Chamber and committees

The initial remit and composition of the Sustainable Development Forum for Scotland, as set out in the answer given to question S1W-27187 on 1 August 2002, is to provide a focus for Scottish thinking and action on sustainable development. Following the first meeting of the forum on 24 July, we are considering the views of members on the composition and remit. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

We are making good progress towards our target of doubling the number of cycle journeys between 1996 and 2002. The latest figures show that the average annual number of journeys made per person by bicycle in Scotland increased from eight for the years 1995-97, to 14 for the years 1998-2000 (Scottish Transport Statistics Number 21, Table 12.1: Parliament's Reference Centre Bib. number 23316).

The consultation document Towards Better Oral Health in Children, published on 24 September, seeks views on a range of possible measures to improve children's oral health, including fluoridation. Questions about the implementation of any particular option would fall to be considered in the light of the consultation.Health and safety procedures are set out for all materials added to the public water supplies. Therefore, where such procedures are followed, there are no health implications for staff for any of the materials added to the public water supplies.

£25.5 million was allocated to local authorities between 2000 and 2003-04 for community-based programmes to help young people stop offending. On 18 September, I announced that the Executive would continue to invest resources to support the 10-Point Action Plan. £8 million, £24 million and £33 million will be provided over the next three years. An additional EYF allocation of £15 million is also being made available this year.

In October 2000, we announced our intention to prioritise the health of homeless people. To this end we appointed a Health and Homelessness Co-ordinator and issued guidance to NHS Scotland that outlined the requirement to pro-actively address the needs of this greatly disadvantaged group of people. As a result all NHS boards have submitted Health and Homelessness Action Plans which identify the activities they have planned to improve the health of homeless people across Scotland. By April 2003 Health and Homelessness Action Plans will also be integrated into Local Authorities' Homelessness Strategies, which will ensure full NHS Scotland involvement in overall developments to tackle homelessness in Scotland.The Health and Homelessness Co-ordinator and Health and Homelessness Steering Group are monitoring the delivery of these activities, and I am following progress with interest.

A number of local voluntary organisations will benefit from the Quality of Life funding through the provision of resources to local clubs, play-schemes and community-based projects. However, the exact allocation to these organisations is a matter for each local authority to decide.

The Renewables Obligation Scotland, introduced earlier this year, is resulting in a number of developers applying for consent to build new renewable generating plant. We expect this level of interest to continue and to increase. We will work with developers, planners, the energy industry and the economic development agencies to ensure that we fully exploit Scotland's natural resource and realise the opportunity for Scotland to become a world leader in renewable technology.

As part of the Scottish Climate Change Programme, the Executive is committed to raising the overall proportion of electricity generated from renewable sources in Scotland to 18% by 2010. I believe that the potential exists to go much further. I am therefore today publishing a consultation paper that examines the opportunities to go beyond our existing policy objectives and further increase Scotland's renewable energy in the period beyond 2010, potentially to as much as 40%.

The Energy Saving Trust (EST) secured the Department of Trade and Industry contract for this UK initiative in May and the Scottish Executive is currently in discussion with the EST about how best to promote the programme in Scotland. We anticipate a marketing campaign in the autumn, linked to our recently announced Scottish Community Renewables Initiative, which aims to encourage small community renewables projects using a range of technologies, including photovoltaic units.

The Forward Strategy for Scottish Agriculture, developed by the Executive in partnership with stakeholders from the food and farming industries and the environmental sector, sets out an action plan which is relevant to the organic sector as well as to other forms of environmentally sustainable farming. Specific to the organic sector, it challenges the sector to:(i) identify and tailor production to consumer demand and market outlets;(ii) develop the supply chain so that organic producers are matched by sufficient processing capacity;(iii) in the livestock sector, identify finishers to whom store producers can sell their produce;(iv) ensure the right business and technical advice is available on how to convert to, and, as importantly, maintain organic farming in Scottish conditions, and(v) ensure that Scottish farmers are able to use organic standards which avoid gold plating and reflect Scottish conditions.The Executive encourages the development of the organic sector in Scotland in a number of ways. These include the Organic Aid Scheme (OAS), which provides annual payments for five years for farmers converting their land, assistance under the Processing and Marketing Grants Scheme and the Marketing Development Scheme for projects that strengthen the organic food chain, the funding of an organic helpline operated by the Scottish Agricultural College, and the recently published Guide to Organic Marketing funded by the Executive.The Executive has recently completed a consultation exercise on measures to improve the operation of agri-environment schemes, including the OAS, in the short term. The Executive is considering responses to that consultation paper, and also possible longer-term changes to agri-environmental measures to enable them more effectively to support a range of environmentally sustainable forms of farming.