Chamber and committees

The membership of the Sounding Board and Academic Panel remains as reported in the answer given to question S1W-17829 on 30 August 2001, with the exception of Susan Dalgetty (who has withdrawn from the Sounding Board on taking up an appointment with the Scottish Executive) and Oonagh Aitken (who has been replaced by Albert Tait following her resignation as Chief Executive of COSLA and pending the appointment of a permanent replacement).Given that both bodies had been up and running for some months, it was decided that rather than add to their membership at this late stage, the views of other experts would instead be sought through bilateral contacts, city visits and the seminar programme as appropriate.

I expect the review to conclude in the spring of 2002.

Over 225 organisations and individuals from the public, private and voluntary sectors have contributed their views and evidence to the review through a variety of meetings, visits or seminars held as part of the first phase of the review.

The explanatory, evidence gathering, phase of the review was concluded in December 2001. This has involved ministers and the review team visiting each of the five cities, two seminars on the "working city" and the "living city" and a range of bilateral meetings with public, private and voluntary sector bodies across Scotland.We are now beginning more focused work on the key issues identified in the first phase.

The Scottish Executive currently has no direct powers to initiate rail network schemes in the event of no initiative being taken by the relevant rail authorities. Work is in hand on an order under section 30 of the Scotland Act to transfer to the Parliament legislative competence over the promotion and construction of railways in Scotland.

On 4 December 2001, Railtrack Scotland informed the Scottish Executive that Railtrack's priorities were the delivery of its core maintenance and renewal programme, the West Coast Rail Modernisation, and the installation of Train Protection and Warning System across the network. This meant that, for the present, work on these national priorities left no signalling or management resources available for Railtrack to continue to support the proposed Larkhall to Milngavie link, or three other Scottish rail enhancement projects.The Scottish Executive regrets Railtrack's decision to withdraw support. The Executive remains keen to see these projects move forward and is continuing discussions to that end.

The two projects currently under investigation because of alleged irregularities in the use of Social Inclusion Partnership funds are the Wellhouse Project in Easterhouse and Priesthill/Nitshill Out of School Care in Pollok.

The Executive has no plans to introduce legislation requiring sun tanning parlours to be licensed. Sun tanning parlours are subject to the requirements of health and safety regulations that place obligations on employers to protect the health of their employees and members of the public who might be affected by their work (in this case, customers). The National Radiological Protection Board also proposes to develop guidance on limitations of exposure to ultraviolet radiation.

The Health and Safety Executive confirm that the guidance has been reviewed. No substantive changes were required or proposed.

There are no plans to introduce such a licensing regime.