Chamber and committees

The report highlighted six issues to be addressed by the Executive. Progress has been as follows:

Most telecommunications developments have been removed from the scope of the General Permitted Development Order (GDPO) and brought within full planning control. This work has taken priority over reducing the complexity of the GPDO itself.

The pro-forma for collecting development control performance data from local authorities has been revised. Performance against the revised targets will be measured from 1 October 2001.

Work is on-going to revise the Town and Country Planning (Listed Building and Conservation Areas) Regulations 1987. Work on this theme is also continuing as part of more general initiatives to modernise the planning system.

A consultation paper on a new building standards system was issued in July 2001. It recommends that local authorities should make access to the building standards and planning systems as closely linked as possible, and that for certain small, simple projects joint planning/building warrant applications be considered. Responses are requested by 31 October 2001, with final proposals for a new system due next spring.

As far as the issue of trunk roads and development control is concerned, all the action points from the Audit Report have been or are being acted upon.

Planning Advice Note 40: Development Control has been revised and has been well received.

The progress that has been made on these issues has been achieved in the context of the main thrust of the Executive's planning agenda this year which has included the review of strategic planning, a proposed consultation exercise on public involvement in the planning system and the preparation of a policy statement on design and quality.

The Action Plan for Dental Services, which was launched in August 2000, included a number of initiatives aimed at improving children's oral health. As well as a range of initiatives affecting pre-school children, the caries prevention scheme, aimed at young children, and including the fissure sealing of permanent molars, will be launched shortly. The new caries prevention scheme should in due course have a direct impact on dental disease in 12-year-olds by protecting the most vulnerable teeth in the most vulnerable children before the disease begins.

Twenty copies of the October 1999 report of the Conservation Controls Working Group have been deposited in the Parliament's Reference Centre.

The asylum seekers dispersal programme is a matter for the Home Office since immigration and asylum are reserved. To date existing resources available to local authorities, the police, health services and further and higher education have covered the demands on devolved services arising from the asylum seekers dispersal programme. The position is, of course, being kept under review.

In September 2001, I announced £700,000 in additional funding for communities across Glasgow, including asylum seekers and refugees. I also announced the Executive's intention to provide new funding of £1.7 million in the current financial year, and in future financial years, for further education colleges to support a package of new measures which will strengthen the ability of the colleges to provide further education, including language skills. That sum comprises £0.5 million to boost college provision specifically for asylum seekers.

The package of measures will include the waiving of the residence and settlement criteria which, until now, have governed the ability of a college to claim funding and to reclaim the cost of waived fees; the provision of funding to allow colleges to provide books and support with travel, and a new discretion relating to asylum seekers which will allow colleges to approve continued studies beyond the level of basic courses.

The decision of the Scottish Executive to provide £1.7 million in extra resources will ensure that existing budgets can continue to be used for their original purpose without detriment to Scottish students.

The Housing Improvement Task Force has a wide-ranging remit to look at issues of quality and condition in private sector housing. It has established a number of sub-groups including one which is considering matters relating to house conditions in the privately rented sector.

Further details of the remit of the task force together with copies of all the papers submitted to the task force and its sub-groups can be found on the Scottish Executive website (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/hitf).

I am aware of the potential impact on the Glasgow underground of the Commission's proposal for an EU Regulation on Public Service Requirements and the Award of Public Service Contracts in Passenger Transport by Rail, Road and Inland Waterways. I highlighted the Glasgow situation when I addressed the EU Transport Council in Luxembourg in June as part of the UK delegation. The draft regulation has a long way to go through the EU process and the Executive will ensure that Scotland's interests are reflected through the UK stance throughout these negotiations.

The Clyde Shipyards Task Force, which is considering the immediate and longer term strategic issues facing the Clyde shipbuilding industry, has established four sub-groups to progress the following areas of work:

• Strategy for the upper Clyde shipyards;
• Strategy for skills;
• Strategy for redundancy management; and
• Strategy for wider community management.

Work is well under way and the task force expects to report to ministers by December 2001.

The Scottish Executive is aware that Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive (SPTE) has assessed the costs associated with tendering the Glasgow underground system in accordance with the latest draft of the European Commission's proposal for an EU Regulation on Public Service Requirements and the Award of Public Service Contracts in Passenger Transport by Rail, Road and Inland Waterways. SPTE consider that those costs could be disproportionate to any benefits which might be received. The Executive has no plans to conduct its own assessment.

The inequalities most recently highlighted in this report are well-known, long-standing and unacceptable. The Executive is committed to tackling the legacy of health inequalities, and has put this and social justice at the heart of its agenda and its spending priorities. We are determined to tackle the root causes of ill health - poverty, poor housing, low self-esteem, and lack of educational and economic opportunity.The details of our approach are set out in Our National Health: A plan for action, a plan for change, Social Justice: a Scotland where everyone matters and related publications available in the Parliament's Reference Centre.

I have received Sir Anthony Campbell's report into the process of prosecution decision making in the case. I have been advised that Dr Jandoo has now completed his report concerning the liaison which took place between the authorities and the Chhokar family, although Dr Jandoo has still to submit his report.On 10 September, the Minister for Justice and I were requested by Mr Anwar of the Chhokar Family Justice Campaign to delay publication of both reports until at least 10 October due to the poor health of a family member. We are both of the view that this is the right thing to do. As a consequence, it is now our intention to publish both reports shortly after the October recess.