Chamber and committees

This is a matter forNHS Ayrshire and Arran.

Details of the localauthorities that have been selected to take part in the free school meals pilotschemes were announced on Wednesday 11 July 2007. The pilots willinvolve all pupils in primary 1 to primary 3 (P1 to P3) in Glasgow City Council,West Dunbartonshire Council, Fife Council, East Ayrshire Council and Scottish BordersCouncil. These authorities have been selected because they include recognised areasof deprivation and cover urban areas as well as small towns and rural areas. Furtherdetails of the pilots will be set out in due course.

The Scottish governmentis mindful of the complex nature of the issues surrounding provision and regulationof houses of multiple occupation and we are considering new guidance to help addressthis. There will be close engagement with stakeholders in developing guidance.

I refer the memberto the question S3W-1215 on 17 July 2007. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

As part of the implementationof Moving Into the Future – An Action Plan for Buses in Scotland, we arecurrently working with stakeholders to ensure the effective operation of the currentbus regulatory regime in Scotland.

Under the Transport(Scotland) Act 2001, transport authorities have theoption of entering into statutory Quality Partnerships and developing Quality Contractswhere they consider these appropriate. To support transport authorities use of thesepowers we are reviewing the 2001 legislation and will consider what changes maybe required to simplify its operation in due course.

Beyond this, thereare no plans to re-regulate the bus industry in Scotland.

Decisions on affordable housing investment beyond2008 will depend on the outcome of the spending review process later this year.

Yes, the tenants’right to buy housing policy is monitored by the Scottish Government.

Whilst pressured areadesignations which suspend the right to buy for some tenants are granted by the Scottish ministers, they are implemented by local authorities. The Scottish Governmentmaintains an overview of all designations in place but it is for local authoritiesto manage the application of designations in their local areas.

The Scottish Governmentmonitors right to buy sales on an on-going basis, and will look in particular atsales from 30 September 2007, when tenants affected by designations beginto be eligible to buy, in order to observe the impact of pressured area designationson sales.

The Scottish Executive collects information on numbers of applicants on housinglists, but this does not include details of individual household circumstances ascollecting such a level of detail would place an excessive burden on social landlords.As part of its regulation and inspection role, Communities Scotland looks at whether or not a local authority orregistered social landlord gives reasonable preference to overcrowded householdsthrough its allocation policy, but does not collect this information routinely.

The Scottish Governmentplaces a very high priority on housing policy. We set out our immediate plans duringthe Executive Debate on Housing on 21 June, which include pursuing a new Housing Supply Task Force andimplementing the manifesto proposal for a new Scottish HousingSupport Fund.