The Scottish Executive does not hold this information centrally. In line with policy in SPP 3: Planning for Housing, structure plans are expected to set out the long term housing land requirement for the area. PAN 74: Affordable Housing (March 2005) sets out more detailed guidance on the role of the planning system in supporting the delivery of new affordable housing.

Local plans across Scotland are at different stages and their preparation is in the control of local authorities. However, the Scottish Executive intends to monitor the impact of PAN 74 over time and will collect relevant data.

This information is not held centrally. The pay and conditions of local government staff are matters for local authorities who have an obligation, like other employers, to ensure that they comply with all employment legislation.

This information is not held centrally. The pay and conditions of local government staff are matters for local authorities. Although the Scottish Executive provides funding for salaries and wages as part of the block grant provided to local authorities, it is the responsibility of each authority as to how this money is allocated. The Executive was not involved in the negotiations between COSLA and the trade unions which resulted in Single Status Pay Agreement in 1999. In implementing the agreement, the Executive has made clear its view that local authorities should strike a balance between what is fair and equitable not just for the staff concerned but also for council tax payers.

The Scottish Executive does not define what constitutes a “modest” income at a national level, as this varies across regions, cities, towns, villages and wider rural areas. The Scottish Executive offers a broad definition of affordable housing as “housing of a reasonable quality which is available to people on modest incomes”, in recognition of the fact that average incomes and housing costs vary widely across Scotland. It is for each local authority to establish the requirement for affordable housing need within their area through their local housing strategy.

(a) Planning Development Budget, established after the 2004 Spending Review, aims to address training needs and skills gaps of local authority planners. This significant investment (£2.25 million over three years) will play an important role in helping local authorities to deliver a more effective and responsive planning system.

(b) The Executive has commissioned research which aims to assess the adequacy of both staff and financial resources in local authority planning departments. The research will also investigate issues surrounding the supply of planners from Scottish universities.

At local level, Section 17 of the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 requires local authorities, as facilitators of the community planning process, to report regularly to their local communities on what community planning has achieved, including evidence of improved outcomes for service users. The overall intention of the act is to offer “trust within a framework”: it is for community planning partners to decide on local priorities and how their achievement should be measured and reported. Accordingly, Statutory Guidance makes clear that reports on community planning should be “geared towards the local community rather than the Executive”.

At national level, the continuing programme of Audits of Best Value and Community Planning, performed by Audit Scotland on behalf of the Accounts Commission, provides an independent measure of the extent to which each council has fulfilled its “statutory duty to secure Best Value and to initiate and facilitate the Community Planning process”.

In addition, Audit Scotland is currently carrying out an extensive baseline review of community planning partnerships on behalf of the Accounts Commission and the Auditor General, for publication early in 2006. Audit Scotland describes the aim of the study as “to review the progress made by councils and partner organisations (including community and local voluntary groups) in developing Community Planning since the 2003 Local Government in Scotland Act came into force.”

Statutory Guidance on Community Planning was issued by Scottish ministers in April 2004 and is published at www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/localgov/cpsg-00.asp.

Scottish planning policy promotes the re-use of vacant and derelict land and buildings, including brownfield sites. The Executive provides funding through the Vacant and Derelict Land Fund, aimed at bringing long term vacant and derelict land back into use thereby reducing the pressure on the use of Greenfield land and ensuring a more sustainable approach to development. £24.3 million has been allocated to the Vacant and Derelict Land Fund for the years 2006-07 and 2007-08.

£20 million of capital resources has also been made available to local authorities over the same period to enable them to carry out identification and remediation of contaminated land.

A further £10.7 million of End-Year Flexibility funding was issued to 19 local authorities in December 2004 for specific projects aimed at cleaning up derelict and contaminated land that is causing public health risks or blighting local communities.

The level of fees for local authority homes is a matter for individual local authorities. The level of fees for publicly funded residents in independent care homes is a matter for negotiation between care home owners and local authorities. However, there is a nationally agreed benchmark figure that we would expect to be met.

The specific allocation of these funds is yet to be determined. However, we intend to use these resources to add to the existing work being undertaken on older people’s issues, in particular around, supporting older people to engage, developing a Strategy for Scotland’s Ageing Population, work around age discrimination and the proposed Commission for Equality and Human Rights.

The Scottish Executive produced A Framework for Maternity Services in 2001, this was followed by the reports of the Expert Group on Acute Maternity Services in 2003 and the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland Standards for Maternity Services in 2005. The recommendations contained in the Scottish Women’s Convention report broadly re-iterate the conclusions of these documents.  NHS boards are expected to deliver local maternity services in line with these reports, all of which emphasise informed maternal choice.