Chamber and committees

Information is not available centrally about the total number of traffic accidents involving children, injured and uninjured, on their way to or from school. Figures are, however, available showing the number of school pupils aged four to 16 years who were injured in road accidents on a journey to or from school.

The figures for 1999 are not yet available. In 1998, 597 school pupils, aged four to 16 years, were injured in road accidents on a journey to or from school. Of these casualties, six were killed and 104 were seriously injured.

Ms Wendy Alexander yesterday announced the Scottish Homes development programme for 2000-01 which included an allocation of £45 million for housing in rural Scotland, an increase of over £4 million from the current year. This would allow for almost 1,570 new and improved homes in rural Scotland of which 1,260 will be for social renting. Ms Wendy Alexander also announced the launch of a Rural Partnership for Change pilot programme with Highland Council to test out a new approach to tackling housing problems in pressured rural areas.

The Scottish Homes development programme in 2000-01 is being announced today. Some £206 million will be disbursed and it is expected that this will deliver 6,000 new and improved homes. This is in line with the Executive's commitment in Programme for Government to build and improve 18,000 homes over three years. We recognise the need to give greater priority to tackling the housing problems of rural areas and I am pleased to announce that Scottish Homes rural programme will be increased from around £41 million in the current year to £45 million in 2000-01 - an increase of 10%.

As part of the Scottish Homes rural programme, I am proposing to pilot a new partnership approach to tackling difficulties in pressured rural areas where there are acute shortages of socially rented housing and constraints on new development due to shortages of available land and high development costs. The pilot will be led by Highland Council working in partnership with Scottish Homes, local housing associations and others. Around £10 million will be made available for the pilot over the next three years.

I am also establishing a national steering group to monitor the Highland pilot and to advise me on how the lessons could be rolled out nationally in subsequent years. I am very glad to say that Lewis Shand Smith, a Scottish Homes board member has agreed to chair the steering group. CoSLA, the SFHA and other interested parties will be invited to be represented. I shall announce the full membership once responses to invitations have been received.

I can confirm that there is no intention that redundancies in Scotland will take place as a result of Remploy's aim to help their disabled employees progress into open employment.

Remploy has recently announced a new strategy to create more opportunities for disabled people. The company aims to achieve this by developing the Remploy factories to provide training and development for their employees, as well as work, thereby better supporting people to progress to independent employment.The company has consulted with their employees and the Remploy Trade Union Consortium and have signed a joint statement, which sets out a framework to enable both sides to work together to ensure that there is full support from all stakeholders, which will be fundamental to the strategy's success.

The Scottish Executive supports the challenge of Sport 21 which calls on local authorities to take the lead in developing Local Plans for Sport that draw on the resources of all relevant services including education, planning, social work, economic development and health as well as sport and leisure. It is essential that such local plans should unite the energies of the public, voluntary and commercial sectors. In the context of areas of social exclusion there should be a reinforcing partnership between sport, education, health and economic development in delivering local solutions to local needs.

The information requested is detailed in the table below (position as at 29 February 2000):

Authority	Number of Co-ordinator
City of Edinburgh	25
Angus	7
Perth and Kinross	10
Highland	27
North Lanarkshire	22
Glasgow	16
West Lothian	11
Aberdeen City	13
East Ayrshire	9
Dundee City	10
Fife	16
Falkirk	2
Aberdeenshire	4
East Lothian	6
South Lanarkshire	7
Clackmannanshire	2
Total	187

The programme does not extend to primary schools but School Sports Co-ordinators are encouraged to develop links with staff at associated primary schools to consider how sports programmes may be developed and implemented.

At a strategic/policy level, sportscotland provides advice and guidance to local authorities on the preparation of local plans for sport. sportscotland re-inforces this strategic contact with local authorities through its active participation in the COSLA Sport and Recreation Task Group and its ongoing dialogue with the Scottish Association of Directors of Leisure Services (SADLS) and the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES).

In addition to this strategic work with local authorities, sportscotland provides direct support to local authorities through the Lottery Sports Fund and through its exchequer funded programmes.Since the introduction of the Lottery in 1995, Scottish local authorities have received over £28 million in support of over 80 capital projects. The forecast spend on revenue programmes, which is delivered in partnership with Scotland's local authorities, for 2000/2001 is approximately £3.5 million.

The report made 20 recommendations, five of which were directed at the Scottish Executive. The remaining recommendations were directed at chief constables, joint police boards and local authorities. Separate working groups have been set up to take forward two major recommendations on police funding which involve the Scottish Executive. These relate to the formula used to distribute police grant-aided expenditure (GAE) and the arrangements for approving and allocating forces' capital programmes, including public/private partnership bids. Progress is being kept under review and the Scottish Executive will be reporting back to the Accounts Commission and the Inspectorate on the outcome.

The Scottish Executive supports the view set out in Sport 21, sportscotland's national strategy for sport, that greater effort is needed to promote and develop sport in Scotland's disadvantaged communities to ensure that opportunities to participate in sport are open and equal to all.

We will shortly receive a detailed research report on the role of sport in regenerating deprived urban areas which we commissioned with the support of sportscotland. This report will further inform the Scottish Executive's policy in this area.We also welcome the social inclusion emphasis within the new strategy for the distribution of the Lottery Sports Fund that was launched last year. We also now have a network of 47 Social Inclusion Partnerships in place across Scotland, supported by funding of £137 million over three years. sportscotland has plans to work with this network over the next three years to establish an appropriate and sustainable sports component in each of the SIP areas by 2003.

This Executive is committed to supporting families to ensure that children receive the best possible start in life. We recognise the important role which grandparents play in many families but also that modern families are very diverse. We consider that arrangements for contact and support are best achieved through co-operation and agreement between grandparents and parents.