Chamber and committees

The Executive has received two approaches on this issue, including the member's own letter of 2 October. Hearses are required to pay tolls on all four tolled bridges in Scotland. I understand that the toll collector has an informal arrangement with local funeral directors to allow prepayment of tolls due by hearses and funeral cars to minimise delay at the toll booths.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

The following table displays the current prisoner population position in relation to available capacity as of Friday 5 October 2001.

Establishment	Current Available Capacity	Current Population	% of Available Capacity
Aberdeen	155	205	132.3%
Barlinnie	836	1,106	132.3%
Cornton Vale	203	250	123.2%
Edinburgh	579	666	115%
Greenock	248	311	125.4%
Inverness	108	111	102.8%
Polmont	422	460	109%

A consultation on the Prisons Estates Review will issue shortly.

Data from the Office for National Statistics suggests that 11,200 people were employed in the building and repairing of ships in Scotland in 1996. Employment in the sector was 8,900 in 1999 (latest available data).

Oil company decommissioning programmes must be submitted to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for agreement; for projects off Scotland, DTI consults the Scottish Executive. In addition, the Executive participates with DTI in the Fabricators Support Group of Pilot, the high level Government/oil industry task force. The FSG meets regularly to discuss all issues surrounding offshore fabrication; at its most recent meeting in October the issues covered included prospects for company diversification into decommissioning activities, and workforce skills.

The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with both the Ministry of Defence and Department of Trade & Industry on a wide range of issues, including the placing of government contracts with Scottish shipyards.

The information requested is shown in the table.

Number of live births, Scotland, 1997 to September 20011
	1997	1998	1999	2000	20012 (Jan-Sept)
Parliamentary Constituency
West Renfrewshire	774	664	714	682	483
Greenock and Inverclyde	731	685	699	655	498
Council Area
Inverclyde	980	910	947	863	649
1991 Census Locality3
Greenock	551	531	512	489	392

Notes:

1. Date of registration.

2. Provisional.

3.1991 Census localities are continuously built up areas of 500 or more residents based on amalgamations of adjoining densely populated postcodes.

The Executive intends to issue a Consultation Paper on protection of vulnerable witnesses early in 2002. This will look at the issue you raise. We will decide whether changes to the law are needed following the consultation.

The Executive issued a consultation paper on a national Plan for Action on Alcohol Misuse to approximately 160 interested organisations and networks in February 2001. The consultation paper gives a full list of those consulted and is held by the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 11112). The Executive also arranged separate consultations with children and young people and alcohol misusers and their families. We expect to publish the Plan for Action by the end of the year.

We await European Commission approval of the programme. Officials from the Scottish Executive European Structural Funds Division have had a series of discussions with opposite numbers for both Inverclyde and West Dunbartonshire Councils to prepare for implementation early in the New Year. It is at the implementation stage that projects are identified for support.

The European Commission is considering our proposal for Urban 2 funding for the Clyde Urban Waterfront Regeneration Zone (Port Glasgow and Clydebank). I understand that the programme is likely to be approved around the end of November. This should allow implementation in the area to start early in the New Year.