Chamber and committees

The following table details the subsidy paid on set-aside land in Scotland in the last five years for which figures are available (2003 to 2007 inclusive).

	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Set-Aside Paid in £ million*	22.407	15.945	11.244	10.564	10.333

Note: *Payment figures before modulation.

The following table shows the area and proportion of arable land designated as set-aside in Scotland in each year from 2003 to 2007.

Year	Set Aside (Ha)	Arable land (Ha)	Proportion Set Aside
2003	90,684	959,739	9.4%
2004	75,117	960,849	7.8%
2005	69,492	938,051	7.4%
2006	67,549	921,828	7.3%
2007	67,933	922,194	7.4%

Source: June Agricultural Census.

Notes:

1. Arable land includes tilled area and grass under five years old

2. Set-aside figures from the June agricultural census are higher than set-aside areas claimed under the Single Farm Payments Scheme from 2005.

3. Provisional results from the 2008 June agricultural census are scheduled for release on 24 September 2008.

There is regular discussion between officials of the Scottish Government and of the UK Government on improvements to the UK benefits and welfare system for all families with children. Specific support for kinship carers is raised as part of these discussions, whenever appropriate.

These matters are also raised regularly at relevant meetings between Scottish and UK Ministers. The most recent meeting was with the UK Government''s Minister for Children, Ms Beverley Hughes, on 15 July 2008.

The number of Gaelic teachers are published each year in Teachers in Scotland, available on the Scottish Government website using the following links:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/03/18093809/42;

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/04/25165316/53393.

Information is not available prior to 2003.

The number of teachers of Gaelic are published in tables 8.9 and 8.10 of Teachers in Scotland 2007, available on the Scottish Government website using the following link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/03/18093809/0.

One of the guiding principles of getting it right for every child in foster and kinship care is: unless there are clear reasons why placement within the family would not be in the child''s interests, care within the wider family and community circle will be the first option for the child.

The steps being taken to achieve this include:

Guidance on the assessment and approval process for kinship carers of looked after children will be published shortly. This will cover the provision of support to kinship carers to ensure they are enabled to take on care of a child wherever this best meets the child''s needs;

Revised looked after children regulations will be issued for consultation by the end of 2008, which will make clear the role of the family in decision-making about the child and also the role of and responsibilities of approved kinship carers of looked after children, and

Training, information and guidance to support the implementation of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 has been commissioned. This will include the role of kinship carers in providing a permanent home for the children in their family.

The Scottish Government and COSLA recognise more support is necessary for many kinship carers, including carers of children who are not looked after, and that includes practical and emotional support as well as financial assistance. Our work includes:

Commissioning jointly the national reference group, which is taking forward implementation of getting it right for every child in kinship and foster care, to produce a long-term vision for kinship care in Scotland, and will deliver guidance covering holistic support of kinship carers;

Providing a central government grant to Citizens Advice Scotland to deliver a specialist advice and information service to all kinship carers, which will be launched in September 2008. COSLA is a member of its national advisory group;

Working in partnership on the development of an early years framework to support the building of parenting, family and community capacity.

Scottish Government officials met with HM Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) officials in August 2008 to discuss their current consultation on the modernisation of the tax credits system. As part of the consultation process, officials have stressed the Scottish Government''s desire that the child care element of the working tax credit and child care vouchers should be merged to create a straightforward, progressive and more accessible system.

The Scottish Government will continue to liaise with HMRC regarding the simplification of the tax credits system to make the process easier for parents and improve uptake for those families in need of support.

Standard subsistence rates are specified within NHS staff''s terms and conditions. Employers do have discretion in certain circumstances to reimburse beyond these rates where there are genuine business reasons to do so, i.e. where a meal within the specified rate was not available. However, any general increase to subsistence rates would need to be discussed in partnership between health service trades unions and staff representative groups, NHS employers and UK health departments through the relevant negotiating machinery.

Agenda for Change, the terms and conditions package which covers most non-medical staff, does allow NHS employers to negotiate and agree subsistence arrangements locally and in partnership where such arrangements are more appropriate to local operational circumstances. However, any NHS employer wishing to diverge from the rates agreed at UK level would need to be able to justify why introducing this element of inconsistency was appropriate.

Whilst different staff groups within NHSScotland do work under different terms and conditions, the standard subsistence rates contained within these terms and conditions are currently the same. These rates are uniform and do not change according to the seniority of the claimant within a given staff group.