealers off the streets of Scotland.

The Executive established the SDEA in June 2000 and is committed to a series of actions to deal with the problems which drug misuse cause, including:

• The Safer Scotland Know the Score communications strategy, with the core message that all drugs are potentially dangerous;
• Piloting Drug Courts to deal with the cycle of drug related offending and give offenders an opportunity to change the direction of their lives; and
• Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) which aim to reduce the amount of crime committed to fund drug misuse, and reduce drugs misuse itself.

Full story

Child protection experts appointed
A team of experts from health, social work, police and education services has been appointed to work with the Executive to drive forward its three-year programme to improve the protection of Scotland's most vulnerable children and young people.

The development of the Child Protection Reform Programme and the involvement of professionals from a range of agencies is part of the Executive's response to the child protection review team's report - It's everyone's job to make sure I'm alright.

During the next six months, the team of six, working with colleagues in the Executive, will work on:

• Developing a Children's Charter, building on proposals being produced by Save the Children, setting out what children should have the right to expect;
• Developing national standards for child protection to be applied across all agencies, to encourage better joined-up working and approaches which will deliver better outcomes for children;
• Producing proposals to ensure that all agencies are jointly involved in inspecting the provision of services for vulnerable children to further break down the barriers between professional groups, and provide greater assurance that these improvements will create a more child-centred system; and
• Reviewing the role and remit of Child Protection Committees, which have a child protection co-ordinating role at local level, and how they might better inform and drive forward reform.

These improvements, will also link with work which is already in hand to implement the Protection of Children (Scotland) Act 2003.

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

Parliament is in recess.

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