Chamber and committees

Three hundred and eighty-five households applied to join the Mortgage to Rent scheme in 2007-08.

The total budget allocated to the Mortgage to Rent scheme at the start of 2007-08 was £10 million. The out-turn expenditure figure will be published in due course.

Funding for the Mortgage to Rent scheme comes from the Affordable Housing Investment Programme budget. I will announce the allocation of resources under that programme shortly.

This information is not currently held for the time period requested. The Scottish Government has issued a new annual statistical data collection to monitor the impact of planning policy on the supply of affordable housing. The return identifies planning applications (that contain some form of affordable housing provision) that were granted planning consent during the 2005 to 2007 financial years. The official results of this survey will be published on the 29 April 2008. Planning authorities will shortly be issued with the survey for the 2007-08 financial year, with results from this expected before the end of 2008.

The Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland and The Public Transport Users'' Committee for Scotland (PTUC) are being brought together as part of the Effective Government Initiative. The PTUC represents the interests of all transport users in Scotland. This move will remove duplication, simplify the structure and prevent activities that do not contribute to the government''s objectives.

Further, it will reinforce positively the ability of disabled persons to bring accessibility and mobility issues directly to ministers'' attention.

Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, the Scottish Government is allowed to treat disabled people more favourably and can, therefore, stipulate that a number of members must be disabled. To ensure that disability issues are properly reflected within the enhanced Public Transport Users'' Committee for Scotland PTUC, we propose to increase the size of the PTUC board with three additional members who are disabled in terms of the 1995 act. There is no limit to the number of disabled members the PTUC Board may have.

A wide ranging consultation about incorporating the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS) into the Public Transport Users'' Committee for Scotland (PTUC) was carried out during the passage of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005 between December 2005 and March 2006. The majority of respondents were in favour of the previous administration''s preferred option of an integrated high-level committee.

However, at that time, ministers decided to maintain MACS'' separate status for a limited period and revisit the situation with a view to full incorporation later on. Under the Effective Government initiative, the First Minister has announced that the Scottish Government believe that the amalgamation of the two bodies should now take place.

We recently consulted MACS and over 70 other key stakeholders and organisations seeking their views on the practical implications of the amalgamation, specifically including whether the three additional members to be appointed to the PTUC should be disabled persons under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 or would be non-disabled persons with experience of mobility and access issues.

The decision to amalgamate the Mobility Access Committee for Scotland (MACS) with the Public Transport Users'' Committee for Scotland (PTUC) came as a result of the Effective Government initiative which identified an overlap in the responsibilities of both bodies.

An equality impact assessment is currently being undertaken.

Once the new body has been established, it will consider how it can best organise its operational duties to meet the needs of disabled people. The Scottish Government will review the operation of the new body to evaluate and ensure the needs of disabled people are being met.

The available information relates to school leavers with additional support needs and is presented in the following table.

Per Cent of School Leavers not in Education, Employment or Training with Additional Support Needs, 2006-07

Category of Additional Support Need	Per Cent
Hearing Impairment	0.19
Visual Impairment	0.15
Physical or Motor Impairment	0.40
Language or Speech Disorder	0.17
Autistic Spectrum Disorder	0.35
Social Emotional and Behavioural Difficulty	2.72
Specific Learning Disabilities	1.95
Learning Disability	0.63
Moderate Learning Difficulty	1.23
Complex or Multiple Impairments	0.12
Other	1.12

Notes:

1. Leavers from publicly funded secondary schools only.

2. Leavers may have more than one additional support need.

The available information relates to school leavers with additional support needs and is presented in the following table.

Number of School Leavers with Additional Support Needs Not Going into Education, Employment or Training, 2006-07

Category of Additional Support Need	Number
Hearing Impairment	15
Visual Impairment	12
Physical or Motor Impairment	31
Language or Speech Disorder	13
Autistic Spectrum Disorder	27
Social Emotional and Behavioural Difficulty	207
Specific Learning Disabilities	150
Learning Disability	49
Moderate Learning Difficulty	95
Complex or Multiple Impairments	9
Other	87

Notes:

1. Leavers from publicly funded secondaries only.

2. Leavers may have more than one additional support need .