Chamber and committees

The appointment process for the chair and lay members of the Judicial Appointments Board is currently taking place. I shall write to the member once the chair and lay members have been appointed.

The role of the Scottish Executive is to ensure that courts have access to a wide range of community sentencing options which can secure the confidence of sentencers. Similar considerations govern the relationship with procurators fiscal in the operation of diversion from prosecution. Whilst the relationship between the Executive and the courts precludes the setting of specific targets, figures setting out progress in the use of community disposals are published on an annual basis.

The Ministerial Group on Women's Offending intends to publish its report within the next two months.

The Glasgow pilot Drug Court commenced sitting on 12 November 2001. So far it has imposed 10 Orders, an encouraging start and on course to meet the target of between 150 and 200 orders a year.

The Scottish Executive has no function in relation to telecommunications regulation.

Telecommunications regulation is reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the Department of Trade & Industry and OFTEL regarding the impact of UK policies on Scotland.Within the context of its economic development remit, Scottish Enterprise is developing the Accessing Telecoms Links Across Scotland (ATLAS) project which aims to increase choice within the wholesale telecoms market in Scotland. Ultimately this should benefit businesses by increasing choice of suppliers at a local level.

I refer the member to the answer given to question on 6 December 2001.

Our overall aim must be that widening access becomes embedded as a mainstream activity for higher education institutions. I am therefore pleased that as part of its consideration of a new condition of grant the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council is currently considering how to achieve this, in a way which recognises the specific circumstances of individual institutions. Overall funding for the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council for the period 2001-02 to 2003-04 was set out in the guidance letter I sent to the council on 23 November 2000. This noted that overall planned funding for 2001-02 was 5.6% higher in real terms than in the previous year, with the value of the settlement maintained in real terms over the following two years. Over the period, £18 million was specifically earmarked within the council's financial settlement for widening access. In particular, the council was asked to: provide a further 800 fully funded FTE places by academic year 2003, in addition to the 2,000 already allocated in the 1998 review, with these to be targeted in such a way as to maximise their take-up by those from currently under-represented groups;devise a mechanism to provide additional support to institutions which reflects the extent to which they provide for students from under-represented groups, anddevise a scheme to incentivise private sector investment in access initiatives. On 11 December 2000, I subsequently announced that an additional £0.5 million would be made available to the council during 2000-01, which it should use to encourage collaborative development projects to increase the uptake of higher education and Continuing Professional Development in the rural south west.In addition, funding of £21 million has transferred to the council for over the period 2000-01 and 2001-02 in respect of funding for the higher education in the Highlands and Islands via UHI Millennium Institute, designated as a higher education institution on 1 April 2001, and the Open University in Scotland, which has a strong track-record of providing higher education to those in remote rural areas, and whose funding was transferred during 2000-01 to the council. This figure is largely comprised of funds transferred from the Scottish Further Education Funding Council, which previously funded higher education provided by further education colleges in the Highlands, and from the UK Government, which previously funded the Open University in Scotland.

I refer the member to the answers given to questions S1W-19754 (26 November 2001), S1W-19873 (28 December 2001) and S1W-19874 (28 December 2001).

We are currently pursuing some outstanding responses to the questionnaire issued to local authorities on 16 November. I will report on the outcome of the questionnaire early next year once all responses have been analysed.