Chamber and committees

The process for revoking or varyingthe Order is complex and set out in section 26 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act1973. The varying order must be prepared in draft form and copies sent to the localor public authorities and community councils concerned, and public notice must begiven. Representations may then be made within two months of the publication of the notice. I would then need to consider any representations made, and if I thinkfit, make an order either in the form of the draft or subject to modifications.Given the time issues involved, I do not intend to revisit the order prior to theelection. However, this does not preclude a review of this in the future.

No. Local authorities havepowers under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to make, and vary, TrafficRegulation Orders specifying parking charges at designated parking placesthroughout their local authority area. The parking charge tariffs set byindividual local authorities are therefore a matter for themselves in thecontext of traffic restraint measures within their wider transport policies andstrategies.

Transport Scotland monitorsthe trunk road network annually to identify accident cluster sites and implementsan annual programme of road safety improvements as well as a number of largerschemes, most of which bring road safety benefits.

In addition we support RoadSafety Scotland in their on-going campaigns.

The final evaluation of the pilotschemes for use of Supervised Attendance Orders on a mandatory basis in Glasgow and Ayr is publishedtoday and is available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/Recent.I am pleased to say that the report is broadly positive and found that the pilotsresulted in a significant reduction in the number of offenders sent to custody forfine default.

On the strength of the successof the pilots and the Sentencing Commission’s support for extended use of SupervisedAttendance Orders I have decided to provide additional resources to allow operationof Supervised Attendance Orders on a mandatory basis across all courts from summer2007.

Yes, the new dental bursary isavailable only to students studying in Scotland.

The main purpose of the bursaryscheme is to encourage students, who are studying at the dental schools in Scotland, toremain in Scotland and take up working in the NHS dental services in Scotland aftergraduation.

Yes. Applications for additionof stoma appliance products to the Scottish Drug Tariff are now considered by theStoma Nurses Commodity Advisory Panel, which is planned to meet next during January2007.

The Custodial Sentences and Weapons(Scotland) Bill was introduced to Parliament on 3 October and is currently subjectto Stage 1 consideration by the Justice 2 Committee. Subject to Parliament’s approval,the Executive anticipates that it would receive Royal Assent in April 2007 and couldcome into force from June 2007. The provisions on swords will not all come intoforce immediately as it will be necessary to prepare regulations to implement therestrictions on the general sale of swords and introduce licensing for the saleof swords and non-domestic knives. These regulations will be the subject of consultationwith local authorities and others with an interest before a final decision is takenon the timing of their implementation. The regulations will also be subject to parliamentary scrutiny in the usual way.

The Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill will enable ministers to make exceptions to a banon the sale of swords for legitimate religious, cultural and sporting purposes.The Policy Memorandum for the bill makes clear that Scottish Highland dancing isrecognised as a part of our rich cultural heritage and will be one of the exceptionsto the general ban on the sale of swords. Highland dancers will therefore be ableto continue buying swords for use at their classes and competitions.

The provisions of the CustodialSentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill do not change the law on the carrying of swordsin public.

It is an offence under section49 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 to have any article which has a blade or issharply pointed in a public place without good reason or lawful authority. Any individualinstance will be a matter for the police, and ultimately the courts, but transportinga highland dancing sword to and from classes or competitions would generally appearto be a “good reason”.

We have Scotland widetargets to recycle or compost 25% of municipal waste by 2006 and 30% by 2008. Insupport of these national targets, each local authority has made a separate commitmentto recycle or compost a certain level of waste linked to their Strategic Waste Fundphase 1 award. Thirteen authorities have met or exceeded their commitments to date.

Sharing examples of best practicehas many benefits and we would certainly encourage local authorities that performless well than others to learn from experience elsewhere. Potential examples ofgood practice are many and varied and include such things as: methods of kerbsidecollection; use of recycling centres and points, and use of underpinning educationand awareness campaigns.