Chamber and committees

I announced duringthe Parliamentary Housing Debate on 21 June that the Scottish Government would takeforward its proposal to establish a Scottish Housing Support Fund, and in so doingthat we would build on the successful Homestake programme and look to expand thescheme and move it forwards. In the meantime Homestake will continue to operateas at present.

Local authoritieswhere tenants voted against stock transfer are developing standard delivery planssetting out how they will achieve the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS).It will be for those councils, as it is for all other councils in Scotland, to determinehow best to fund the required investment using the financial resources availableto them. Potential resources include tenants’ rents, increased efficiency, prudentialborrowing, receipts from right to buy sales and disposal of other Housing RevenueAccount assets.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-1545 on 13 July 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.

I look forward tomeeting the chairpersons of licensing boards and the police to discuss their keyrole in implementing the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 soon.As the implementation of the act progresses, we will continue to work withlicensing boards and other stakeholders. A further progress report was issued tostakeholders on 26 June.

The FSB Index of Successstates that Scotland ranks seventh out of 24 OECD countries interms of the working age employment rate.

Yes.

The Scottish governmentis determined that Scotland can and will do better.

We want to make this country a wealthier and fairer, healthierand smarter place. The performance of Norway, Iceland and Ireland demonstrates exactly what we should aspireto in Scotland. These countries form an arc of prosperitythat surrounds us, which proves that this is something we can achieve.

The policies we putin place will improve our performance giving Scotland a clear competitive edge and helping us achieve our overarching aim of strongsustainable economic growth.

As the Cabinet Secretaryfor Finance and Sustainable Growth outlined in his recent statement to Parliament(Thursday 28 June 2007), the spending review represents a thorough appraisal ofall aspects of the Scottish budget and the factors that influence the demands forpublic services in Scotland. The outcome of the 2007 spending review isexpected to be announced in the autumn.

The FSB Success Index2007 ranks Scotland 17th out of 24 advanced OECD economies. Itis not this government’s role to speculate as to where Scotland might have beenif we performed differently on some of the measures that make up this compositeindex. It is, however, our role to ensure that we raise Scotland’s economic performance generally, which will allow usto deliver on this government’s wider policy priorities.

The FSB Scotland Index of Success 2007 includeslife expectancy which is informed by a range of health improvement measures.

Access tohealthier food at affordable prices for those living in deprived areas is apriority for the Scottish Government. Programmes such as Community Food andHealth (Scotland) and the Scottish Grocers FederationHealthyliving Programme are making a real difference as will action to nurturechildren in their early years through trialling free school meals for allprimary one to primary three children in selected schools.

The ScottishGovernment supports a wide range of initiatives to deliver the goals of thenational Physical Activity Strategy and increase the percentage of thepopulation meeting recommended levels of activity. These include “Girls on theMove” which provides training towards national qualifications in physicalactivity leadership for young women with no formal qualifications or employment,and “Paths to Health” which develops local community based walking schemes,over two thirds of which are located in deprived areas.