Chamber and committees

None. Mineral plans are prepared and adopted by local authorities and generally do not require the approval of the Scottish ministers.

Planning authorities can choose to deal with minerals extraction either as part of a comprehensive Local Plan or (usually in areas with significant minerals extraction activity) as a Minerals Subject Local Plan. The former North East Fife District Council adopted a Minerals Subject Local Plan in 1994. Four councils - East Ayrshire (for opencast coal only), Scottish Borders, Fife and South Lanarkshire - are all currently producing minerals subject local plans.

Currently Scotland produces some 33 million tonnes of construction aggregate (sand and gravel and crushed rock) and seven million tonnes of opencast coal. Information is not held centrally on the production and distribution of minerals from individual sites. The Executive has recently begun discussions with the aggregates industry to consider how best to ensure that relevant data is available to facilitate development plan preparation and development control decisions. It is for local authorities to consider what information should be taken into account when preparing mineral plans in the light of locally prevailing circumstances.

The statutory requirements for plan preparation are set out in the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 and the Town and Country Planning (structure and Local Plans) (Scotland) Regulations 1983. Scottish Development Department Circular 32/1983 describes the general principles that the Scottish ministers consider should be taken into account when preparing plans. A copy of this Circular is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 23755). National Planning Policy Guidelines (NPPGs) indicate to planning authorities a range of issues to be taken into account in the preparation of Development Plans. The relevance of any particular national planning policy issue will depend on the circumstances prevailing in any particular local authority area.

The Executive's policies for minerals planning are set out in NPPG 16 for opencast coal and NPPG 4 for other types of minerals. National guidance and policies should be taken into account by local authorities when preparing their structure and local plans. For the future, the conclusions and recommendations of the recently published research report on the operation and effectiveness of NPPG 4 are currently under consideration. The role of mineral extraction in the context of the Review of Strategic Planning was also fully discussed during the consultation process and Conclusions and next steps were issued in June 2002.

Local authorities must take account of all the relevant interests at a number of key stages during plan preparation. A public local inquiry must be held if there are unresolved objections. The reporter's recommendations are then sent to the planning authority for consideration. The Scottish ministers must be given formal notice when the authority intends to adopt the plan. Such notification is primarily for information. The Executive can decide to intervene although its general policy is that local planning matters are primarily the responsibility of planning authorities.

The Executive continues to receive representations from the industry about arrangements for national mineral planning. Future arrangements were considered as part of the Review of Strategic Planning and will be taken forward as a follow-up to research into National Planning Policy Guideline 4: Land for Mineral Working. Both these initiatives involved full consultation with interested parties.

Deployment of staff is a matter for local authorities and information on the use of temporary contracts is not held centrally. It is clear from our general discussions with local authorities that a large number of temporary contracts have always come to an end, for a variety of reasons, at the end of the school session. It is also clear that many of these teachers secure work early in the new session as vacancies arise and supply cover needs emerge. We have no reason to expect any change to this pattern and will be monitoring the impact of the Teacher Induction Scheme on existing probationers closely. Funding has already been agreed to assist in the implementation of the Teacher Induction Scheme and there are no plans to make any additional distribution to local authorities.

The standard recruitment procedures will be followed as outlined in the answer to S1W-28326 today.

The advertisements for the posts of Gaelic Information Officer and Gaelic Outreach Officer were published on Friday 16 August. The deadline for applications is Friday August 30. Thereafter, all phases of the standard Parliament recruitment procedures will be followed to ensure an open and fair competition. These include selection of candidates for interview, interviews, taking up of references and pre-appointment security checks. All phases will be concluded as quickly as possible.