Chamber and committees

The introduction on 1 April 2006 of theScotland-wide Free Bus Scheme for Older and Disabled People 2006 meets the PartnershipAgreement commitment to a national free off-peak bus scheme for older people andpeople with disabilities.

The scheme includes bus and coachservices available to the general public including those community transport serviceswhich are also local registered services.

No such discussions havebeen held with NHS boards.

The Confederation ofPassenger Transport (CPT) and local authority representatives were included on theseven task groups set up to advise on the development and implementation of theScotland-wide Free Bus Scheme for Older and Disabled people.

The Confederation of PassengerTransport (CPT) and local authority representatives were included on the seven taskgroups set up to advise on the development of the Scotland-wide Free Bus schemefor Older and Disabled people. These included task groups which considered aspectsof equity of access including which coach and bus services would be eligible inthe scheme and the eligibility criteria for individuals.

Voluntary organisations wereincluded in the consultation, which was run between 24 October to 5 December 2005, onthe orders for the Scotland-wide Free Bus Scheme for Older and Disabled people towhich over 130 responses were received.

In addition the Royal NationalInstitute for the Blind has been involved in discussions on the needs of the visuallyimpaired in using smartcards for the Scotland-wide Free Bus scheme for Older andDisabled people.

I have also met with the ScottishPensioners Forum where discussion included the concessionary travel scheme and howit will affect older people.

Local travel concession schemescurrently employ a range of measures for monitoring and verifying travel concessiondata. These measures include data analysis, compliance audits of bus operators andsurveys of bus services and passengers.

The Scotland-wide Free Bus Schemefor Older and Disabled People which begins on 1 April 2006 willprovide access to card holders from anywhere in Scotland to a very wide range ofservices. The scheme will encompass bus and coach available to the general public,both local registered bus services and long distance scheduled coach services.

The information requested isshown for each full financial year from 1998-99 to 2003-04 in the table Pregnanciesamongst females aged 12 to 16 years at conception from 1998-99 to 2003-04, acopy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib.number 38956).

No.

The numbers of looked after children aged 16 or 17 years old in foster care on the 31 March each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area, are shown in the following table. It should be noted that figures exclude children on short-term placements only and that some figures were estimated due to missing or incomplete data.

Number of Children Looked After Aged 16 and 17¹ by Foster Carers on the 31 March

Local Authority	19991	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
	17 Years and Over	16 and 17 Years Old	16 and 17 Years Old	16 and 17 Years Old	16 and 17 Years Old	16 and 17 Years Old	16 and 17 Years Old
Aberdeen City	7(e)	12(e)	11(e)	15(e)	7(e)	9(e)	6
Aberdeenshire	11	20	18	15	12	10	10
Angus	*	8	6	11	13	11	14
Argyll and Bute	*	*	0	5	9	5	*
Clackmannanshire	*	*	*	*	*	5	6
Dumfries and Galloway	*	17	18	9	9	16	12
Dundee City	*	13	14	17	14	17	17
East Ayrshire	7	6	6	7	10	5	*
East Dunbartonshire	0	*	*	*	*	*	*
East Lothian	5	10	8(e)	23	21	9	9
East Renfrewshire	*	0	*	*	*	*	*
Edinburgh, City of	21(e)	29	35	27	28(e)	33	19
Eilean Siar	*	*	*	*	*	5	*
Falkirk	14	11	17	20	19	14	18
Fife	*	14	20	18	22	23	26
Glasgow City	64	41	42	45	64	69	62
Highland	15	16	18	11	12	8	20
Inverclyde	0	N/A	5	*	*	*	*
Midlothian	13(e)	14	7	5	7	8	6
Moray	*	N/A	N/A	7(e)	6	6	5
North Ayrshire	6	*	7	*	5	5	*
North Lanarkshire	5	7	9	6	15	14	12
Orkney Isles	0	*	*	*	*	0	*
Perth and Kinross	*	8	7	*	8	5	5
Renfrewshire	7	6	6	8	8	7	*
Scottish Borders	5	15	10	11	10	14	10
Shetland	*	*	5	*	0	0	*
South Ayrshire	0	*	*	6	*	*	*
South Lanarkshire	*	*(e)	7(e)	*	5	11	10
Stirling	6	*	*	*	7	11	7
West Dunbartonshire	5	*	*	*	8	6	7
West Lothian	*	10	13	0	10	*	16
Total	223	291	307	293	348	336	325

Notes:

1. For 1999, age categories differed to subsequent years.

N/A - age splits not available and no estimates provided.

^(e) - data has been estimated.

Cells containing * represent small numbers that are suppressed to maintain confidentiality.