Chamber and committees

Responsibility for the provision of recreational and leisure facilities is primarily a matter for local authorities. In December 2002, local authorities were notified of their Quality of Life funding over the next three financial years. This funding is expected to be used to reflect the shared central and local government priorities for improving the local environment and increasing opportunities for children and young people. This funding follows the success of the reallocation of £95 million of Executive funds in June 2002, which some local authorities chose to spend on skateparks.In addition to this, applications for the provision of such facilities can be made to sportscotland under the Lottery Sports Fund's Sport Facilities Programme. Another possible funding route is the Awards for All Programme, though the maximum level of award is £5,000.

The Scottish Executive does not currently provide such support to housebound sensory-impaired people.The People's Network will make specialist equipment and software available in certain libraries across the country. Two local pilots (North Lanarkshire Sheltered Housing Project and North Ayrshire Jump Leads Project) are also offering computer access to those unable to visit the library. The Scottish Library and Information Council also aims to develop a best practice framework for libraries to offer those with disabilities access to the internet.Various voluntary sector bodies also provide advice about computers and the internet for disabled and sensory-impaired people (e.g. the Royal National Institute for the Blind, the Royal National Institute for the Deaf, and Mencap), and guidance is available on their respective websites:http://www.rnib.org.ukhttp://www.rnid.org.ukhttp://www.mencap.org.uk/.

I will write to the member with the answer on this and will place copies in the Parliament's Reference Centre.

The cash underspends for the Health Department as set out in the 1999-2000 Appropriation Accounts and 2000-01 Cash Accounts were £76 million and £168 million respectively. The Health Department's resource underspend for 2001-02, as set out in the 2001-02 Scottish Executive Core Departments Resource Accounts, was £73 million. It is not possible to give an accurate forecast outturn figure for 2002-03 because the position varies throughout the year. NHS boards are able to carry forward up to 1% of their unified budget allocations in any one year. Monitoring returns from NHS boards currently indicates lower levels of underspend than in previous years.

Subject to national priorities and Health Department guidance, it is for NHS boards to assess the needs of their local populations, including those who suffer from chronic liver failure, and to allocate their considerable resources to provide services to meet those needs. The Health Department has, however, been in discussion with relevant Scottish clinicians and the voluntary sector about the development of regional Managed Clinical Networks (MCNs) for the treatment of patients with hepatitis C. In the near future I expect the clinicians to submit an application to the department for funding to initiate the establishment of such MCNs. The Executive currently provides £8.1 million to NHS boards across Scotland to assist them in their work to prevent the spread of all bloodborne viruses, including hepatitis C. On 4 July last year, the Health Department staged a conference to highlight and discuss the long-term issues around care and service delivery for those affected by hepatitis C. At the conference, a new hepatitis C information pack for professionals and a leaflet for patients was launched. This information provides helpful and accurate advice on hepatitis C and clarifies certain issues, which are often misunderstood.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has published a Policy Statement on Enforcement. It can be found on SEPA's website at www.sepa.org.uk. This states that where SEPA is aware of a breach of legislation, which it is responsible for enforcing, the agency has a number of enforcement options available to it. These include the sending of a final warning letter, the issuing of an enforcement notice or the reporting of the breach to the Procurator Fiscal recommending prosecution. Prosecution will be recommended to the Procurator Fiscal where justified in order to punish offenders, to avoid recurrence and to encourage general compliance. Where the circumstances warrant it, a case may be referred to the Procurator Fiscal without prior warning or recourse to alternative methods of enforcement.

I am advised by the Food Standards Agency that the varieties of maize referred to in the question do not currently have consent for food use in the EU, nor for commercial planting.The enforcement of food law is primarily a matter for local authorities, who also conduct food sampling programmes. In 2002, the UK element of the EC Food Sampling Programme included checks on certain foodstuffs to ensure that if they contain GM ingredients that they comply with appropriate labelling rules. Proposals on the traceability and labelling of GMOs have recently been agreed by the European Council, whereby operators will be required to provide a list of all GMOs which are in a shipment on its arrival in the EU. If adopted, these rules are likely to come into force late in 2003.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:No formal research study was commissioned. The Governor of HM Prison Low Moss was referring to internal post incident debriefings which take place following incidents. [These debriefings do not lead to research reports.

The security of fire stations is a matter for individual fire authorities and this information is not available centrally.

Committee Clerks liaise with Executive Officials with regard to the size of the public gallery in the relevant committee room and the corresponding appropriate number of Scottish Executive officials that might be accommodated. Committee Clerks advise Participation Services of the number of attendees that they expect for any meeting, including officials and witnesses. The relevant numbers of public seats are then made available by Participation Services for booking. Arrangements for access to the rooms on the day are managed by security in order to accommodate all known pre-bookings. Anyone with a pre-booked seat will be given preference over anyone who turns up without having pre-booked.The three staff teams work together to maximise public access and to ensure that an appropriate balance is achieved between seats for the press, the public (as witnesses or as observers) and officials. All parties and members are encouraged to keep the number of officials attending in a support role to the necessary minimum.