Chamber and committees

We have no current plans to do so. At present, employers generally have the option but not the legal obligation to ask the police to investigate suspected crimes on their premises. There are some limited statutory exceptions to this. For example, where employers suspect that money laundering may be taking place, then steps must be taken to bring this to the attention of supervising authorities.Regardless of the attitude of public agencies, there is nothing to prevent an employee or any other person making a complaint about a suspected criminal offence to a professional body, the police or the procurator fiscal. The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 provides protection for individuals who make certain disclosures of information in the public interest. This includes the disclosure of information which, in the reasonable belief of the worker making the disclosure, tends to show inter alia that a criminal offence has been committed, is being committed or is likely to be committed.Nevertheless I will consider the specific examples raised in correspondence from the member and respond to him.

In addition to the recently completed £233,700 footway in Duror, the final section of footway at the War Memorial is currently being discussed with Highland Council and once agreement is reached this section will be programmed for implementation.The double white line system through Duror is due to be refurbished within the next few weeks and improvements to the visibility at Achindarroch junction are being investigated.Speed surveys are being undertaken at two locations within Duror and will be used to re-assess the need for a speed limit.Officials have contacted the Duror and Kentallen Community Council and a meeting will be arranged with them shortly to discuss these and other issues.

I have asked Graeme Munro, Director and Chief Executive of Historic Scotland to reply. His response is as follows:The term historic buildings can refer to both listed buildings and scheduled monuments, although the latter covers a much wider range of types of monument. No record is kept by the Scottish Executive of the number of historic buildings for which a new use has been found. Records on changes to scheduled monuments are available for the last five years but these do not distinguish between different types of work for which consent is sought. Thus it is not possible to provide information on scheduled monument applications for the re-use of historic buildings.The granting of consent for a change of use to a listed building is a matter for the relevant planning authority to determine. Where a change of use involves an alteration or extension to a building listed at category A or B for which listed building consent is required, the local planning authority, if they are minded to grant consent, refer the matter to Historic Scotland for clearance. No such referral is required for buildings listed at category C(S), except in the case of demolition. Historic Scotland dealt with some 12,000 clearances in the five years up to 31 March 2002, with 97% cleared within 28 days.Monuments of national importance are added to the schedule for the purpose of preservation and this guides all consent decisions. The granting of consent for any works to a scheduled monument for the purpose of repairing it or any part of it or of making any alterations or additions to it is a matter for Historic Scotland under statutory powers delegated by the Scottish ministers. The total number of scheduled monument consent applications received in the five years up to 31 March 2002 totalled 1,097. In the vast majority of those cases the work was considered to be appropriate and consent was granted, often subject to conditions. Only a very small number of those applications involved the re-use of historic buildings and in those cases the preservation needs of the monument were the principle consideration.

The Scottish Executive will continue to press the European Commission to allow further simplification of the subsidy schemes on such things as form filling, proportionality of penalties, inspection procedures and detailed scheme rules.

The following table provides details of the cost of medical negligence claims over the last 10 years.

Financial Year	Total Award	Total Expenses	Total Cost
1992-93	£1,794,429	£277,558	£2,071,987
1993-94	£1,892,312	£252,290	£2,144,602
1994-95	£3,051,962	£342,016	£3,393,978
1995-96	£3,554,930	£569,043	£4,123,973
1996-97	£4,059,883	£535,621	£4,595,504
1997-98	£3,521,199	£623,936	£4,145,135
1998-99	£3,303,709	£653,383	£3,957,092
1999-2000	£2,955,357	£555,778	£3,511,135
2000-01	£3,925,462	£890,870	£4,816,332
2001-02	£6,462,315	£815,534	£7,277,849

There has been no comparison undertaken between compensation paid in these cases and what the levels of compensation may have been paid under a "no fault" health insurance scheme.There are currently no plans to alter the way in which compensation is claimed and settled for acts of possible clinical negligence. However, you will be aware that in response to the reports published earlier in the year, by the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Church of Scotland, the Scottish Executive established an expert group to look at current compensation arrangements for patients injured by the NHSScotland. This group is due to report by the end of 2002.

Highland Council's free personal and nursing care total allocation in 2002-03 was £4.106 million. Of this, £2.092 million was based on the most recent information available on the number of residents funding their own care in residential and nursing homes in that area. In addition, the council received £2.014 million which was distributed pro rata through the Grant Aided Expenditure formula for social work services for home-based older people. The Spending Review 2002 settlement reflects the Care Development Group's (CDG) costing assumptions for free personal care. The group took into account, as key influences, demography along with other relevant health and social factors, change in the unit costs of care, supply of informal care and possible shifts in care provision. Their assumptions estimated an increase in demand from unmet need and a shift from informal to formal care of approximately 12% building up over the first two years of the policy to 2004-05. The Executive provided resources in excess of those identified by the CDG.The Executive will be collecting data from local authorities on the uptake of free personal and nursing care on a quarterly basis. This will inform whether any adjustment of allocation is necessary.

The Scottish Executive's participation in the EU policy-making process is subject to the Concordat on the co-ordination of EU policy issues, which includes explicit provisions on the confidentiality of discussions.

The Scottish Executive does acknowledge the importance of milk as part of a balanced diet. An adequate calcium intake is essential for the formation of healthy bones, particularly in childhood, and dairy products, including milk, are a good source of calcium for children. Recognising the important part that milk can play, £380,000 a year is provided through the Health Improvement Fund as a top-up to the EC School Milk Subsidy Scheme to support the provision of milk in primary schools.In their interim report, the Expert Panel on School Meals devised Nutrient Standards for school lunches based on five food groups. They advised that school lunches should have at least one portion of food from the milk and dairy products group (which includes milk, cheese, yoghurt and milk-based deserts) and that milk as a drink should be available as an option at lunch time each day.There are also strong links between osteoporosis and physical activity and these have been considered as part of the work of the Physical Activity Task Force. The task force's draft report contains activity targets for children that are designed to promote good health.While many authorities provide free milk to some or all pupils, the decision on whether to do so is a matter for individual authorities. No data on an individual authority's policy is available centrally.

The title reflects the consensus which emerged from those who responded on this matter to the Scottish Natural Heritage consultation. That consensus favoured the use of "Cairngorms" in the title of the National Park, to differentiate between the single peak and the mountain range. The issue of the title of the park was not one highlighted by the Rural Development Committee in its letter to me of 14 October conveying the views of the committee following its evidence-taking sessions.

The Scottish Forestry Grants Scheme (SFGS) represents a major change from the current Woodland Grant Scheme and Farm Woodland Premium Scheme (both of which operate across Great Britain). Development of information systems to support SFGS is a significant task and, to ensure that the systems are properly developed and tested, the Forestry Commission has recently announced that applications for SFGS will not be accepted until June 2003, after which the scheme should be fully operational. This represents a two-month delay to the original target date of April 2003, but the existing grant schemes are being kept open for an additional two months to minimise any inconvenience to the industry. The necessary changes to the Scottish Rural Development Plan have been approved by the EU STAR (Agricultural Structures and Rural Development Committee), as announced on 19 November.