Chamber and committees

The normal expectation would be that the chairperson would be absent from board meetings only in exceptional circumstances.

The Water Industry (Scotland) Bill proposes a power for Scottish ministers to remove a non-executive member of the board, if that member has been absent from meetings of Scottish Water for a period longer than three months without the permission of Scottish Water.

As far as other meetings and official engagements are concerned, it will be a key role of the chairperson to keep in regular contact with stakeholders, and to play a representative role for Scottish Water throughout Scotland.

The available information is given in the table. Data for the year 2000 are not yet available.

Persons with a charge proved in Scottish courts where the main offence was shoplifting, by police force area, 1997-99

Year and Outcome	Police force area
	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Lothian and Borders	Northern	Strathclyde	Tayside	Total
1997
Custody	53	30	75	104	146	34	922	139	1,503
Fine	144	38	164	595	794	126	1,437	402	3,700
Caution or admonishment	48	16	26	139	220	27	494	178	1,148
Other	25	9	41	109	126	30	332	171	843
Total	270	93	306	947	1,286	217	3,185	890	7,194
1998
Custody	79	36	69	163	173	39	1,006	118	1,683
Fine	120	36	215	669	758	127	1,678	298	3,901
Caution or admonishment	37	24	39	177	184	20	491	135	1,107
Other	21	13	61	124	143	27	411	120	920
Total	257	109	384	1,133	1,258	213	3,586	671	7,611
1999
Custody	113	40	72	137	193	40	1,270	126	1,991
Fine	147	49	266	433	658	121	1,503	324	3,501
Caution or admonishment	43	23	41	135	149	35	533	117	1,076
Other	88	23	72	98	166	20	471	143	1,081
Total	391	135	451	803	1,166	216	3,777	710	7,649

The information requested is given in the following publications:

Table 4A, page 21 of the Statistical Bulletin Recorded Crime in Scotland, 1998 published by the Scottish Executive in March 1999, a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 16613).

Table 4A, page 22 of the Statistical Bulletin Recorded Crime in Scotland, 1999 published by the Scottish Executive in April 2000, a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 7079).

Table 4A, page 21 of the Statistical Bulletin Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2000 published by the Scottish Executive in April 2001, a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 13119).

There are no regular statistics collected centrally on the costs of crime against businesses. It is therefore not possible to say what the annual cost of crime against businesses has been over the past three years.

In November 1999, the Scottish Executive did, however, publish the results of research into crime against business. The study looked at manufacturing, construction, wholesale and retail, hotels and restaurants and transport and telecommunications. Based on figures provided to the researchers, the cost of crime to Scottish businesses was estimated to have been in the region of £678 million in 1998.

The latest available information on homelessness applications in Scotland up to 31 March 2001 is given in tables 19 and 20 of the most recent edition of Housing Trends in Scotland, published on 27 September 2001. The bulletin is available from the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 16396) and at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00109-00.asp. The following table shows the total number of applications in each of the 3 years to March 2001. The number of applications in 2000-01 is lower than in each of the previous two years.Total homelessness applications 1998-99 to 2000-01

Year	All homelessness applications	Percentage change on previous year
1998-99	45,723	+ 6.0%
1999-2000	45,945	+ 0.5%
2000-01	45,172	- 1.7%

Information on the number of cleaners working for NHSScotland is not held centrally.

A formal procurement process has not yet commenced. The Scottish Executive is not in a position to anticipate the content of bidders' proposals. The procurement strategy is to ensure that the solutions procured are those which most appropriately meet the broadband strategy objectives.

Telecommunications companies can take advantage of local loop unbundling and, more generally, it is open to telecommunications companies to offer solutions which involve purchase by themselves from BT. The Executive has also stated that it expects a range of technologies will be required to meet procurement needs in the Pathfinder areas, including, in some instances, solutions which bypass the copper local loop.

Telecommunications companies have, where they wished, provided information to us to inform our broadband strategy. A formal procurement process has not yet commenced.

NHSScotland has contract arrangements under NHSnet until early 2004. NHSScotland will be exploring with the Digital Scotland Unit of the Scottish Executive, and with NHS suppliers, the options for procurement action before and after current NHSnet contracts expire.

The Scottish Higher Education Funding Council and the Scottish Further Education Funding Council are responsible for the provision of the SuperJANET network in Scotland, and for connections to all further education (FE) and higher education (HE) institutions in Scotland. The most recent FE/HE procurements were too far advanced, and too specialised, to be brought within the Executive's current plans for aggregation. However, the funding councils have agreed with Digital Scotland to seek to co-ordinate future procurements wherever possible.

Health department officials have kept colleagues in Department of Health and the NHS Information Authority informed of the proposals set out in Connecting Scotland: our broadband future on the basis that existing contract arrangements will be sustained and will not constrain exploration of options for broadband delivery in the period leading up to the expiry of NHSnet contracts and beyond.

SuperJANET4 is an academic network operated by the Joint Information Systems Committee on behalf of the UK's higher and further education communities. The Scottish Higher Education Funding Council and the Scottish Further Education Funding Council are members of the JISC and are responsible for the provision of the SuperJANET network in Scotland and the Scottish Executive has had discussions with UKERNA. The development of SuperJANET will not constrain the proposals set out in Connecting Scotland.

Officials have had discussions with the Office of the e-Envoy, the Executive is represented on the OEE Broadband Stakeholder Group, and I have met the e-Envoy.