What the budgets have been for (a) prison visiting committees and (b) the Association of Visiting Committees in each of the last three year…

I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:
The following table details the direct budgets allocated to and spent by prison Visiting Committees (VCs), the Association of Visiting Committees and Legalised Police Cells Visiting Committees over the last three fiscal years:

| 2007-08
Budget
| 2008-09
Budget
| 2009-10
Budget

Allocated
| Spent
| Allocated
| Spent
| Allocated
| Spent

Prison VC Budgets
| £37,050.00
| £40,933.44
| £44,200.00
| £41,076.90
| £41,527.49
| £44,380.07

Legalised Police Cells VC
| £3,158.75
| £4,642.57
| £3,158.75
| £3,865.61
| £3,158.75
| £4,021.94

AVC Budget
| £27,241.25
| £26,671.83
| £27,241.25
| £25,945.34
| £27,241.25
| £27,103.50

Total Budget
| £67,450.00
| £72,247.84
| £74,600.00
| £70,887.85
| £71,927.49
| £75,505.51


In addition to these direct running costs, which are administered by the SPS on behalf of Scottish ministers, there are additional costs for covering expenses incurred by elected councillors who fulfil the VC member role. The SPS does not record these additional expenses.
There are also in-year costs for one-off expenditure such as recruitment advertising for new VC members which is borne by SPS.