Chamber and committees

The remit of the Ad Hoc Committee of Ministers on Flooding Issues is: (a) To consider current arrangements for addressing flood risk and how advice and support is provided to those at risk from, and affected by, flooding, and(b) To provide advice to Cabinet by the end of February 2003 on how those arrangements can be improved.The Ad Hoc Committee of Ministers will consider general flooding issues within the terms of the group's remit, including, but not restricted to, those issues which affect transport.The members the Ad Hoc Committee of Ministers on Flooding Issues are:Deputy First Minister (Chair)Minister for Finance and Central ServicesMinister for Environment and Rural DevelopmentMinister for Social JusticeDeputy Minister for Environment and Rural DevelopmentDeputy Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong LearningDeputy Minister for Health and Community Care (McAveety)The Ad Hoc Committee of Ministers on Flooding Issues met for the first time on 13 November 2002.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-30486 on 7 November 2002. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

This year's Spending Review required all departments to prepare statements on the way in which their programmes and spending plans contribute to the achievement of the Executive's commitments to sustainable development outlined in Meeting the Needs... Priorities, Actions and Targets for Sustainable Development in Scotland. These statements will be published shortly. We will build on this work by ensuring that we do examine all of our activities to ensure that they contribute to sustainable development.The European Directive 2001/42/EC, on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment (commonly known as the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive (SEA)) is due to be implemented by 21 July 2004. The Executive is fully committed to this and work is in hand. As part of this, the Executive has commissioned consultants to develop and trial a SEA methodology and to draft advice for implementing the directive for structure and local plans. They have been asked to identify SEA principles and environmental objectives/criteria that should form the basis of SEA for plans and programmes, other than structure and local plans, which come within the scope of the directive. We expect that the results will be available next summer. The Executive is also setting up a national database of SEAs (including environmental appraisals, etc) for current structure and local plans and a library of examples.

The first meeting of the forum on 24 July heard presentations on Meeting the Needs..., the Do a Little, Change a Lot campaign, the UK Sustainable Development Commission and preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Participants had wide-ranging discussions on these subjects and on the role of the forum itself. Participants were invited to send comments on this to the Sustainable Development Team in the Executive.

The Executive consults widely across its range of policies, offering many opportunities for stakeholders to engage on sustainable development issues. The Sustainable Development Forum is simply one mechanism to engage stakeholders in taking forward thinking and action on sustainable development.

The initial remit and composition of the Sustainable Development Forum for Scotland, as set out in the answer given to question S1W-27187 on 1 August 2002, is to provide a focus for Scottish thinking and action on sustainable development. Following the first meeting of the forum on 24 July, we are considering the views of members on the composition and remit. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

We are making good progress towards our target of doubling the number of cycle journeys between 1996 and 2002. The latest figures show that the average annual number of journeys made per person by bicycle in Scotland increased from eight for the years 1995-97, to 14 for the years 1998-2000 (Scottish Transport Statistics Number 21, Table 12.1: Parliament's Reference Centre Bib. number 23316).

The consultation document Towards Better Oral Health in Children, published on 24 September, seeks views on a range of possible measures to improve children's oral health, including fluoridation. Questions about the implementation of any particular option would fall to be considered in the light of the consultation.Health and safety procedures are set out for all materials added to the public water supplies. Therefore, where such procedures are followed, there are no health implications for staff for any of the materials added to the public water supplies.

£25.5 million was allocated to local authorities between 2000 and 2003-04 for community-based programmes to help young people stop offending. On 18 September, I announced that the Executive would continue to invest resources to support the 10-Point Action Plan. £8 million, £24 million and £33 million will be provided over the next three years. An additional EYF allocation of £15 million is also being made available this year.

In October 2000, we announced our intention to prioritise the health of homeless people. To this end we appointed a Health and Homelessness Co-ordinator and issued guidance to NHS Scotland that outlined the requirement to pro-actively address the needs of this greatly disadvantaged group of people. As a result all NHS boards have submitted Health and Homelessness Action Plans which identify the activities they have planned to improve the health of homeless people across Scotland. By April 2003 Health and Homelessness Action Plans will also be integrated into Local Authorities' Homelessness Strategies, which will ensure full NHS Scotland involvement in overall developments to tackle homelessness in Scotland.The Health and Homelessness Co-ordinator and Health and Homelessness Steering Group are monitoring the delivery of these activities, and I am following progress with interest.