Chamber and committees

The information requested is shown in the following table.

Force	Number of Stations with Mobile Phone Masts Attached to the Building
Central Scotland Police	0
Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary	1
Fife Constabulary	0
Grampian Police	4
Lothian and Borders Police	0
Northern Constabulary	0
Strathclyde Police	1
Tayside Police	0

Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools (HMI) inspection guidelines are reviewed annually. The most recent version has been in use since August 2000. Summaries of HMI inspection guidelines, referred to as National Briefing Documents, are available on the HMI website, and are issued to schools together with the notification of inspection. Detailed inspection guidelines for Inspectors include guidance on how library provision will be evaluated. This guidance draws on comments made by school librarians during inspection, and on the national document Taking a Closer Look at The School Library Resource Centre published in 1999 by the Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum. HMI hold regular liaison meetings with key interested bodies to discuss inspection related matters, and allow issues of concern to be raised.

The Scottish Diet Action Plan, Eating for Health, made a number of recommendations, including the nutritional guidelines for catering specifications for the public sector, which are specifically aimed at schools and local authorities.In recent months, the Social Justice Annual Report 2000, Our National Health: A plan for action, a plan for change and Working Together for Scotland - A Programme for Government have each reiterated the role schools can play in improving children's diet through the commitment to supporting, through the Health Improvement Fund, the provision of breakfast clubs and fruit/salad bars in school settings.In addition, advice provided by the Scottish Executive gives health education, including nutritional education, a secure place within the curriculum and seeks to ensure that it is provided in all schools. The primary responsibility for the delivery and management of nutritional education within the curriculum, the quality of school meals, and the provision of any additional services such as breakfast clubs rests with education authorities.

The annual allocation to local authorities of consent to incur capital expenditure is a general consent for expenditure on their non-housing capital programmes, including education. The consent is distributed amongst authorities on the basis of a formula agreed with CoSLA, and is neither programme nor project specific. Within that framework, it is for East Dunbartonshire to decide on the level of capital expenditure on facilities for the provision of school meals.

The concord drafted by the UK Metatagging in Education Group (MEG) is not a data input standard. It is a series of principles underpinning the work of the group in developing and promoting guidance on the use of descriptive standards, or "metadata", for meaningfully and usefully describing educational content. The National Grid for Learning in Scotland already uses a set of metadata standards closely based on existing international standards, and adoption of these is now normal for schools material commissioned by the Executive and by Learning and Teaching Scotland. The Executive has been represented at all meetings of UK MEG, and we expect that the NGfL Scotland standards will be influential in shaping wider agreement on metadata for content intended for schools.

The Executive will seek to ensure that all Drug Action Teams (DATs) address volatile substance abuse through this year's reporting arrangements.Any issues of concern about action on volatile substance abuse will be taken up with the relevant DAT.

The Scottish Executive is continually looking at ways to develop and enhance its consultation procedures including distribution in line with its commitments to Civic Participation.

Good Practice Guidance on Consultation has recently been made available to all departments undertaking consultations. It recognises that consultation is an essential in modern government to ensure policy decisions are soundly based on evidence, that they take into account views and experience of those affected by them, that innovative and creative options are considered and that new arrangements are workable.

The Good Practice Guidance on Consultation derives from the Policy Unit report on Civic Participation which was published last year and is available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/government/civicp.pdf That report identified 4 broad themes which have a bearing on extending distribution and increasing involvement in consultations:

Good Practice - to sharpen planning and execution of consultations;

Reaching 'civic' Scotland;

Reaching the wider public;

Making best use of resources.

These broad recommendations were further broken-down into 21 actions which have now been implemented through the production of the Good Practice Guidance on Consultation. The Guidance covers issues that enhance distribution such as:

equality mainstreaming;

use of sampling techniques to ensure all relevant interests are brought within the ambit of the consultation;

enhancement of the Executive website to maximise the potential of the internet as a consultative tool;

research into the methods of distribution to determine the most effective ways of reaching the public;

working closely with the Civic Forum;

as well as other key improvements such as:

extending consultations to 12 weeks; and

summaries to make key issues more accessible. This work will continue and a dedicated team within the Executive has been established to regularly update the Good Practice Guidance on Consultations and provide advice to policy areas on effective consultation procedures.

The representations were made by the manufacturers of emamectin benzoate, who asked the Scottish Ministers to direct the Scottish Environment Protection Agency to determine applications for consents to discharge under the Control of Pollution Act 1974 within four months. The manufacturers also wished the Scottish Ministers to direct the agency to allocate further resources to the consenting regime and to establish and implement an effective regime for determining applications for consents to the discharge of emamectin benzoate. The Scottish Ministers declined to give such Directions. Under the 1974 Act the determination of applications for consents to discharge emamectin benzoate is the responsibility of the agency, which is established by statute as a body separate from Government. Bearing in mind their own powers to call in applications, or to consider appeals, the Scottish Ministers did not consider it necessary or appropriate to intervene in the way proposed, in relation to SEPA's discharge of its functions, for the benefit of a particular commercial interest.

Edinburgh Castle

Scottish Fire Services Training School, Gullane

3. South Duntulm Common Grazing, Kilmuir Estate, Skye (2 mobile phone masts)4. Cnoc Heilla, Bracadale Estate, Skye5. Strathy Point Common Grazing, Armadale Estate, Sutherland6. Luskentyre Common Grazing, Luskentyre Estate, Harris7. Hill of Foudland, Huntly 8. Gogarbank Farm, five miles west of Edinburgh

Information from fire authorities is that there are two such fire stations, namely Dyce Fire Station in Aberdeen City and Arbroath Fire Station in Angus.