Chamber and committees

Under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989, Scottish ministers have received three wind farm applicationslocated in South Ayrshire (Mark Hill, Arecleoch and Dersalloch), a further two applicationsare also located in East Ayrshire (Afton and Kyle). All five of these wind farmapplications are located in the Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley constituency.

I referthe member to the answer to question S3W-5008 on 9 October 2007. Allanswers to written parliamentary questions are available on the parliament’s website,the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The task of the IndependentScrutiny Panel chaired by Dr Andrew Walker is to bring to bear independent, expert,probing scrutiny on the revised accident and emergency service proposals from NHSLanarkshire and NHS Ayrshire and Arran. The aim of thisscrutiny is to provide assurance through commentary that the revised proposals are:

safe, sustainable,evidence-based and represent value for money;

are robust, patient-centredand consistent with clinical best practice and national policy;

that they take accountof local circumstances and the views of individuals and communities affected, and

that all viable serviceoptions have been considered.

In order to carryout its task the panel will need to:

take account of localcircumstances and the views of individuals and communities affected by effectivelyengaging with local people, in liaison with the Scottish Health Council;

provide a clear, comprehensiveand accessible commentary on both sets of proposals to the Cabinet Secretary forHealth and Wellbeing, in a form also suitable for publication, and

to complete this workby the turn of the year.

The panel is an adhoc group of experts, set up to provide advice on specific,  time-limited issues.The material produced by the panel will be considered as additional informationand advice; to help inform my final decision on the board’s revised proposals.

The panel may wishto obtain additional expertise (for example, from a nursing specialist or a healtheconomist) to support its work. This will be left to the discretion of thepanel, and a small budget will be set aside for this purpose. The panel will haveeffective control over the choice of advisers and, within the available budget,over the nature and amount of advice required.

The panel will considerthe evidence in terms of both the revised proposals from NHS Ayrshire and Arran and NHS Lanarkshire. It is expected that 15 days workbe devoted to each - 30 working days in total, per person. In exceptional circumstances,this might be extended by up to five working days.

The purpose of thetask force is to promote action that will make a practical difference to the increaseof housing supply across all tenures in Scotland. Organisations representing the views of tenants living in social housingare not represented on the “core” Housing Supply Task Force. Membership of the coregroup has deliberately been restricted to those in a position to bring about realchange to the delivery of more housing. There will, however, be opportunities overthe coming months for many others, including tenant organisations, to engage withand influence the work of the task force.

I chair the HousingSupply Task Force which also includes representatives from COSLA, the Scottish Federationof Housing Associations, Shelter, the Council of Mortgage Lenders and Homes forScotland.

The Housing SupplyTask Force will be engaging with a wide range of organisations as it develops itsunderstanding of the issues that are hampering the delivery of more housing of alltypes in Scotland. Some organisations will be invited to attendtask force meetings and it is envisaged that there will be a number of additionalevents at which interest groups will be able to express their views to the taskforce.

This will be an operationalmatter for discussion between Scottish Enterprise and relevant local authorities.

This will be an operationalmatter for Scottish Enterprise in discussion with South Ayrshire Council.

This will be an operationalmatter for Scottish Enterprise in discussion with East Ayrshire Council.

The government believescommunity planning partnerships have a significant role to play in joining up thedesign and delivery of services at local level.

Future funding decisionswill be considered as part of the current strategic spending review.