Chamber and committees

The Executive is always interested to learn from the experiences of other countries and share best practice. We welcome the work undertaken by Dumfries and Galloway Health Board detailed in the Better Health Better Healthcare conference report. I understand that the parallel sessions at the conference identified a number of opportunities which Dumfries and Galloway Health Board will use to produce an action plan.

The Executive policy is to require NHS boards to establish their own service redesign mechanisms and to make resources available. In 2003-04, and again in 2004-05, £783,000 in change and innovation funding was made available to Dumfries and Galloway.

Under the terms of thefranchise agreement, the new operator is required to submit for approval aprogramme of improvements for the Anglo-Scottish sleeper services within sixmonths of the franchise commencement date. These improvements are to be fullyimplemented by the end of 2006.

On-board catering services under the new ScotRail franchise will be subject to a stringent performance regime whereby failures in standards will attract financial penalties for the franchisee. A similar provision does not exist under the current franchise.

The new franchise holder has confirmed its intention to undertake an early review of on-train catering on the ScotRail network in order to assess how best to enhance and improve catering services for passengers.

Fife Council, City of Edinburgh Council, Forth Estuary Transport Authority and Forth Ports have commissioned an initial study into Options for a Cross ForthPassenger Service. The Scottish Executive has no current plans to develop commuter ferry services between Fife and Edinburgh, but I await the publication of the report with interest.

As an executive agency within the Scottish Executive, the proposed national transport agency will exercise such transport powers and discharge such responsibilities on behalf of Scottish ministers, as Scottish ministers choose to delegate to it. Consideration is currently being given as to which detailed functions will be exercised by the transport agency.

As set out in the Executive’s White Paper Scotland’s Transport Future, the proposed regional transport partnerships will carry out such transport functions as their constituent councils decide to delegate to them. The Executive will shortly be consulting on three draft models of partnership functions.

The Executive remains committed to preserving the strengths of SPT and its workforce and building upon these to create a strong regional transport partnership in the west of Scotland.

The new franchise agreement is based on the current level of service. However, the delivery of a reliable and regular service between Edinburgh and Glasgow will be underpinned by a tougher performance regime in the new franchise agreement and our investment in new trains with additional peak time passenger capacity.

We are currently in the process of evaluating the effectiveness of the provisions contained in the Dog Fouling (Scotland) Act 2003 with the assistance of a small Working Group comprising local authority officers including a representative from COSLA. A survey of local authorities will take place from October 2004 and we anticipate that the results will be available in the spring of 2005.

We reviewed the existing eight force structure in 2000 and concluded that there was not a case for moving to a single force. However, we are reforming the structure of common police services and are introducing efficiencies that will concentrate resources to front line services.

Statistics covering court proceedings concluded in the period since the 2003 act came into force are not yet available.

The European Union has not designated any part of the south of Scotland as a mountainous region. On 14 July 2004, the Commission of the European Communities published a proposal for the European Union’s rural development policy which will cover the period 2007-13. Included in the proposal is a commitment to review the definition of Less Favoured Areas. Stakeholder views will be sought before decisions are taken and the draft regulation will be subject to detailed negotiation before it is finally agreed.