Chamber and committees

This is a matter for West of Scotland Water Authority. The Chief Executive's response is as follows:West of Scotland Water commissioned a survey of visitors to the reservoirs at Milngavie over a four-day period in August 2001. This showed that some 3,250 recreational users visit the reservoirs in a week, therefore suggesting between 150,000 and 170,000 visitors every year. The authority is committed to maintaining public access to the existing walkways around the reservoirs following completion of the new water treatment works such that the development will have no significant impact on the footpaths or other public areas. The authority has made considerable efforts in its planning of the new treatment works to ensure that the amenity value of the reservoirs will not be adversely impacted by the works, which will be well screened from the public walkways by trees and will be designed to have minimum visibility from footpaths used by visitors.

I welcome the Auditor General's authoritative report which he agreed to undertake at my predecessor's invitation earlier this year. In particular, his conclusion that overall the department implemented these large and important contract competitions fairly, properly and with due regard to value for money, and reached the right contract decisions, is helpful. He noted that the new contracts should provide annual savings of some £15 million and that winning bids were £121 million lower than the second placed bids over a five-year contract period. He also noted that the number of staff affected was significantly less than predicted earlier with 218 staff transferring to the new road operators and 85 reported to have been made redundant.The department has learned important lessons from what was a difficult and complex process and the Auditor General has provided recommendations on how to improve future tender competitions. These will be examined in detail. He has also suggested that a report be published on the first year of operation of the new contracts. The Performance Audit Group and the department have been closely monitoring the new road operators' performance and I plan to publish a report from the Performance Audit Group next summer.

I shall be launching the Executive's policy statement Designing Places tomorrow.

The Executive has published a significant amount of research into the likely effects of climate change in Scotland. Most recently, research into Potential Adaptation Strategies for Climate Change in Scotland was published last month. This research will inform our consideration of a strategic level response to assist local decision makers to implement adaptation strategies to protect their communities. On the specific risk of flooding, the Executive encourages local authorities to address flood risk of non-agricultural land, and has ensured that councils have the necessary powers and resources required. Additionally, with the launch of Floodline this morning, the Executive has provided for Scottish Environment Protection Agency's flood warnings and information on the risk of flooding to be more readily available.

Sarah Boyack announced the biggest single investment in public transport across Scotland on Monday awarding over £75 million to 26 projects. This follows an extra £100 million spent in three previous rounds of the Public Transport Fund and demonstrates the Executive's commitment to making a difference to public transport for the people of Scotland.

We welcome the close partnership between the NHS and the hospice movement in Scotland. The totality of specialist palliative care provision is currently being reviewed as part of the implementation of the Scottish Cancer Plan. That work will take account of the Scottish Executive's policy that palliative care has a role to play in respect of all progressive conditions, not just cancer.

The total number of beds available to the NHS in voluntary hospices for adults in each of the last 10 years, and a breakdown of the current number of beds available in each health board area, are shown in Tables 1 and 2.

Table 1

Number of beds available to the NHS in voluntary hospices (for adults)

Year	total Number of Beds
1992	252
1993	254
1994	252
1995	256
1996	254
1997	250
1998	250
1999	270
2000	259
2001	243

Table 2

Number of beds in adult voluntary hospices in each Health Board Area in current year.

Health Board	Number of Beds
Argyll and Clyde	24
Ayrshire and Arran	20
Borders
Dumfries and Galloway
Fife
Forth Valley	24
Grampian
Greater Glasgow	74
Highland	10
Lanarkshire	20
Lothian	67
Orkney
Shetland
Tayside
Western Isles	4
Total	243

Since 1995-96, the earliest year for which figures are readily available, the total percentage of revenue funding provided to adult voluntary hospices in Scotland by health boards and through charitable donations is as follows.

	Total % NHS RevenueFunding	Total % Charitable Donations
1995-96	43	57
1996-97	42	58
1997-98	43	57
1998-99	40	60
1999-2000	40	60
2000-01	39	61

Arrangements for the funding of adult voluntary hospices remain as set out in Management Executive Letter (1994)104.

It is not possible to isolate the funding which relates purely to bed provision. Information on the costs of the specialist palliative care provided by NHSScotland is not available centrally.