Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive is providingadditional resources to local authorities for a range of initiatives whichcontribute to making journeys to and from school safer for school pupils. Theseinclude the introduction of 20 mph speed limits around schools; safer routes toschool schemes; cycling, walking and safer streets projects; child pedestriantraining schemes; and school travel co-ordinator appointments.

The Executive also providesfunding to the Scottish Road Safety Campaign for the development of key roadsafety education initiatives and publicity messages. The campaign isimplementing a strategy for road safety education in the school curriculum, theaim of which is to ensure that a core of road safety is taught to all childrenin Scotland.

Data about injury roadaccidents are collected by the Police and reported to the Scottish Executiveusing the "Stats 19" statistical report format. For the purpose of thesereturns, a casualty is only identified as being a "school pupil" ifhe/she was aged up to and including 16 years of age and was on a journey to orfrom school at the time of the accident. The numbers of such casualties killedand seriously injured in 2002 and 2003 are given in Table 44 of RoadAccidents Scotland 2003, published by the Scottish Executive, copies ofwhich are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 34523).The corresponding numbers for 2004 are: one killed; 78 seriously injured.

We are tackling congestioncaused by the school run by encouraging walking and cycling to school andpromoting road safety initiatives, including funding to local authorities for schooltravel co-ordinators and for 20 mph zones and other safety-related schemesaround schools.

The Aberdeen WesternPeripheral Route (AWPR) will provide existing commercial and industrialdevelopment at Dyce Drive with improved access to the trunk road network andconsequently safer and more reliable routes to local and national customers andmarkets. The road will reduce congestion and allow the development of highquality public transport links to and from the City as part of the moderntransport system for Aberdeen. Both of these factors will allow the further developmentof the area encouraging investment and creation of jobs.

In the absence of the AWPRit is likely that there would be a greater burden on developers in providinginfrastructure as part of any planning permission for development.

Our commitment is to ensureevery community in Scotland will have access to broadband by the end of thisyear. This increased access is being delivered through the Executive’s “Broadbandfor Scotland’s rural and remote areas” procurement and contractaward to BT, which will bring ADSL broadband to 378 rural exchanges in Scotland.

BT have themselves committedto try and provide broadband to any UK household served by an enabled exchange. Somepeople, who live a considerable distance from their exchange, may however experiencedifficulty in receiving a broadband connection. There is no available figure onthe extent of this problem, as it will only be confirmed once customersactually place orders for broadband and their line is tested for broadbandconnectivity. Nonetheless, we are actively working to ascertain the location ofany Scottish communities who are “out of reach” of ADSL technology. In thesecases, the Executive will work with BT to identify solutions appropriate todemand.

I refer the member to the question S2W-17493 answered on 14 July 2005. 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/wa.search.

Plans for the development of the Scottish Agricultural and Biological Research Institutes, including infrastructure improvements, are a matter primarily for the institutes themselves. However, the Scottish Executive will consider institutes’ development proposals that are consistent with meeting its research needs.

The Scottish Executive has no plans to establish official translation facilities between English and Scots for the purpose of communicating with EU institutions.

In relation to Gaelic I refer the member to the question S2W-17412 answered on 29 June 2005. 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/wa.search.

I refer the member to the question S2W-17486 answered on 14 July 2005. 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/wa.search.

The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues.