Chamber and committees

Caledonian MacBrayne Ltd ceased to be part of the Scottish Transport Group in April 1990 and is now wholly owned by the Scottish ministers. We announced on 23 October details of two new vessels, the first for Mallaig-Armadale and the second for the Sound of Harris service between Leverburgh and Berneray. Delivery of these vessels will allow improvements to services on other routes, notably the redeployment of the ferry currently serving the Sound of Harris route to a new Sound of Barra service between Barra and Eriskay. Two further additions to the CalMac fleet, the MV Lochnevis and MV Hebrides, have come into service recently.We are considering the possible need for additional new vessels as part of our preparations for putting Caledonian MacBrayne's routes out to tender in line with EC State aids requirements.

There are currently 133 sheriffs, of whom 20 are female. Of the 32 Judges of the Supreme Courts, three are female.

Sheriffs have a general statutory duty to take decisions in divorce cases which are in the best interests of the children concerned. Training in relevant aspects of the Human Rights Act 1998 has been provided to sheriffs by the independent Judicial Studies Committee.

All of the flood prevention schemes (FPS) taken forward by Inverclyde Council and Renfrewshire Council under the Flood Prevention (Scotland) Act 1961, have been supported by the Executive and all received financial assistance.Flood prevention grant, at the rate of 50% of scheme costs, has been offered to

(a) Inverclyde Council for:
Earnhill Road, Gourock FPS	Year 2001-02	Grant £116,000
(b) Renfrewshire Council for:
Moredun FPS, Paisley	Year 2000-01	Grant £600,000
Collier Street, FPS, Johnston	Year 2001-02	Grant £543,000

I understand Renfrewshire Council will be submitting a grant application for the River Gryffe, Crosslee, Houston Flood Prevention Scheme during the course of this financial year.In addition, local authorities' annual expenditure settlements include an element for flood prevention activities.

This information is not available on a constituency basis. Six hundred and thirty seven houses owned by Renfrewshire Council are eligible for the Central Heating Programme. The council have been given resources to install central heating and insulation in 140 of them this year. The other houses will all be improved by March 2004. Over 450 private sector householders in the Renfrewshire postcode area have applied to Eaga for a grant and those who are eligible should receive central heating this financial year. Other private households will be dealt with as they apply and Eaga will be publicising the programme to encourage them to do so.

Planned direct expenditure on school education by the Scottish Executive totalled £141 million in 2000-01 (including a planned carry forward of £59 million as part of the funding package for the teachers' pay settlement) and is planned to be £131 million in 2001-02. Provisional expenditure by local authorities on school education in 2000-01 was £2,752 million and is planned to be £2,953 million in 2001-02. This totals £2,893 million and £3,084 million respectively.The Scottish Executive does not hold details of any UK Government expenditure, nor funding from any other source, on Scottish schools.

Immigration and asylum are reserved matters. The Home Office advise that around 1,560 unaccompanied children aged 17 or under applied for asylum in the United Kingdom in the first two quarters of 2001. The most recently published UK information is for 2000 and can be found in Asylum Statistics United Kingdom 2000 at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html. The Scottish Executive does not hold separate information for Scotland.Under the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 local authorities have duties towards all children in their areas irrespective of immigration status. Comprehensive guidance on these duties was issued to local authorities in preparation for implementation of the Act in 1997. It is also available from The Stationery Bookshop, 71 Lothian Road, Edinburgh, EH3 9AZ.

The Scottish Executive has no plans currently to create a system of family courts although court procedures do make special provision for the management of family actions.

The Scottish Executive has regular contacts with police forces about a range of matters, including funding, and the implications of the events of 11 September are still under review. However, some additional resources have already been made available as a result of measures taken.

The information requested is provided in the table.Number of pupils with a Record of Needs attending schools in the West Renfrewshire constituency area

			Sector
	Total	Primary	Secondary	Special
West Renfrewshire	314	74	109	131

Source: SEED School Census, September 2001.Notes:1. The above figures are for the number of pupils that had an open Record of Needs as at September 2000 and not the number of new records opened in that year.2. The figures relate to children who are educated in schools in the West Renfrewshire constituency, which may be different from the number who actually live in the constituency.