Chamber and committees

The costs of the Older People's Consultative Forum comprise secretariat and travel costs. They are being met from within existing running costs.

Details can be found in the document Allocations of Central Government Grant to Local Authorities 2001-02, a copy of which is held in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 19464).

I have asked Mr Bob Millar, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. His response is as follows: Communities Scotland's Quality News is issued twice a year. The combined print run for the last two issues was 9,500 copies. The total cost for printing, publication and distribution of these two issues was £9,970.

The total cost of printing, publishing and distributing the Scottish Economic Report, January 2002, is estimated at £11,730.

The Scottish Executive expects local authorities to have regard to the Code of Guidance on Funding External Bodies and Following the Public Pound issued jointly by the Accounts Commission for Scotland and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. The Executive also issues advice from time to time on the terms and conditions governing the awarding of grants under specific initiatives.

The Third Age Group received a grant of £15,000 in 1995-96, £15,000 in 1996-97 and £7,500 in 1997-98 from the Unemployed Voluntary Action Fund.The Unemployed Voluntary Action Fund is a trust that provides grants to assist voluntary action projects in Scotland. It has received grant-in-aid from the Scottish Executive/Scottish Office for a programme of funding for local voluntary organisations since 1982. Decisions on individual applications for funding are made by the trustees of the fund.

Revenue grant provided to local authorities is largely unhypothecated and is available for councils to spend on the whole range of council services. No funding is set aside specifically for local authority run animal centres.

Although ministers expect that council house sales should take no longer than six months to complete, there is no statutory time limit within which sales must be completed. Local authorities are encouraged to complete sales within six months through the inclusion of this target in the list of key housing performance indicators collated and published by the Accounts Commission. Their most recent report, published on 17 January 2002, showed that the percentage of houses sold in 26 weeks or less rose from 60.2% in 1999-2000 to 64.6% in 2000-01.In addition, the Housing (Scotland) Act introduced a single regulatory framework for local authorities and registered social landlords. This means that, in future, Communities Scotland will be assessing councils in relation to a number of performance standards, including the efficient processing of Right to Buy applications.The Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 allows tenants to seek a reduction in the purchase price equal to the amount of rent paid if landlords fail to process applications at particular stages within specified time limits. This is also intended to encourage landlords to process applications without unreasonable delay.

In June 2000 the Accounts Commission and Scottish Homes published a report on Managing Rent Arrears, which recommended actions that should be taken by local authorities and registered social landlords to improve their management of rent arrears. In addition, the Housing (Scotland) Act introduced a single regulatory framework for local authorities and registered social landlords. This means that, in future, Communities Scotland will be assessing councils in relation to a number of performance standards including rent arrears.

Local authorities are required to set up and administer schemes for payment of allowances to council members. There is general guidance on the payment of allowances but no specific guidance has been issued on the payment of allowances and expenses in advance.