Chamber and committees

Operational commonhousing registers are currently maintained in ten local authority areas:

Argyll and Bute; Aberdeen;City of Edinburgh; Inverclyde: Fife; Orkney; Perth and Kinross; Renfrewshire; Shetlands,and Scottish Borders (Hawick pilot).

The planning authorityis responsible for the final content of the local plan and is not therefore obligedto accept the reporter’s recommendations. If the planning authority proposes tomake modifications to the plan, derived either from the agreements reached withobjectors or recommendations made by the reporter then, with the exception of minormatters which do not materially affect the policies and proposals contained in theplan, these must be publicised and the opportunity given to object to them. Objectionscannot however be made at this stage to the content of the original plan.

Improvements to transportinfrastructure in the Dumfries parliamentary constituency are the responsibilityof SWESTRANS and Dumfries and Galloway Council. The Scottish Executivewill continue to work closely with those bodies, in line with the National TransportStrategy, to meet the transport needs of Dumfries.

We are committedto reviewing the modern apprenticeship (MA) programme to ensure that the MAsbeing delivered match skills gaps. In this context, we will take stock ofcurrent provision before taking a view on individual geographical areas and wewill also consider these issues within the context of the Skills Strategy.

ScottishEnterprise, who currently manage the MA programme within Dumfries and Galloway, has allocated £35 million over sevenyears from 2003-10 to its Construction Skills Action Plan for the industryacross the whole network. This money is used to support a wide range ofactivity including apprenticeship training.

The main sources ofinformation on equalities will be our reports on performance in respect of the EqualityStrategy and the public sector duties on equality. We are reviewing the format of the budget documents for 2008-09 onwards, including the presentation of equalitiesinformation.

The SpendingReview is on-going and as a part of this we will establish the detail of ourefficiency programme for 2008-11; this will include the setting of baselinesfor the programme. We will expect public services across Scotland to deliver cash-releasing recurrent efficiency gainsof at least 1.5% per annum across that period.

Work on StrategicSpending Review 2007 is already underway, and the outcome will be announcedin the autumn. I will provide Parliament with further detail shortly.

I refer themember to the answer to question S3W-803 on 12 June 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament's website the search facility for which can befound at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Getting it right forevery child supports many of the Scottish Executive’s objectives. We are keen toprogress action which improves outcomes for children. We will continue to supportmeasures designed to improve practice and remove barriers We are currently consideringwhether the implementation plan and draft legislation brought forward by the previousadministration will support this agenda. This will be considered in the light of the responses to the consultation and learning so far.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-277 on 7 June 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.