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Building a Sustainable Scotland: Sustainable Development and the Spending Review 2002
JUSTICE
To create a safer and fairer Scotland
The justice system contributes directly to environmental protection when breaches of the law are dealt with in court. Over 200 cases a year of environmental crime, ranging from the pollution of watercourses to the illegal killing of wildlife, are dealt with in Scottish courts. We are proposing to make more substantial penalties for wildlife crime, including custodial disposals, available via the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill.
The justice system invests over 1.4 billion each year in making Scotland safer and fairer, and this investment is also used to contribute to a more sustainable Scotland, concentrating on the priorities of resources, energy and transport, but also through increasing awareness of sustainability issues through training of those inside the justice system.
All Scottish police forces are taking action in pursuit of sustainable development issues in a variety of ways, including making greater use of environmental friendly products and services, and reducing waste and recycling. All forces have environmental policies, and ideas and information are shared on the Estate Managers Group. The substantial level of capital investment available to Scottish forces enables them to provide buildings which have a reduced environmental impact when older accommodation is replaced, and to contribute to reduced exhaust emissions by phasing-in some LPG-fuelled cars when replacing the existing vehicle fleet.
Justice agencies work together in the Scottish Prisons, Police, Courts and Fire Service Energy Management Network "Share fair", part of the Energy Efficiency Best Practice programme. This has already achieved substantial results, for example:
in 2001-2002 Lothian and Borders Police achieved a target of an energy use reduction of 0.75% and was awarded Energy Efficiency accreditation in December 2001 by the Institute of Energy under a scheme managed by the National Energy Foundation;
the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) reduced total energy consumption by 1% in the same period; and
the Scottish Court Service has already reduced energy use across the whole estate by 35% through energy management and plans further reductions in accordance with its environmental policy statement.
The major investment programmes planned for the Scottish Prison Service will be an opportunity to reduce energy costs further and to ensure high environmental standards. All prisons have been subject to an environmental audit, and have "Green Teams" to focus on environmental issues.
The Scottish Court Service, like the SPS, operates in accordance with a comprehensive environmental policy, which deals with the conservation of energy, water, wood, paper and other resources; reducing waste through repairing, redeploying, reusing and recycling surplus equipment; monitoring discharges and emissions; continuing to phase out ozone depleting substances and volatile organics; minimising the release of greenhouse gases, vehicle and other emissions.
Reduction in the requirement for unnecessary travel should result from a range of changes planned in the justice system. The planned arrangements to integrate police and prison service movements of persons in custody into one single contact should reduce the overall volume of prisons travel. Potential suppliers will be evaluated against Scottish Executive Environmental Policy standards.
Increasing use of video technology inside the justice system - from prisons to courts, for example - will reduce unnecessary prisoner movements and travel to meetings. Legislation to allow greater use of video technology is before Parliament and the justice budget will support its introduction. Similarly, greater integration of the computer systems of justice agencies through the Integration of Scottish Criminal Justice Systems (ISCJS) project is already improving communication and scheduling while reducing paper and faxed communications.
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