Chamber and committees

The Executive’s preferred approach to the management of chronic conditions is the development of managed clinical or care networks. We are funding thedevelopment of a Managed Care Network in Forth Valley for people with MS, and hope to seesimilar networks developed across Scotland. The Executive also supports the risk sharing scheme, which makesdisease-modifying drugs such as beta interferon available to MS patientsassessed as suitable for treatment.

The Scottish Executive is working closely with the Secretary of State for Scotland’soffice to ensure that Scotland is well positioned to benefit from the outcome of the UK public sector relocation review.

Officials in ScottishDevelopment International (SDI) are increasing their resources to focus on thepotential opportunities resulting from the review. SDI is in regular contactwith the review team and has provided a wide range of background material toinform the review. SDI also intends to meet all relevant Whitehalldepartments and public bodies to understand, inform and support theirrelocation requirements.

The agreement A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century does not prescribe levels of staffing.Within the framework provided by the agreement, it is for local authorities to decide what levels of staffing best suits their local needs.

The Scottish Executive is currently providing local authorities with support of £20 millionannually through the National Priorities Action Fund which may be used tomaintain and refresh information and communications technology (ICT) facilitiesin schools. This will continue until 2005-06, with the level of subsequentfunding subject to the next spending review. In addition, local authoritiesallocate significant resources to ICT from their own education budgets.

The Scottish Executive has agreed to fund the implementation of the agreement A TeachingProfession for the 21st Century in full. However, it is for localauthorities to determine how they spend their allocated funding and how theyadminister early retirement and winding down schemes.

Both teacher and employerrepresentatives will be fully involved in any discussion on how any futurechanges to the retirement age for public sector workers will affect theoperation of winding down and early retirement schemes. A principal aim of any newpension scheme will be to introduce a greater degree of flexibility,particularly in the transition from work to retirement, and making the ‘’windingdown’’ provisions more widely available, giving teachers increased scope tovary their working patterns when nearing retirement.

Development of the schoolcurriculum forms part of all teachers’ duties, as outlined in Annex B of the agreementA Teaching Profession for the 21st Century. It is for individualheadteachers to determine and allocate specific duties at local level, in consultationwith staff.

Waste disposal is carried out by private waste management companies or local authorities in Scotland.

Local authorities are under a duty to make arrangements which secure Best Value. Under the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003, guidance on Best Value has stressed the need for local authorities to improve performance without discrimination either for or against the private sector.

Disposal of industrial andcommercial waste in Scotland is carried out by private waste management companiesor local authorities. It is up to these bodies to ensure that their chargesreflect the economic and environmental costs of waste disposal. A landfill taxof £14 per tonne for active waste and £2 per tonne for inactive waste is alsolevied throughout the UK.

The Scottish Executivecollects information on the number of eviction actions taken against counciltenants which proceeded to court, the number of cases which resulted in aneviction order and the number of cases which resulted in an eviction. Thenumbers of eviction actions as a result of anti-social behaviour are reportedseparately, but these do not identify instances of drug dealing specifically.The data on evictions foreach local authority are published quarterly in the Scottish Executive StatisticalBulletin (Housing Series), and the most recent edition is available onlinein the published data section of the Housing Statistics Branch reference site (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/housing/hsbref),or from the Parliament’s ReferenceCentre (Bib. number 28820).

The information requested isset out in the table. The information relates to the Scottish Agricultural College’s main education programmes as at 28 October 2003.

Campus	Student Headcount	Student Full-time Equivalents (FTEs)
Aberdeen	213	186.5
Ayr	376	363.5
Edinburgh	130	129.5
Totals	719	679.5