asked Her Majesty's Government:What written or oral instructions are issued to Advocates Depute regarding the initiation and conduct of discussions with the defence in solemn criminal trials with a view to obtaining reduced pleas, i.e. pleas to lesser crimes than those indicted, and when were such instructions so issued or amended.

No formal instructions of this type have been issued to Advocates Depute. Instructions were, however given to Procurators Fiscal in May 1976 regarding the acceptance of reduced pleas prior to the start of a trial. In terms of these instructions, before accepting a reduced plea, the Procurator Fiscal Depute must, where possible, consult both the Depute who originally marked the case for prosecution and a senior colleague. In certain cases. Crown Counsel's agreement may be sought.In December 1979 I had an instruction issued to Procurators Fiscal encouraging early consultation between the defence and prosecution in an endeavour to accelerate pleas of guilty in whole or in part to avoid the inconvenience of late changes of plea and also to obtain Minutes of Admission in respect of matters not in dispute to release certain witnesses from having to attend Court to give evidence. These arrangements were publicised in legal periodicals at the time.Advocates Depute are aware of these instructions and apply the same criteria in the course of their duties. However, the system is designed to encourage early discussions between defence solicitors and procurators fiscal in solemn as well as summary cases.In January of this year I instructed Crown Counsel that no decision to drop proceedings altogether in any case of murder or rape should be taken before the hearing of evidence has begun, without the question being referred to me for decision. Where Advocates Depute are offered reduced pleas in such cases prior to the trial they refer the matter either to myself or the Solicitor-General whenever possible, giving their recommendation. In those instances where a reduced plea in a case of this type is offered at a late stage and neither of the Law Officers is available, the Advocate Depute must exercise his own professional judgment.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What steps are currently taken by the Lord Advocate or by those answerable to him to make available to the defence in solemn criminal trials copies of Crown precognitions, and whether any changes are proposed in this regard.

The normal practice is that Crown precognitions are not made available to defence counsel or solicitors, although in special circumstances to enable certain trials to proceed expeditiously the Crown has departed from that rule. As a result of discussions with the Law Society of Scotland, it has been the practice, in the last two years, for Procurators Fiscal to give on request to defence solicitors statements of witnesses whose evidence is regarded as formal or technical.I hope to resume discussions on this matter with the Faculty of Advocates, the Law Society of Scotland and the Association of Chief Police Officers (Scotland) over the next few months.

asked Her Majesty's Government:(

The figures for the years requested are as follows:

NUMBER OF PERSON
year	Indicted for murder	Convicted of murder	Where Crown Accepted Reduced Plea of Culpable Homicide	Where Crown Accepted Reduced Plea of Assault
1980	79	25	15	1
1981	82	29	20	1
1982 (to end of October)	93	36	10	4

Year	No. of persons Acquitted	No. of Persons Found Guilty of Culpable Homicide	No. of Persons Found Guilty of Assault	No. of Persons where Crown Accepted plea of Not Guilty	No. of committed
1980	19	16	0	2	1
1981	10	16	3	1	2
1982 (to end of October)	18	10	6	8	1

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they are now able to announce their decisions on public sector housing investment and housing subsidy for 1983–84.

Following discussions with the local authority associations in the Housing Consultative Council, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for the Environment is now able to announce the outstanding decisions on housing capital and current expenditure in 1983–84.Taking capital expenditure first, my right honourable friend is glad to say that gross housing capital provision in 1983–84 will be increased to £3,244 million, which is £137 million above the 1982–83 provision he announced on 21st December 1981 and some £340 million above the expected level of expenditure this year. Housing capital receipts are forecast at £1,402 million, so the net provision is £1,842 million. The gross provision of £3,244 million will be divided as follows:

Home loans scheme	£5 million
New Towns	£61 million
Housing Corporation	£690 million
Local authorities	£2,488 million

The new towns allocation again reflects the fact that the publicity rented programme in the new towns has virtually ended. The remaining investment is concentrated on providing sites for private development, on shared ownership, and on repair and improvement of dwellings prior to transfer to local authorities.The gross provision for the Housing Corporation comprises an allocation of £630 million plus an estimated £60 million of capital receipts. This will maintain the Housing Corporation's enhanced level of investment achieved this year, where the outturn (excluding debt refinancing) is expected to be about one third higher in cash terms than in 1981–82. A substantial expansion of housing association activity has therefore been taking place.The gross provision of £2,488 million for local authorities permits an increase of some 15 per cent. over the current forecast of outturn in 1982–83.As in the two previous years, the housing investment programme allocations to local authorities take account of the fact that local authorities are free to increase their expenditure over and above their allocations on account of a prescribed proportion of their capital receipts. My right honourable friend estimates that in 1983–84 they will be able to undertake at least an additional £684 million of expenditure in this way. £3.2 million must also be allowed for the administrative costs of the homes insulation scheme. Allowing for rounding, the amount to be distributed as HIP allocations is therefore £1,801 million. Of this, some £32 million has been set aside for the homes insulation scheme, though authorities are free to transfer a greater sum to home insulation from elsewhere within their single capital block if they wish. This sum will accommodate authorities' homes insulation scheme bids in full.My right honourable friend announced on 15th November in another place that he would be taking additional steps to assist local authorities to meet the higher level of demand for home improvement grants, following the extension of the higher grants rates until 31st March 1984. Each authority is being notified of a figure for expenditure on improvement grants next year. In most cases the figure represents an amount 10 per cent. above the figure for expenditure on improvement grants which the authority included in its HIP bid. If an authority's actual expenditure on improvement grants in 1983–84 exceeds the indicative figure, an additional allocation will be made available retrospectively if the authority's total HIP allocation would otherwise have been exceeded.My right honourable friend has discussed the method of distributing the HIP allocations for 1983–84 with the local authority associations. My right honourable friend is today informing local authorities of their individual allocations.Copies of the letter to authorities and of the schedule of allocations have been placed in the Library and the Printed Paper Office.Turning to Housing current expenditure my right honourable friend has carefully considered the views of the local authority associations on the consultation papers issued on 8th November on reckonable income for 1983–84 and on reckonable expenditure on management and maintenance for 1983–84. My right honourable friend has decided that he should give effect to his subsidy proposal by determining an increase in the local contribution of £0.85 per dwelling per week for 1983–84. It remains a matter for individual authorities to decide how to finance such a contribution from local sources. On management and maintenance my right honourable friend proposes to increase the expenditure counting towards the subsidy calculation to 7 per cent. above the level assumed for 1982–83.