Chamber and committees

We are today issuing to local authorities, the health service, the voluntary sector and others a consultation paper Changing Children's Services Fund, a copy of which has been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre. This sets out our proposals for the fund, which will encourage better, more innovative and more integrated services for children. Funding of £4 million will be available in 2001-02 for drug-related projects only, while £33 million will be available in 2002-03 and £44.5 million in 2003-04. Resources are being committed from the education, health and social justice budgets. This reflects the cross-cutting nature of this fund. It will encourage local authorities, the health service, the voluntary sector and others to work together for Scotland's children.

A great deal of polluted land has been inherited from past generations when little or no consideration was given to the impact of our actions on the environment. We now face the prospect of removing this undesirable legacy.We have allocated £5.2 million capital resources for 2000-01 and 2001-02 to help local authorities implement the new contaminated land regime which provides the best solution to bringing polluted land back into productive use. Its main objective is to provide an improved system for the identification and remediation of contaminated land where the contamination is causing unacceptable risk to human health and the wider environment. A further £9.5 million for 2002-03 and 2003-04 will be allocated in due course.

The funds will help local authorities to investigate sites, take forward enforcement action and, if they are unable to identify those responsible for the contamination, carry out remediation work.

In addition £9.7 million is being made available over the five years 1999-2000 to 2003-04 as part of the Annual External Finance settlement for local authority current expenditure.

The distribution of capital allocations to local authorities is shown in the table.

	Allocations for 2000-01	Allocations for 2001-02
	£000	£000
Aberdeen City	17	62
Aberdeenshire	19	68
Angus	32	79
Argyll & Bute	20	72
Clackmannanshire	15	37
Dumfries & Galloway	46	112
Dundee City	41	102
East Ayrshire	54	128
East Dunbartonshire	15	37
East Lothian	15	37
East Renfrewshire	15	37
Edinburgh (City of)	45	181
Eilean Siar	20	72
Falkirk	26	63
Fife	108	266
Glasgow City	174	429
Highland	91	224
Inverclyde	15	55
Midlothian	49	106
Moray	15	38
North Ayrshire	52	128
North Lanarkshire	225	447
Orkney Islands	15	37
Perth & Kinross	22	77
Renfrewshire	52	127
Scottish Borders	15	53
Shetland	0	0
South Ayrshire	19	47
South Lanarkshire	76	187
Stirling	27	68
West Dunbartonshire	29	71
West Lothian	136	253
Scotland Total	1500	3700

The Scottish Executive's consultation paper Strategic Priorities for Scotland's Passenger Railway is published today. Copies are being sent to all relevant bodies and organisations.I am placing a copy in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. no. 9809). Additional copies are available in the Document Supply Centre.

We have recently announced a £250,000 package of measures designed to tackle the problem of nuisance neighbours, including the creation of a Sociable Neighbourhood National Co-ordinator, who will promote good practice across Scotland, and work with councils and others to develop successful strategies. We have also proposed a number of measures for the forthcoming Housing Bill to give additional powers to local authorities and registered social landlords to help tackle this problem.

It has not been normal practice for the water authorities to take water samples when carrying out byelaw inspections of new domestic properties. Historically, only a visual inspection has been carried out on a sample of new domestic properties. More detailed byelaw inspections have been reserved for those commercial premises identified as posing a greater risk to health should contamination of the public water supply occur during a back syphonage incident.

All three water authorities are committed to take any necessary action on enforcement in the light of the findings of the study being carried out by the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health. In the meantime the authorities are responding to requests from members of the public who wish to have their water supply tested for the presence of lead.

The results of the survey will be available by November 2000. The Executive will respond to the conclusions as a matter of urgency and is currently is exploring the options for reducing the risk to health from the illegal use of lead solder in new properties.

The Scottish Executive is exploring the options for tightening up the legislation concerned with the illegal use of lead solder on domestic water supply systems. The Executive is currently awaiting the results of a study into the extent of the problem.

Data showing the number of homes with excessive lead levels in their drinking water, that were built since lead solder was banned from use on domestic plumbing systems in 1987, is not available. To try and establish the scale of the problem, the Scottish Executive has instructed the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental (SCIEH) to carry out a national survey of new properties. The results from the SCIEH study are expected later this year.

No prosecutions have arisen from contractors using lead solder on domestic water supply systems.

The use of lead solder for domestic water supply systems is already illegal. The Scottish Executive is exploring the options for banning lead solder in other domestic plumbing services such as central heating systems.