Chamber and committees

Decisions about thelevel of future grant payments are a matter for the Spending Review. I currentlyhave no plans to adjust the level of payments.

We do not have informationon predicted school rolls for the coming year. The most recent school meals data, including the number of pupilspreviously entitled to free school meals, is available on the Scottish Executivewebsite at www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/SchMeals2007.

We do not have informationon predicted school rolls for the coming year. School rolls by stage for the lastacademic year are available on the Scottish Executive website at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/16412/PupilsByStageAtSep06.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-2909 on 14 August 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Decisions on whetherto borrow and how to manage their housing income, expenditure and debt are mattersfor councils themselves, with regard to the Prudential Code.

Carbon offsetting is not asubstitute for reducing emissions at source. The Scottish Governmentacknowledges that offsetting can have a role in helping to avoid emissionselsewhere, but that priority must be given to domestic emissions reductions.

In order to provide clarityand certainty to individuals and businesses wishing to offset their emissions,the UK Government has proposed a voluntary code of practice for the provisionof carbon offsetting. The Scottish Government is discussing the detail of theproposals with the UK Government with a view to considering appropriate optionsfor Scotland.

We do not hold theinformation requested. We will be collecting placing request statistics in theautumn, and will publish them in spring 2008.

The informationrequested is only available in relation to placing requests for P1, and for P2to P7 collectively. The table shows the number of placing requests refused byGlasgow City Council for years P1-P7 for the last five years. It does notinclude placing requests which were refused at the first stage but granted at alater stage (such as following an appeal).

Year	Placing requests for P1 for children of school age which were not granted*	Placing requests for years P2 to P7  which were not granted
2001-02	100	28
2002-03	37	55
2003-04	35	19
2004-05	41	18
2005-06	65	19

*In 2001-02 to 2003-04 anumber of requests to attend a P1 class in a particular school were made forchildren under school age. Our data does not show whether these were placingrequests or requests for early entry, and they have therefore not been includedin the table. There were 27 cases in 2001-02, 18 cases in 2002-03 and 28 casesin 2003-04 that fall into this category.

The prioritiesfor sport in Reaching Higher sets out the importance of strong organisations inorder to deliver improved performance and increased participation. We value thecontribution sportscotland can make to the implementation of the strategy andthese remain the outcomes we are seeking for sport. Any decision on a neworganisation distributing lottery funding for sport and a differentorganisation investing in the priorities of the strategy would recognise andconsider the implications within the wider context of the review of publicbodies announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth on24 May 2007.

I refer the member to thequestion S3W-684 answered on 18 June 2007. No decisions have been taken asyet. The question of sports lottery fund distribution will be considered aspart of the review of sportscotland, which will take place within the contextof the wider review of public bodies announced by the Cabinet Secretary ForFinance And Sustainable Growth on 24 May 2007.

All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility forwhich can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.