Chamber and committees

The Housing Bill will require local authorities to carry out assessments into the extent and nature of homelessness in their areas and to develop homelessness strategies. These strategies will include an assessment of accommodation requirements, and will indicate how the authority proposes to meet these requirements.

There is currently no formally adopted policy on breastfeeding by members in meetings of the Parliament or its committees. MSPs who are nursing mothers do have access to a room in 375 High Street for the purpose of feeding or expressing milk. There are also baby changing facilities in Committee Chambers, PHQ and the Assembly Hall.

The provision of appropriate temporary accommodation is a matter for local authorities. Assessing the need for such accommodation will form part of the development of local authority homelessness strategies. The type of temporary accommodation provided will depend on the assessment of need, including consideration of what is already available.

Section 3 of the Housing Bill will give homeless or potentially homeless people not in priority need an enhanced package which ensures them advice and assistance and access to temporary accommodation while this advice and assistance is given. Take-up of the new enhanced package will depend on the circumstances of individual households and the extent to which its availability encourages those who have not previously made applications to local authorities under the homelessness legislation now to do so.

Section 3 of the Housing (Scotland) Bill is concerned with the provision of temporary accommodation and advice and assistance. It is for local authorities, in consultation with other organisations as necessary, to consider the support needs of applicants. Homelessness strategies will set out how such needs are to be assessed and met.

I welcome the Expert Panel's report, Reducing the Risk: improving the response to sex offending. It is an important contribution to the debate on a subject of public concern. The report will now go out for public consultation, which will inform decisions on taking forward the recommendations of the report. Copies of the report are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. no. 14000).

The development of local area waste plans by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency involves consideration of the environmental impact of various management options (landfill, recycling, recovery) for municipal waste in order to identify the best practicable environmental option. This process includes an assessment of the proportions of different materials (e.g. plastics, glass, metals and paper) in the waste stream, but it does not involve a specific assessment of individual items such as disposable nappies.

There is a wide range of such measures. Free guidance, information and referral services are available to young people through the Careers Service Companies. The Executive also supports a wide range of activities in schools designed to develop links between education and the world of work. The enterprise network provides work-based training for modern apprenticeships and other vocational qualifications. As part of implementing the Beattie report on inclusiveness, the Executive is supporting 16 multi-agency projects across Scotland to support the learning and support needs of the most disadvantaged young people.

I and Elliot Morley MP, the MAFF Fisheries Minister, represented the UK at the Council.The Commission reported on the progress of discussion on stock recovery plans for cod and hake and addressed some of the concerns which had been expressed by member states. I and Elliot Morley emphasised our support for improved technical conservation measures in the North Sea but emphasised the need to take account of the specific circumstances of the mixed fisheries in developing proposals. I drew attention to the need to strike the right balance in matters such as mesh size, bycatch limits and discard rates which will apply from January 2001 in order to minimise the economic implications of the measures for our fishing communities whilst securing the desired conservation objectives. I also stressed the importance of fully involving fishermen in developing appropriate solutions. Further discussions among member states are now proceeding with a view to resuming negotiations between the EU and Norway on 7 May.Commissioner Fischler made a presentation to the Council of the Green Paper on the 2002 Review of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and reported that an extensive consultation exercise with all interested parties was now under way. The UK delegation gave a broad welcome for the Green Paper as providing a sound basis for conducting the review. The Fisheries Council will have a substantive debate on the Green Paper at its meeting in June.The Council adopted conclusions on the integration of environmental concerns into the CFP which will contribute to the forthcoming report to the Gothenburg European Council on environmental integration. The Commission also presented a report on biodiversity action plans for fisheries which will now be considered in detail as part of the wider effort to integrate fisheries and environmental concerns. The Council adopted conclusions on a move towards developing multi-annual management strategies for setting Total Allowable Catches within a precautionary framework.The Council also took note of the failure to include a fisheries agreement between the EU and Morocco and the consequent need to bring forward measures for restructuring of the EU fleets which have previously operated in Moroccan waters. Member states confirmed that they would be ready to ratify the UN Agreement on straddling and migratory stocks by the end of this year and also agreed a common position on criteria for allocating catching opportunities in the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) which take account of both the needs of EU fishermen and of developing countries.

This review was carried out by the Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation (AGNIR) on behalf of the NRPB Board to assess the potential risks of cancer from electromagnetic fields and to recommend any further steps that should be taken to protect the health of the public. The AGNIR report deals specifically with the low frequency electric and magnetic fields arising from the electricity supply system. It does not cover exposure to the much higher frequencies used by mobile phone technology, and therefore does not give rise to any concerns about mobile phone base stations.The Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones (IEGMP) was set up to assess the current state of knowledge on the possible health effects from mobile phone technology. Their report, which was published in May 2000, concluded that the balance of evidence does not suggest that mobile phone technologies are a risk to health.