Chamber and committees

The available information is as follows:

Scottish Ambulance Service

Year	Inverclyde £	Renfrewshire £	Scotland £
1995-96	487	975	117,681
1996-97	1,568	4,052	131,263
1997-98	2,195	3,430	142,170
1998-99	2,192	3,974	134,299

Fire Service

The cost to the fire service of responding to emergency calls varies widely according to the number and type of firefighters and appliances mobilised on each occasion. Taking staff and running costs into account, the approximate total cost of responding to malicious false alarm calls in Scotland in each of the last four years is estimated at:

1995-96	£750,000
1996-97	£738,000
1997-98	£687,000
1998-99	£666,000

Police Service

Police Forces rely on the expertise of their control room staff to obtain and disseminate sufficient information to ensure an appropriate level of response to emergency calls. The information required to estimate the costs of responding to malicious, hoax and false calls is not available.

The Deputy Prime Minister gave a commitment in October 1998 that Scottish interests would be represented on the Strategic Rail Authority. The Scottish Executive has been in close contact with the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions concerning Scottish representation on the British Railways Board (whose members will become members of SRA when it is formally established). The Minister for Transport, Lord Macdonald, announced today that he has appointed seven new members to the board, including Mr Willie Gallagher, formerly Director of Customer Services for Scottish Power.

Local authorities assess whether applicants under the homeless persons legislation are homeless or potentially homeless but do not register homeless people.

The Homelessness Task Force will consider the issue of focusing the assessment on homeless people rather than applications in the future.

The Scottish Executive publishes quarterly the numbers of applications which are made to each local authority by households under the homeless persons legislation.

The most recent information (up to the quarter ended September 1999) was published in March in table 16 of the Statistical Bulletin: Housing Series HSG/2000/2.

Not all applicant households are assessed as being homeless or potentially homeless. Table 17 of the Bulletin HSG/2000/2 presents the total number of applications in recent years which were assessed by local authorities as being homeless or potentially homeless. A local authority breakdown of this number for 1997-98 was presented in the Scottish Executive Statistical Bulletin: Housing Series HSG/1999/3.

Copies of these bulletins are available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

The Scottish Executive is committed to increasing the number of staff with disabilities at all levels and will monitor progress by setting targets for improvement. Specific targets are being considered in the light of the UK-wide target for the Senior Civil Service of 3% which was announced on 8 March.

The available information on malicious false alarm calls to the emergency services is as follows:

Fire Service

Year	Inverclyde	Renfrewshire	Scotland
1995	190	370	9,637
1996	261	383	9,005
1997-98*	146	258	8,059
1998-99	204	306	7,513

(*change from calendar year to financial year recording)

Scottish Ambulance Service

Year	Inverclyde	Renfrewshire	Scotland
1995-96	4	8	965
1996-97	12	31	1,004
1997-98	16	25	1,036
1998-99	16	29	980

Police ServiceThe figures for the police are not available in the form requested.In 1999 the only year for which figures are available, the police in Scotland recorded *33,182 malicious/hoax calls.(^* These figures exclude Northern Constabulary for which no figures are available)

In the Senior Civil Service (SCS) there are 40 women, which represents 19.3% of the total SCS group. Our aim is to increase that percentage where opportunities, qualifications and work experience allow, while at the same time ensuring that our equal opportunities policies are adhered to. This is in line with the UK's Government's commitment (as detailed in the Modernising Government White Paper published in March 1999 and in the Cabinet Office publication Diverse Civil Service published in February 2000) to increasing diversity across the Civil Service as a whole and of bringing on and bringing in under-represented talent, particularly at a senior level.

The Scottish Executive has received a number of recent representations concerning new passenger ferry services and "ro-ro" freight services. These have covered various aspects of running commercially-based operations from the lower and upper Clyde to Ireland.The operation of ferry services between Scotland and Northern Ireland is a commercial matter for ferry operators.

A development proposal for the waterfront at Port Glasgow for mixed use development including retail, leisure, and residential, was called-in at the end of October 1999 by Scottish Ministers for their determination. The proposal was called-in because of its possible implications for national and local industrial and retail policies. Following the announcement, in the Greenock Telegraph on 18 February 2000, that a Public Local Inquiry into the development proposal would start on Tuesday 4 April 2000, two representations have been received. This brings the total number of representations received to 51, most of which have come from local individuals, businesses and organisations. Particular concern has been expressed about the relocation of the parking areas; the loss of trade to the town centre; and detriment to residential amenity.

There are already many opportunities to study human and civil rights issues within the 5-14 curriculum, Standard Grade and Higher Still courses. Responsibility for the management and delivery of the curriculum rests with local authorities.

The UWWTD imposes a wide range of requirements, with a range of deadlines. Some, such as ending sewage dumping at sea, have already been implemented. The other main deadlines are end-2000 and end-2005, and the requirements are set out in more detail in the Quality and Standards paper issued by the Scottish Executive in November 1999. This paper describes the standards the 3 Water Authorities will work towards between 2000 and 2002. The Scottish Executive is committed to timely implementation of all EU legislation. The water authorities have responsibility for managing and implementing the projects, in line with the timescales in the Directive. The Scottish Executive is keeping this matter under review, and is satisfied that the authorities are taking all practicable steps to comply with the deadlines specified in the Directive.