Chamber and committees

A reply was issued on Thursday8 April.

Local authorities in Scotland areresponsible for monitoring compliance with the Animal By-Products (Scotland) Regulations2003. The Executive understands that enforcement officials across Scotland haveundertaken visits to a number of supermarkets to explain how these statutory controlsimpact on disposal practices, but information on instances of non-compliance isnot held centrally.

The Executive is part of a UK-wideworking group involving food manufacturers and retailers, local authorities andthe waste disposal sector which was established to identify practical options forensuring compliance with the by-products controls.

The Executive through the RuralCommunity Transport Initiative (RCTI) funds community transport measures in themore remote areas of Scotland, particularly where there are no scheduled or very limitedbus services. The RCTI supports a wide range of projects, including dial-a-ride,community minibuses and social car schemes. The provision of door-to-door transportis particularly helpful to elderly and disabled people, including those with visualimpairments, and people with young children. The projects enable people to get outand about, allowing them to be included in community life and helping to reducerural and social isolation.

Thereis a national free concessionary travel scheme for blind people introduced in December1999 which offers card holders free travel at any time on buses, trains, ferriesand the Glasgow Underground. The scheme provides considerable benefits to card holders.

TravelineScotland, a telephone and internet travel information service funded by the Executive,aims to make public transport information as widely available as possible. Peoplewho are visually impaired are able to obtain information about their planned journeysby telephone. Transport Direct is a new information service, which is a Departmentfor Transport initiative supported by the Executive. This service is being developedto recognised standards to meet a wide range of disabled users, including visuallyimpaired.

The Executive is committed toensuring that public transport is accessible to disabled people. To help achievethis the Executive will be assessing improved public transport concessions for disabledpeople and we will shortly be carrying out a period of consultation with all relevanttransport bodies and stakeholders to consider how to take this assessment forward.This assessment will include people with visual impairments.

The Scottish Executive, in conjunction with COSLA and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, is currently undertaking a strategic review of fundingfor the voluntary sector. The review will identify the current scale and patternof funding to the sector and examine the scope for improving its availability, effectivenessand sustainability.The findings of the working groupshave been subject to consultation with the voluntary sector through a series ofroadshows, and it is hoped that the review report will be published in summer 2004.Further information about the review can be found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/viu.

I refer the member to the answergiven to question S2W-7421 20 April 2004  . All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa”.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-7421 on 20 April 2004. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility forwhich can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

There is nofixed defined whitefish fleet. There are some 550 over 10 metre vessels basedin Scotland that hold Category A (whitefish) licences, of which some 450 landedsome whitefish in 2003. However, the level of dependency on whitefish catchesvaries from vessel to vessel, with some catching mainly cod and haddock andothers catching a wider range of fish, including nephrops. The recent strategy unitreport used estimates of the value of landings of different types of fish toassess the economics of the UK fishingfleet.

New houseblocks costing £35 millionwere opened at Edinburgh Prison and Polmont Young Offenders Institution lastyear. Contracts worth £50 million were also awarded last year for newhouseblocks at Edinburgh and Glenochil Prisons. These will open next summer.New houseblocks are also planned for HM Young Offenders Institute Polmont andHM Prison Perth.

The latest estimates of thenumbers and percentages of children in Scotland living in absolute and relativelow income poverty, before and after housing costs, can be found in tables 2eand 2g of the Scottish Executive’s report Social Justice Indicators of Progress 2003.A copy of the report is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib.number 30309).

Information is not yetavailable on the material deprivation indicator measure. Questions on materialdeprivation have been introduced into the Family Resources Surveys (FRS) – fromwhich low income poverty figures are derived – from 2004-05. Results will beavailable in 2006.

Figures on children livingin low income poverty are not available at local authority level.