Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive has made clear our disappointment that such a Bill was not included in the Queen's Speech. We have been in regular contact with her Majesty's Government since 7 June to press them to bring forward the Bill to ban tobacco advertising and promotion at the earliest possible date.

In 2001-02 Glasgow City Council will have an estimated £75 million to spend on its housing stock. It is for the council to prioritise its housing needs and allocate this funding accordingly. However, Glasgow, like all councils, will be expected to address the issues raised in the question in its new local housing strategy.

In addition to the information which I gave in my answer to question S1W-15504 in May 2001, I am pleased to announce that we recently awarded funding of just under £100,000 over three years to Aberlour Child Care Trust's project "Running - Other Choices". This pilot project in Glasgow will assist young people to find solutions to the circumstances which have caused them to run away from home and to find alternatives to running.

Scoping work for a review of the social economy is under way. The review itself will commence soon and I expect to publish a report by the end of the year.

We announced plans for a loan fund in November 1999. A small development team was established with three members of staff seconded from the Bank of Scotland and Scottish Enterprise to take work forward. The team have recently successfully concluded negotiations with the banks over the terms of the loan finance and Social Investment Scotland will be officially launched on 19 September 2001.

Effective joint working between the NHSScotland, local authorities and other agencies is central to the Scottish Executive's Health and Community Care policies.Our National Health: A plan for action, a plan for change (December 2000), Rebuilding our National Health Service (May 2001), Modernising Community Care (1998), the Report of the Joint Future Group (December 2000) and the Learning Disability Review (June 2001) all set out a number of steps being taken to develop joint working with local government.The Executive has also recently consulted on proposals to remove legislative barriers to joint working, which we will introduce soon after Parliament resumes. We will issue guidance on joint resourcing and joint service management, initially covering services for older people, in the autumn, and work with agencies over the coming months on developing single shared assessment of people with community care needs, both to come into effect in April 2002.

This is commercial information, and as such is a matter for the power companies concerned.

The First Minister's remarks on children in poverty referred to the change in the estimated number of children living in low income households between 1996-97 and 1998-99, a more detailed explanation of which was given in answer to question S1W-13002. The drop of one percentage point referred to in the question relates to the percentage point difference in the proportion of children in low income households in Scotland between 1997-98 and the latest 1999-2000 figures. The Households Below Average Income Survey results demonstrate steady progress in reducing the proportion of children living in low income households.

Scottish Ministers work closely and constructively with their counterparts in the UK Government and, to that end, have regular discussions with United Kingdom Ministers on a wide range of subjects.

A further £5 million is being put into the Central Heating Programme this year so that councils considering transfer to community ownership can install central heating systems on the same timescale as the other local authorities taking part. Good progress has been made in our discussions with the energy companies and they have agreed to support the programme through the Energy Efficiency Commitment. Support will also be provided by Transco through its Affordable Warmth Programme.