Chamber and committees

I have asked Tony Cameron,Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is asfollows:

Twelve.

The £3 million Gypsy/Travellersite grant, which was introduced in 2005 and was intended to fund site improvementsby local authorities over three years, has all been allocated. Payments have beenmade to individual local authorities in 2005-06 and 2006-07, and will continue into2007-08 as the remaining projects complete.

Communities Scotland providesguidance on local housing strategies on its website to support local authoritiesin meeting the housing needs of all communities in their area, including the Gypsy/Travellercommunity. In addition, the two thematic studies undertaken by Communities Scotlandin 2002 and 2006 into services for Gypsies/Travellers have made recommendationswhich should help local authorities better meet the needs of Gypsies/Travellers.The Scottish Executive has also published guidelines to assist local authoritiesto better manage cases of unauthorised camping. These guidelines include adviceabout assessing and taking into account the needs of Gypsies/Travellers as partof managing such encampments. Finally, the National Strategy and Action Plan onRace Equality, which will be published after May, will reflect the findings fromthe recent Ministerial Strategic Group on Gypsies/Travellers and should provideadditional guidance to local authorities.

Award of the Gypsy/Travellersite improvement grant was on the basis of improvements to the quality of life andfacilities offered to site residents, identified by individual local authorities.The grant is being spent on a range of improvements including upgrading and modernisingwashing and cooking facilities, provision of community and children’s facilities,insulation and improvements to the general environment and site security.

The Gypsy/Traveller Site Grant is managed by CommunitiesScotland through the Private Sector Housing Grant (PSHG) awarded to local authorities.If there is any under spend by local authorities in 2006-07, Communities Scotlandwill look to make available resources to enable councils to complete the projectssubsequently, within the budgets already agreed.

The members of the groupreviewing the content of the booklet A Can of Worms are representatives of thefollowing organisations:

Fife Health Board

British PsychologicalSociety

Royal College of Psychiatrists

Health in Mind

Association of Directors ofSocial Work

Scottish Association for MentalHealth

Scottish Executive MentalHealth Division

Scottish Executive AdultSupport and Protection Unit

Scottish Executive NationalReference Group on Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-31837 on 1 March 2007. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility forwhich can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The notes of each meeting of the National Reference Group are cleared at the subsequent meeting by referencegroup members, and published on the Scottish Executive website after they havegone through the normal procedures. All minutes of meetings of the NationalReference Group to date have been published, with the exception of the note ofmeeting of 19 January 2007 which requires to be cleared by the group at theirnext meeting of 27 April. A note of the away day which was held on 27 October 2006 isalso available on the website.

The review group iscontinuing, by correspondence, its consideration of the text and any changes toit. The group aims to complete this work as soon as possible.

The A Can of Worms bookletis not currently being distributed by the Scottish Executive in any form.