Chamber and committees

The information requested is not held centrally. However, last year the Chartered Institute of Housing in Scotland was commissioned by the Scottish Executive to investigate the use which landlords were making of the provisions for evictions on the grounds of anti-social behaviour contained in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. The Institute's research found that in the period 1 April 1999 to 1 December 1999, 15 anti-social behaviour orders had been applied for and nine granted as follows:

• City of Dundee (3);
• City of Edinburgh (3);
• Fife (1);
• Perth & Kinross (2).

I am arranging for a copy of the Institute's research report to be placed in the Parliament's Information Centre.

The total number of conditional offers of fixed penalty ("fiscal fines") issued by Procurators Fiscal in each of the years to which the question refers was as follows:

a) 1997-98 - 36,201;

b) 1998-99 - 40,250; and

c) 1999-2000 - 35,329

Information on funding for family mediation services over the last five years is detailed in the following table, together with funding for this financial year:

	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01
Family Mediation Scotland	£61,000 plus £30,000 and £3,498 capital funding	£61,000 plus £30,000	£61,000 plus £30,000	£61,000 plus £25,000	£62,830 plus £25,750	£71,149
Family Mediation Borders	£8,932	£10,200	£11,707	£11,707	£12,058	£31,000
Family Mediation Central	£61,093 plus £988 capital funding	£61,093	£64,462	£64,462	£66,396	£77,195
Family Mediation Dumfries & Galloway	£0	£0	£23,160	£23,160	£23,855	£55,000
Family Mediation Grampian	£0	£0	£23,530	£23,530	£24,236	£43,150
Family Mediation Highland	£24,427 plus £4,133 capital funding	£24,091	£23,647	£23,647	£24,356	£24,965
Family Mediation Lothian	£0	£0	£0	£17,000	£17,510	£50,490
Family Mediation Tayside	£18,358	£25,820	£37,794	£37,794	£38,928	£59,556
Family Mediation Western Isles	£26,918	£26,918	£26,320	£26,320	£27,110	£26,250
Family Mediation West of Scotland	£0	£0	£22,000	£22,000	£22,660	£38,601
Total	£239,347	£239,122	£323,620	£335,620	£345,689	£477,356

The Scottish Executive places great importance on the work of organisations offering family mediation in Scotland. In addition to the Family Mediation Services listed the Scottish Executive also provides funding for a number of related organisations which provide support for families in need.

No consents have been issued for the growing of genetically modified crops in the Forth Valley area.

In terms of the GM contaminated Advanta seeds sown in Scotland, our expert advisory committees have assured us that there are no public or environmental safety concerns involved. In view of this, I do not believe it to be in the public interest to publish information on the locations of the farms involved, for doing so could lead to unwarranted action against farmers who have acted in good faith in this matter.

The Executive's recently issued guidance to local authorities on the preparation of full Local Transport Strategies for their area stresses the need for strategies to address the key transport factors affecting people with disabilities. A copy of the guidance is available in SPICe.

I announced in March that a national group would be formed to advise the Executive on the transport needs of people with disabilities. The group is expected to meet regularly and will contain representatives of a wide variety of organisations concerned with people experiencing mobility problems.

I announced in March that a national group would be formed to advise the Executive on the transport needs of people with disabilities. It is planned that the group will include representatives of a variety of organisations concerned with people experiencing mobility problems. The full membership of the group will be announced following consultation with groups representing disabled people and transport bodies.

The Executive does not believe that an official inquiry into the current outbreak of deaths among drug injectors is appropriate, as there is an official investigation being undertaken led by Dr Laurence Gruer of the Public Health Medicine Unit of Greater Glasgow Health Board, which is continuing.

The Executive and the health board have done everything appropriate to the situation, keeping all clinical agencies and the public informed on a regular basis. GGHB and the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health are co-ordinating the investigation on a global level, as the outbreak is now international. They have drawn in a range of international agencies and experts in tackling the problem.

On 15 June, the investigation team announced that the likely cause of the outbreak in Glasgow was the bacterium Clostridium novyi. Work is continuing and the heroin will be cultured under a variety of conditions in an attempt to isolate the Clostridia and other bacteria.

Greater Glasgow Health Board receives an annual general revenue allocation. It is for the board to determine within the funds available how to manage and deliver local healthcare services to meet the needs of its resident population. No separate funds have therefore been allocated to deal with the recent deaths caused by the contamination of heroin in the Glasgow area. For 2000-01, GGHB has been allocated a unified budget of £772.366 million, an increase of 5.4 % over that for 1999-2000.

The Executive commends the work being done by Dr Gruer and his team in co-ordinating what is effectively an international investigation into establishing the precise cause of these deaths. On 15 June, Dr Gruer announced that the bacterium Clostridium novyi was likely to be the main cause of the illness in most of the people affected in this outbreak. Work is continuing to try and establish how exactly Clostridium novyi is contributing to the illness.

General guidance on Special Educational Needs is contained in the Scottish Executive Manual of Good Practice for all staff and professionals involved with children and young people with special educational needs which was issued in January 1999. Further information on good practice in behaviour management techniques can be found in the publications Taking a Closer Look at Promoting Social Competence and Sharing Good Practice, both Scottish Executive funded projects. In addition, the Scottish Executive conference on Alternatives to Exclusion, held on 17 January 2000, provided the forum for local authorities to exchange theories and best practice on topics including behaviour management. The conference report to be published in March was sent to all authorities for dissemination to staff and other professionals.