Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive and the UK Government recently announced targets for road accident casualty reductions in the period to 2010. These include a 50% reduction in the number of child fatal and serious casualties. The targets, together with a strategy for achieving them, were published on 1 March.

The Scottish Executive will take into account the findings of the research report Road Accidents and Children Living in Disadvantaged Areas, published by the Scottish Executive Central Research Unit on 19 April, when targeting road safety campaigns for disadvantaged areas.

Research published recently by the Scottish Executive found that child pedestrians from socio-economically disadvantaged families have a higher risk of injury in road accidents than children in higher socio-economic groups and that injuries tend to be of greater severity. The research suggested that the link between social deprivation and the high accident rate of child pedestrians may be partly explained by increased exposure to hazardous environments, such as busy roads with a lack of safe crossing sites, the location of schools within the community and the availability of and access to safe play areas. These factors, compounded by a lack of adult supervision of younger children, appear to exacerbate road accident rates in disadvantaged areas.

Research to be commissioned by the Scottish Executive later this year will consider road safety initiatives in deprived areas. In particular, the research will establish the extent and type of community road safety initiatives in Scotland, focusing on deprived areas. It will compare different types of initiatives and consider best practice. Guidelines to be produced in the light of the research will advise local authorities and community organisations on how to establish and run a road safety initiative.

The Scottish Executive will continue to fund the operation of the Children's Traffic Club in Scotland to ensure that road safety education is available free to all three and four year old children in Scotland. Research published last year found that the club was having a positive effect on both the members and their carers.

The format of the Children's Traffic Club in Scotland is being revised. Changes are being made to the number, frequency and content of books sent to members with the aim of encouraging greater use of the materials, particularly by members and carers from lower socio-economic groups.

The education authorities which have reported difficulties in maintaining supply cover did so in a wide range of subjects. The subjects most mentioned, that is by up to four or five education authorities, are mathematics, technological education, music, religious education, chemistry, art and PE.

The overall management of their school building stock is a matter for individual education authorities. Detailed information of the kind requested is not held centrally. Education authorities generally have their own assessments of school building maintenance and other needs, although these may not be on a basis which is consistent across authorities. We are currently discussing with local authority representatives aspects of school building needs, including the scope for improving the consistency of such information across all authorities.

The overall management of their school building stock is a matter for individual education authorities. Detailed information of the kind requested is not held centrally.

The information requested is not collected centrally.

Around 80% of Highers being taught this year are new Highers. Although teachers were given the option to introduce selected Higher courses from next year, around 5,000 courses at Intermediate and Access levels have been introduced voluntarily by schools. HMI observations indicate that teachers are generally implementing Higher Still effectively.

The inevitable difficulties of change are being dealt with by the Scottish Qualifications Authority and the Higher Still Development Unit, who have also taken steps to ensure that pupils will not be disadvantaged.

Henry McLeish and I have decided that the Scottish Executive will, as is the practice with all developments, review the first year of implementation of Higher Still and publish the results in the autumn.

Support for teaching costs in local authorities forms part of the unhypothecated local government settlement and is not identified centrally. Additional funding is available to train primary teachers to teach modern foreign languages. The tables below show the funding allocated to local authorities following their nomination of teachers to undertake this training. Final allocations for 2000-01 are not yet decided.

1997-98

Local Authority	Actual Paid
	£,000
Aberdeen City	175
Aberdeenshire	215
Angus	115
Argyll & Bute	95
Clackmannanshire	44
Dumfries and Galloway	114
Dundee City	101*
East Ayrshire	57
East Dunbartonshire	55
East Lothian	81
East Renfrewshire	75
Edinburgh, City of	150
Falkirk	86
Fife	242
Glasgow, City of	311
Highland	307
Inverclyde	47
Midlothian	70
Moray	102
North Ayrshire	77
North Lanarkshire	172
Orkney Islands	45
Perth and Kinross	181
Renfrewshire	62
Scottish Borders	109
Shetland Islands	81
South Ayrshire	74
South Lanarkshire	140
Stirling	80
West Dunbartonshire	58
West Lothian	70
Western Isles	83

1998-99

Local Authority	Actual Paid
	£,000
Aberdeen City	153
Aberdeenshire	247
Angus	104
Argyll & Bute	97
Clackmannanshire	26
Dumfries and Galloway	99
Dundee City	92
East Ayrshire	57
East Dunbartonshire	110
East Lothian	89
East Renfrewshire	99
Edinburgh, City of	151
Falkirk	82
Fife	219
Glasgow, City of	27
Highland	293
Inverclyde	35
Midlothian	72
Moray	108
North Ayrshire	68
North Lanarkshire	81
Orkney Islands	53
Perth and Kinross	208
Renfrewshire	65
Scottish Borders	101
Shetland Islands	106
South Ayrshire	61
South Lanarkshire	149
Stirling	70
West Dunbartonshire	29
West Lothian	76
Western Isles	29

1999-2000

Local Authority	Actual Paid
	£,000
Aberdeen City	98
Aberdeenshire	122
Angus	54
Argyll & Bute	51
Clackmannanshire	20
Dumfries and Galloway	0
Dundee City	88
East Ayrshire	34
East Dunbartonshire	49
East Lothian	37
East Renfrewshire	49
Edinburgh, City of	115
Falkirk	34
Fife	68
Glasgow, City of	98
Highland	147
Inverclyde	15
Midlothian	39
Moray	49
North Ayrshire	29
North Lanarkshire	88
Orkney Islands	66
Perth and Kinross	83
Renfrewshire	32
Scottish Borders	44
Shetland Islands	29
South Ayrshire	19
South Lanarkshire	110
Stirling	29
West Dunbartonshire	10
West Lothian	34
Western Isles	18

Equal Opportunities, including the Disability Discrimination Act, are reserved. The Executive is working closely with the UK Government to ensure that legislation to implement the education recommendations of the Disability Rights Task Force Report will fully address the needs of disabled pupils and students in Scotland.