Chamber and committees

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response isas follows:

Two hundred and twentynew-build starts for affordable rent and 22 new-build starts for low-cost homeownership for 2005-06 have received firm funding approval from CommunitiesScotland, which is in line with what would be expected at this early stage inthe new financial year.

No audit and inspectionbodies have a statutory responsibility to assess compliance with the duty topromote race equality under race relations legislation; the statutoryresponsibility falls to the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE). However,audit and inspection bodies do have a key role to play and therefore we arelooking at ways of ensuring that compliance with the statutory duty to promote raceequality is built into audit and inspection processes. A meeting between officialsin the Executive, the CRE, and the following bodies is due to take place inearly July to discuss this further:

HM Inspectorate of FireServices

Audit Scotland

Communities Scotland

HMI Education

HMI Constabulary

NHS Education

NHS Quality Improvement

HMI Prisons

Care Commission

Scottish Social ServicesCouncil

Scottish Public ServicesOmbudsman

Social Work ScotlandInspectorate

Crown Office and ProcuratorFiscal Service.

The specific information requestedis not available centrally.

I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:

In total, 6,400 new build startswill be approved for funding by Communities Scotland in 2005-06 and these will receivescheduled start and completion dates during the course of this financial year aseach individual project is legally approved. However, until projects are legallyapproved, no confirmed detail on scheduled start and completions dates is available.

The Fresh Talent: Working inScotland scheme is due to be launched by the end of June. Information relating toapplications will not be available until after the scheme is operational.

Centrally held information identifiesthe country of qualification for medical and dental staff working in theHospital, Community and Public Health Services (HCHS) of NHS Scotland. The latestavailable information is correct at 30 September 2004.

Sixty-six percent of “All HCHSMedical and Dental Staff” identified Scotland as their country of qualification.

A breakdown by each of the differentmedical and dental grades can be found in Table B5 on the Scottish Health Statisticswebsite under Workforce Statistics, at www.isdscotland.org/wf_medical.

This information isnot available for nursing staff.

The Executive’s review of raceequality involved extensive consultation with a wide range of stakeholders fromacross Scotland and representing various minority ethnic groups. Theevidence gathered will form the basis of advice to ministers on how to proceed inorder to ensure effective and fair delivery of race equality and community cohesionin Scotland. Given the purpose and nature of the review, and thecomprehensive consultation process, there are no plans for any further assessment.

Fresh Talent is a long-term initiative.Therefore, evaluating its overall success will take time. We will, however, be carryingout some more immediate evaluations of strands of activity which will give us someuseful data. For example, we will know how many people successfully apply to liveand work in Scotland under the Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland scheme, and weare currently developing, in conjunction with the Home Office, a robust and workablearrangement for monitoring and evaluating the scheme. We also know the number ofpeople who are interested in living and working in Scotland, throughenquiries to the Relocation Advisory Service and visits to our website. An evaluationof the Relocation Advisory Service, which is now underway, will also provide uswith some useful information.

The provision of community benefit by a developer is not a matter for the Executive. It is not, therefore, for the Executive to define communities.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows.

To date, none of the local authorities on the new Community Ownership Programme has had their receiving organisations’ business plans approved. However, Communities Scotland continues to provide practical support to councils and registered social landlords in working towards finalising plans for submission for approval.