Chamber and committees

As local authorities have ageneral duty to deal with emergencies there is no automatic entitlement tospecial financial assistance. In exceptional circumstances, however, localauthorities can apply under the Bellwin Scheme for additional revenue fundingto assist with the immediate andunforeseen costs in dealing with the aftermath of emergency incidents.

Eligible costs under theScheme are subject to a threshold which is set individually for each localauthority and takes account of an assumed amount contained within each localauthority's budget for such occurrences.

I can confirm that to datewe have not received any claims from local authorities this financial year butas these are annual thresholds any local authority which considers that it hasincurred additional, eligible, costs should inform the Executive of the totalsums involved so that the costs can be combined with any future claims madeunder the terms of the Bellwin Scheme within the same financial year.

Scottish Water has no powersregarding the prevention of flooding from private land. In terms of responsibility, under the Sewerage (Scotland)Act 1968, land drainage is the responsibility of the landowner.

The Scottish EnvironmentProtection Agency (SEPA) has no flood prevention functions. SEPA hasdiscretionary powers for the provision of Flood Warning for Scotland andoperates formal flood warning schemes in partnership with Local Authorities andthe police. SEPA also provides advice, on request, to planning authorities onflood risk based on the information held.

The primary responsibilityto protect any land from flooding lies with the owners concerned. Under theFlood Prevention (Scotland) Act 1961, local authorities have a duty to assessthe condition of watercourses in their area and carry out maintenance wherethis would substantially reduce the risk of flooding of non – agricultural landin their areas. They also have discretionary powers to carry out certain othermeasures to mitigate the flooding of non-agricultural land. The Act does notmake a distinction between flooding of non-agricultural land in private orpublic ownership except where a watercourse and the land affected by floodingfrom it are both in the same ownership, other than the local authority; inwhich case the duty on the local authority to carry out maintenance of thewatercourse does not apply.

The White paper Towards aHealthier Scotland set a target to reduce the proportion of women who smokein pregnancy from 29% in 1995 to 20% by 2010. Latest figures available for 2005show that 22.7% of women smoked during pregnancy.

In addition in 2004 the Scottish government set a target to increase the rate of improvement forsmoking during pregnancy in the most deprived areas by 10% by 2008, this meansreducing smoking prevalence by pregnant women in these areas from 35.8% in 2003to 32.2% in 2008. During 2003 to 2005 there was a 11.06% reduction in thenumber of women smoking in pregnancy from the most deprived areas. This exceedsthe 2008 target level.

Our current programme ofinvestment in the trunk road network is available on the Transport Scotlandwebsite at:http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/uploads/documents/Scottish-Motorways-Trunk-Road-Programme-June2007-final.pdf.

I have asked Glenys Stacey,Chief Executive of the Animal Health Agency to respond. Her response is asfollows:

The number of farm animalwelfare inspections carried out by Animal Health in Scotlandduring 2006 and the first six months of 2007 are shown in the following tables.The figures for 2007 have still to be finalised.

Table 1

Welfare Inspections Carried Outby Animal Health During 2006

Enterprise	Number of Inspections
Beef – Breeding	199
Cattle – Growing	70
Calves	35
Dairy Cattle	23
Pigs – Breeding	36
Pigs – Growing	27
Sheep	261
Goats	4
Battery Hens	11
Other Layers	14
Broilers/Breeders	34
Turkeys	2
Ducks	3
Geese	4
Rabbits	3
Horses	3
Other	6
Total Inspections	735

 

Table 2

Welfare Inspections Carried Outby Animal Health to end of June 2007

(figures subject to minorvariation - see note in text)

Enterprise	Number of Inspections
Beef – Breeding	187
Cattle – Growing	86
Calves	53
Dairy Cattle	16
Pigs – Breeding	20
Pigs – Growing	16
Sheep	170
Goats	6
Battery Hens	8
Other Layers	12
Broilers/Breeders	18
Turkeys	1
Ducks	2
Geese	2
Rabbits	1
Horses	1
Other	3
Total Inspections	602

 

The GP (general medical services)contract is under continual review.

The GMS contract iscurrently negotiated at a UK level, with NHS Employers acting, when mandated byall four countries, as chief negotiators with the GP committee of the BritishMedical Association (BMA).

The Scottish government alsomeets with the Scottish GP committee from the BMA on a regular basis to discussspecific issues for Scotland.

The consultation paperseeking views on electronic training aids which administer electric shocks hasstill to be issued. The Executive are presently discussing this issue withinterested organisations and intend to issue a formal consultation paper in theautumn.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:

Registered social landlords (RSLs) can purchase existing properties on the open market for rent or shared equity ownership. RSLs seeking funding to purchase existing properties should provide details of individual project proposals in their annual Strategy and Development Funding Plan submissions. The procedure note for this is available on the Communities Scotlandwebsite:

www.communitiesscotland.gov.uk.

The procedures to be followed are set out in the Housing Association Grant Procedures Guide (August 1997) and, if applicable, the Homestake Administrative Procedures Guide (August 2005) copies of which are available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. numbers 43169 and 43170).