Chamber and committees

The Working Group was set up by the English Chief Medical Officer, and its remit extends only to producing good practice guidelines for England. It would not be appropriate for Scottish representatives to take a direct part in this. However, we wanted to monitor the Group's work with a view to adopting or adapting the guidelines for Scotland, and therefore sought and were willingly given observer status.

The Glasgow Alliance is the over-arching body responsible for the regeneration agenda in the city. Its partners are Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Development Agency, Greater Glasgow Health Board, Scottish Homes, Scottish Executive, Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector and Scottish Business in the Community.

The Alliance is committed to making Glasgow a more inclusive society. Their strategy and the policies of their partners in relation to education, training, employment, housing and health, seek to enable more people to participate in the social, economic, political and cultural life of the city.

In addition to the work of the Alliance, over £2.1 billion public sector funding went into Glasgow during 1999-2000 from the Scottish Executive Grant. The Scottish Executive also recently announced Special Deprivation Payments of £8.68 million for Glasgow City Council in recognition of the high levels of deprivation and poverty in the city. This payment is over and above the grant support of £1,339 given to the Council per head of population.

The Scottish Executive has no such plans. However, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations published Guidance Booklet 10 Good Practice in dealing with Domestic Abuse on 10 March 1999 and this Guidance Booklet was drawn up with the assistance of Scottish Women's Aid. While not statutory it is part of the compliance test applied to all housing associations registered with or wishing to become registered with Scottish Homes. Additionally, the Scottish Partnership on Domestic Abuse will issue Good Practice Guidelines and Service Standards for all Agencies concerned with domestic abuse.

The improvement and repairs grant system will be reformed by introducing a test of resources to decide the amount of grant. Assistance will be available at rates up to 100% for households on the lowest incomes. All those taking part in common repairs will receive at least a minimum percentage grant. These reforms will help local authorities promote necessary works and encourage owner-occupiers to carry them out.

Most parking offences for most roads in the City of Glasgow area were decriminalised with effect from 4 October 1999. As a result, the relevant parking rules on these roads are now enforced solely by parking attendants employed by Glasgow City Council rather than by traffic wardens or the police as was the case previously. The only roads in the Glasgow area where these offences have not been decriminalised are motorways. On these roads, parking offences will continue to be a matter for the police, who are also responsible for the enforcement of all non-decriminalised traffic legislation throughout Glasgow.

Glasgow City Council will submit regular reports to Scottish Ministers on decriminalised parking enforcement in its area. The report will include, among other things, details of Penalty Charge Notices issued and when they were paid, details of cases going to adjudication, cases where no further action is taken and the number of vehicles the Council has removed from the street because they were in breach of parking rules.

As the parking authority, the Council is also required to keep an account of income and expenditure in respect of designated parking places. Statute requires that details of this account are submitted to Scottish Ministers as soon as is practicable at the end of each financial year.

In addition, the Scottish Parking Appeals Service will submit an annual report to Scottish Ministers on the discharge by the parking adjudicators of their functions in the Glasgow area.

I refer the Member to the answer given to question S1W-1613.

I refer the Member to the answer given to S1W-1613.

The Yorkhill Hospital provides Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) for children from Scotland and other countries within the European Union. In keeping with the delivery of NHS services in general, the Scottish Executive encourages the delivery of high quality services and expects the ECMO service to be of a high standard which fully meets patients' needs.

This is a matter reserved to the Department of Trade and Industry and Oftel within the UK Government.If, however, you have any information that calls into question the integrity of the services provided to our emergency services, I am more than happy to pass that information on to Oftel.