Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive welcomes discounted fares initiatives such as the Moray Fare Travel Scheme which promotes greater accessibility to public transport for young people. Some public transport operators already offer a wide range of pricing initiatives and we expect that further development will be driven by operators' recognition of the potential commercial benefits in terms of increased patronage and revenue generation such initiatives can offer.

The comparisons made by OECD can only be regarded as approximate as for most countries the figures used are based on a prescribed curriculum.

The figures stated for Scotland by OECD represent only the minimum of time to be spent on maths and science contained in the Structure and Balance guidelines. The actual curriculum data for Scotland for 1997 indicates that pupils in S1 and S2 spent 22% of their time on maths and science rather than the recommended minimum time of 20% assumed by the OECD.

Within the Scottish curriculum guidelines there is a 20% flexibility factor which schools are encouraged to use for activities which reflect their own needs and circumstances. Schools may choose to allocate some of this time to maths and science.

We have published strategic guidance to assist consistency of approach across community safety partnerships which is being enhanced with training for community safety practitioners. We are also supporting five Pathfinder partnerships to identify good policy practice and to identify gaps in provision or process. A report will be published in November at the second annual conference on community safety. Funding of £1.2 million has also been made available to partnerships to support specific community safety projects and a further £1.5 million has been made available for 2001-02.

There is currently no plan to do so. Since the launch of the joint community safety strategy with CoSLA and ACPOS in 1998, all Scottish local authorities and police forces have participated in multi-agency activity designed to improve safety in their communities without the need to legislate.

Whilst we have no plans to do so at this particular time, the Executive is aware of the recommendations made in the Account Commission's study of community safety partnerships in Scotland Safe and Sound, published last month by Audit Scotland, particularly those regarding resource planning. We will take account of these recommendations in considering the future funding for community safety projects.

In Scotland there is no statutory amount of time required for any curriculum area or subject. However, in the 5-14 curriculum (covering P1-S2), national guidelines recommend that education authorities and schools have a minimum time allocation of 15% for the expressive arts (including physical education). In addition, Scottish curriculum guidelines include a 20% flexibility factor which schools are encouraged to use for activities which reflect their own needs and circumstances. Some schools may choose to use some of this time for physical education.

For secondary schools approximately 90 minutes of physical education per week is received by S1 and S2 pupils and 115 minutes per week by S3 and S4 pupils. For S5 and S6 pupils there is no nationally recommended minimum time allocation for physical education. However, around 5,500 pupils in S5 and S6 participated in National Certificate or Higher courses in physical education this year.

Information on the average number of hours of physical education received by pupils in primary schools is not collected by the Scottish Executive.

Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government which therefore takes the lead on the funding and delivery of New Deal throughout Great Britain, working together with its partners, including the Scottish Executive.

None. The Direction will remain until North Lanarkshire's Business Plan for recovery is achieved.

The Key newsletter will be distributed to all council tenants to inform them of issues related to the development of a proposal for housing transfer. The frequency of issue will be determined in the light of tenants information requirements. It is estimated each edition will cost £30,000 including postage. The costs will be met from the New Housing Partnership funding allocated to the council.

DETR's proposals for arms length companies have limited attraction in Scottish circumstances as there are no plans to relieve the companies of any debt burden, in the same way as we are doing for Scottish councils who move to community ownership. In addition, all borrowing by the proposed arms length companies will be subject to the normal controls on public expenditure and, consequently in Scottish circumstances, would be met from the resources available in the assigned budget.

We will of course continue to monitor how any proposals are taken forward by DETR.