Chamber and committees

The Executive does not provide advice to councils regarding the cost to parents of school trips overseas. This is a matter for local consideration and it would be for individual authorities to determine what advice should be available to schools in their areas.

There are no plans to change the current arrangements for clothing grants for school pupils which are entirely at the discretion of education authorities.

I welcome the Care Development Group's report which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre. I congratulate the members of the group for the excellent work they have done. They have come forward with a series of sound recommendations for the sustainable implementation of free nursing and personal care for all older people.

The investment of £125 million we have already pledged enables us fulfil our commitment to implement free personal care beginning in April 2002.

The group supports the principle of free personal care, welcomes the financial provision we have made and makes specific recommendations on the definition of personal care and on how assessing people's need for care must be built into the system for delivering personal and nursing care.

• They have recommended a definition of personal care which is in line with that taken by the Royal Commission.

• In defining personal care, the group has endorsed the need for people to continue to pay their own living and accommodation costs.

• They have recommended the removal of all charges for personal care in community

• For those in care homes currently meeting their own costs, the group has recommended that they should receive a payment of £90 per week for personal care and a further £65 per week if they need nursing care.

We welcome all of these recommendations and believe they provide a fair and workable approach.

The group also recommended further investment in improvements to services in the community to address the gaps and deficiencies that currently exist and to meet future demand for services from an increasingly older population.

There is now a great deal of work for local authorities and others to do so that older people can benefit from the unprecedented investment we are making. I therefore intend to establish an Implementation Steering Group to begin work immediately with local authorities, the NHS and the independent sector to develop common arrangements that will enable free personal and nursing care to be delivered as an integral part of the care services older people need.

Local authorities have general powers to assist community councils with funding and administrative support, although there is no statutory obligation on them to do so. Information is not held centrally on the extent to which that support is provided. The charity Planning Aid for Scotland also offers advice and support on planning issues to individuals, community councils, tenants' associations, and voluntary groups.

A wide range of training opportunities is already available to staff in further education colleges which addresses the teaching of students with disabilities and supporting their special educational needs.In response to a recommendation of the Beattie Committee, which examined the needs of young people who require additional support to make the transition to post-school education and training or employment, the Scottish Executive is making funds available to establish and operate a National Co-ordinating Centre. The purpose of the centre is to improve, by the provision of advice, training and staff development, the expertise of staff in further education colleges in identifying, assessing and meeting the needs of students with disabilities and special educational needs.

This information is not held centrally. Colleges may claim additional funding from the Scottish Further Education Funding Council for running courses for, or enrolling students with, a range of learning or other disabilities.Colleges may also use bursary funding to help support the additional travel and study costs faced by students with disabilities and special educational needs.

British Waterways Scotland who manage Scotland's canals, including the Millennium Link project, have undertaken and are continuing to undertake a number of different initiatives which promote safe and responsible use of inland waterways including the offer of safety presentations to all schools within walking distance of the Forth & Clyde and Union canals.The Millennium Link project should not increase the potential risk to the public in the area of water and leisure activity as the project will only increase the length of the lowland canal system by 5 km to 110 km and most of this increase has been built away from significant centres of population. The major exception is the 1.7 km of new canal cut through Wester Hailes in Edinburgh. Here the design of the channel has taken particular account of the need to minimise risk and has been constructed to operate at the minimum possible depth of 1.1 m and side steps have been introduced where possible to create a shallow edge of 0.3 m. The expected increased usage of these canals including towpath activities such as walking, angling and cycling will also reduce the possibility of an accident going unnoticed.

Copies of the Report of the First Stage of the Review of Initial Teacher Education were widely circulated to stakeholders, along with a short consultation paper seeking responses by 21 September 2001. Once responses have been received and considered we will put together an action plan which will target the key areas for implementation.

Data on the amount spent by NHS Scotland on the use of both bank and agency nurses is currently being gathered and will be available in September. It is intended to collect similar information for future years.

Following interview processes, Ministers have decided to designate Professor Alan Alexander as the prospective Chair and Dr Jon Hargreaves as the prospective Chief Executive of the proposed new authority, Scottish Water, subject to the successful passage of the forthcoming Water Services Bill. Their appointments will only be confirmed when Parliament approves the passage of the Water Services Bill.

Professor Alexander is currently Chair of West of Scotland Water. Dr Hargreaves is the Chief Executive of East of Scotland Water.