Chamber and committees

Munchausen syndrome by proxyis not defined in legislation.

The Scottish Executive has notmade any specific representation to the Secretary of State for Education and Skillsnor the Sector Skills Development Agency for any UK-wide Sector Skills Councilsto be located in Scotland.

No, we plan to introduce anenvironmental justice fund to assist communities in Scotland affectedby environmental injustice.

Provision of full employmenthistory when applying for registration with the Scottish Social Services Council(SSSC) comprises all work social workers have undertaken since leaving school, includingall work undertaken outside social services, work undertaken on a voluntary basisand work outside the UK.

Theyare also obliged to inform SSSC about any change in their circumstances includingnew employment.

It is a matter for employersto decide what information they require employees to declare.

Section 52(2) of the Children(Scotland) Act 1995 states that a child may be in need of compulsory measures of supervisionif at least one of a list of conditions is satisfied in respect of the child.

These conditions are generallyreferred to as “grounds for referral”. There are 12 conditions or grounds whichmay indicate the child is in need of compulsory measures of supervision as follows:

The child:

A. is beyond the control of anyrelevant person;

B. is falling into bad associationsor is exposed to moral danger;

C. is likely to suffer unnecessarilyor be impaired seriously in his health or development, due to lack of parental care;

D. is a child in respect of whoma Schedule 1 offence has been committed;

E. is or is likely to becomea member of the same household as a child against whom a Schedule 1 offence hasbeen committed;

F. is, or is likely to become,a member of the same household as a person who has committed a schedule 1 offence;

G. is or is likely to becomea member of the same household as a person who has committed the offence of incestor sexual intercourse with a child by a step-parent or person in a position of trust;

H. has failed to attend schoolregularly without reasonable excuse;

 I. has committedan offence;

J. has misused alcohol or anydrugs, whether or not a controlled drug within the meaning of the Misuse of DrugsAct 1971;

K. has misused a volatile substanceby deliberately inhaling its vapour, other than for medicinal purposes, and

L. is being provided with accommodationby a local authority under section 25, or is the subject of a parental responsibilitiesorder obtained under section 86 and, in either case, his behaviour is such thatspecial measures are necessary for his adequate supervision in his interest or theinterest of others.

The numbers of children who startedto be looked after in each year since 1999-2000 are shown in the following table.Information for previous years, and information about how many children startingto be looked after were diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder, are not heldcentrally. However, information about the number of children looked after as at31 March each year since 2000 with autism is presented at a national level in Children’sSocial Work Statistics 2004-05  (Bib. number 38157). This information is not providedat local authority level because much of the data would need to be suppressed toprotect confidentiality.

Local Authority Area	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Aberdeen City	247	199	194	235	193	303
Aberdeenshire	227	118	116	114	160	163
Angus	54	52	73	70	79	79
Argyll and Bute	143	131	138	110	85	80
Clackmannanshire	30	37	59	54	64	72
Dumfries and Galloway	135	137	183	161	126	134
Dundee City	206	163	176	172	209	222
East Ayrshire	120	141	126	143	124	85
East Dunbartonshire	62	42	29	43	41	33
East Lothian	64	120	110	88	83	63
East Renfrewshire	56	16	25	14	44	18
Edinburgh, City of	352	449	404	427	349	367
Eilean Siar	16	16	16	20	19	35
Falkirk	88	85	75	98	77	109
Fife	181	221	183	214	207	275
Glasgow City	861	922	717	671	680	593
Highland	187	144	140	144	125	161
Inverclyde	17	35	57	178	125	107
Midlothian	129	88	73	69	81	82
Moray	46	32	226	174	109	142
North Ayrshire	192	208	155	108	141	151
North Lanarkshire	289	290	250	258	212	125
Orkney Isles	17	15	10	7	17	11
Perth and Kinross	97	88	68	57	63	49
Renfrewshire	119	176	264	264	242	160
Scottish Borders	105	88	81	93	88	78
Shetland	12	9	6	9	8	9
South Ayrshire	76	89	131	76	130	107
South Lanarkshire	236	275	214	171	139	189
Stirling	89	68	67	71	63	51
West Dunbartonshire	135	118	127	115	125	132
West Lothian	184	122	185	85	357	148
Scotland	4,771	4,694	4,678	4,513	4,564	4,333

 

There is £1 million availablein the Environmental Justice Fund this year. No decisions have been madeabout the areas of Scotland to which it might be allocated.

The Scottish Executive has notset targets for the adoption of children.

The total cost of the Skillsfor Business Network evaluation will be £86,638 excluding VAT. The evaluation isbeing funded by both the Scottish Executive and the Sector Skills Development Agency.

I refer the member to theresponses made by the Scottish Executive to recent requests under freedom ofinformation legislation, which will be available as from 19 June on theExecutive’s website. The material published there includes all relevantcommunications to the Executive on the subject of extraordinary rendition andthe Executive’s responses. Names of correspondents have been omitted in orderto comply with data protection requirements.