Chamber and committees

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

The start of formal negotiationsneeded to await the Scottish Executive pay remit and analysis of the details of the Agenda for Change whose implementation by the NHS was delayed.

The SPS has now received a payremit and the Agenda for Change analysis is complete.

Pay negotiations are now in process.Among SPS’s aims is to conclude them as soon as the negotiating parties agree.

The Working Group on Hate Crimewas set up by ministers to consider improvements, including legislation, which mightbe made to deal with crimes based on hatred towards social groups. The group’s report,published on 8 October 2004, makes 14 recommendations impacting on a number of differentareas including the criminal justice system, the education curriculum, new legislationand media reporting. Careful consideration has been given to all of the recommendationsmade by the working group and a formal response to their report, including an updateon progress against each of the recommendations, will be issued in the near future.The working group was set up to provide a report to ministers, and was thereforedisbanded when this task was completed.

The Scottish Executive is notaware of any such concerns. The announcement of the Scottish Housing Quality Standardin February 2004 makes clear our intention that all social rented housing in Scotland shouldbe free from dampness and condensation and also be energy efficient in terms ofheating systems and insulation by 2015. We will be working with local authoritiesto ensure this happens between now and that date.

We are not currently aware of any conditions within the Scottish Parliament building which would present respiratory problems to those whooccupy or visit it. The building management system controls ventilation,temperature and fresh air input, based on the automatic monitoring of internal conditions. In addition, any work activities which may release fumes or dust have strictcontrol measures applied at source and timed to avoid affecting occupants orvisitors.

The Scottish Executiveestablished the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives 2005. The remit of the centre includes the promotion of the health and wellbeing of employees andof safe and healthy workplaces.

The centre incorporates theSafe and Healthy Working services which offers free, confidential advice onoccupational health and safety to small and medium-sized enterprises.

The centre also runs the Scotland’sHealth at Work Award Scheme which encourages employers to adopt policies aimedat protecting and improving the health and wellbeing of their employees.

Enforcement of statutoryrequirements for workplace Health and Safety is the remit of the Health andSafety Executive.

A draft of the National Languages Strategy is in preparation within the ScottishExecutive. I expect that we shall publish the strategy after the summer recess,enabling Scots language organisations amongst others to comment on our proposedapproach.

I am very aware of the potentiallydevastating effects of parental drug misuse on vulnerable children. Children’s safetymust be a priority for all agencies involved in working with drug misusers. HiddenHarm – Next Steps was published on 8 May 2006, settingout a range of actions already under way to help tackle this problem.

The number of firefighters injuredin operational incidents is shown in the following table.

	1995*	1996*	1997*	1998*	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Central Scotland	7	15	8	8	3	15	8	20	21	21
Dumfries and Galloway	9	16	0	4	9	16	13	11	8	2
Fife	26	28	14	7	26	28	26	24	26	23
Grampian	27	26	8	4	27	26	32	19	23	20
Highlands and Islands	2	3	1	8	8	22	13	22	12	13
Lothian and Borders	12	15	8	8	103	15	86	93	102	99
Strathclyde	105	165	15	3	105	165	88	130	166	157
Tayside	41	49	11	8	41	49	43	31	37	26

Source: HM Chief Inspectorof Fire Services for Scotland.

Note: *1995-98 years figures represent injuries which resulted in anabsence from work of two weeks or more only.

I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-25025 on 3 May 2006. All answersto 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 Scottish Executive has made no such estimates. Statistics on the incidence of such fires do notidentify the costs associated with them.