Chamber and committees

The Executive has an on-going dialogue with Scottish Water and its environmental and economic regulators, with Communities Scotland and other stakeholders about a wide range of issues.

In my statement on 9 February in Parliament, I outlined our objectives for Scottish Water’s next investment programme. Among the essential objectives was one to tackle constraints on new development by allowing an estimated 120,000 new homes and more than 4,000 hectares of land for commercial development to be connected to the public networks.

I also noted that the Minister for Communities will shortly make a separate announcement about connections to the water and sewage networks for affordable housing.

Decisions about the policing resources for Stirling at the time of the G8 summit are a matter for the Chief Constable of Central Scotland Police. The Executive is in regular touch with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Police and others about preparations for the summit and has also been in contact with Stirling Council and the Security Service.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-14276, answered on 7 March 2005. 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/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-14276, answered on 7 March 2005. 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/webapp/wa.search.

The Scottish Executive funds four national family relationship support organisations in the voluntary sector – Family Mediation Scotland, Couple Counselling Scotland, Scottish Marriage Care and Stepfamily Scotland - under Section 10 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968. The resources are allocated through the Children, Young People and Families Unified Voluntary Sector Fund. All four bodies also receive grant assistance under Section 9 of Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 for training purposes. The table sets out grant allocations since 2000-01.

	Family Mediation Scotland (£)	Couple Counselling Scotland (£)	Scottish Marriage Care (£)	Stepfamily Scotland (£)
2000-01 S10	86,149	162,903	58,136	34,703
S9	25,750	29,202	13,000	5,800
2001-02 S10	144,239	234,203	59,880	30,900
S9	26,523	31,721	13,000	5,974
2002-03 S10	141,271	232,583	65,563	44,827
S9	35,000	32,673	15,000	6,153
2003-04 S10	172,053	276,830	104,218	32,623
S9	35,875	33,490	15,375	6,307
2004-05* S10	183,9991	317,0832	163,0933	46,5874
S9	36,772	34,327	15,759	6,465

Notes:

*Further funding to assist four national family organisations to provide a more integrated service has been made available this year and next. In 2004-05:

1. includes over £46,000 of this funding.

2. includes over £65,000 of this funding.

3. includes over £68,000 of this funding.

4. includes over £13,000 of this funding.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-14276 on 7 March 2005. 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/webapp/wa.search.

Family Mediation Scotland receives grant assistance under sections 9 & 10 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 paid through the Children, Young People and Families Unified Voluntary Sector Fund. Awards of core grant are made on a three year cycle with the current awards applying to financial years 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07. The organisation may then reapply to the Fund. We are providing additional funding of up to £250,000 in 2004-05 and 2005-06 for four national family support organisations, including Family Mediation Scotland, to secure the delivery of more integrated administration geared to improving services to clients.

The Executive has long recognised the importance of family relationship services - counselling and mediation - in helping families to resolve difficulties without recourse to the law or court intervention. This will continue to be the case under our proposed reforms to family law. We provide grant assistance to four national family support organisations under the Children, Young People and Families Unified Voluntary Sector Fund. The focus of central funding from the Executive is on national organisations, while local voluntary sector services are expected to source their funding locally. We are considering how best to secure an integrated approach to the needs of families in transition by aligning family relationship support services more closely with other important services to children and families provided or secured by local government.

Meetings are held regularly between the Executive and Family Mediation Scotland, Couple Counselling Scotland, Scottish Marriage Care and Stepfamily Scotland to discuss matters of mutual interest. Over the last 12 months, officials have met these organisations on five occasions.

It is for Stirling Council to decide how to spend the resources it has available to provide services to the public. The Executive has no plans at present to provide any additional financial assistance to the council in respect of the G8 Summit. However, the council is free to discuss with the Executive specific ideas for promotional activity related to the G8 Summit at any time.