Chamber and committees

Local road authoritieshave a duty under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 to manage and maintain public roadsin their area. To carry out this duty, they also have powers under the Road TrafficRegulation Act 1984 to promote Temporary Traffic Regulation Orders (TTRO) to closeroads to carry out repair, maintenance or resurfacing work. The restrictions imposedby the TTRO is entirely a matter for the local road authority and Scottishministers have no powers to intervene.

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

The information requested isavailable from 2001. The information from 2001 is shown in the following table.

	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07
Aberdeen	47	59	39	20	69	79
Barlinnie	111	122	80	88	98	147
Castle Huntly	2	0	8	2	1	2
Cornton Vale	28	26	21	29	55	55
Dumfries	15	17	19	16	36	27
Edinburgh	72	103	83	105	192	168
Glenochil	23	20	24	27	25	25
Glenochil YOI	11	17	0	0	0	0
Greenock	18	24	33	45	35	54
Inverness	3	2	14	5	38	40
Kilmarnock	96	164	117	87	116	102
Low Moss	25	33	19	32	27	23
Noranside	1	1	1	1	3	0
Perth	21	52	94	104	93	73
Peterhead	18	25	13	5	12	15
Polmont	56	82	153	320	389	349
Shotts	27	37	42	28	40	33

 

These figures, and comparisonsbetween year and between establishments, should be treated with caution. “Violentincident” may refer to a minor scuffle between two prisoners, through to a seriousassault. Establishments’ functions and numbers of inmates have also changed significantlyin the period.”

The majority of Scotssupport the Scottish Government’s view that nuclear weapons have no place in amodern Scotland. We plan to bring together key stakeholders fromacross Scottish civic life in an alliance of people who are opposed to thedeployment of nuclear weapons in Scotland. We will reflect on how the UK Government’s plans toreplace Trident impact on devolved areas and will consider what we can do, withinour devolved responsibilities, to persuade the UK Government to change itsposition on these matters.

The deceased organ donorrate per million population in each of the last five years, by nation ofdonation is set out in the following table. The figures are based on the location of the donating hospitaland include heartbeating and non-heartbeating donors.

Area	2002 - 2003		2003 - 2004		2004 - 2005		2005 - 2006		2006 - 2007
	Number	pmp	Number	pmp	Number	pmp	Number	pmp	Number	pmp
Scotland	58	11.5	46	9.1	61	12.1	48	9.5	50	9.9
England	654	13.0	650	12.9	613	12.2	654	13.0	657	13.0
Wales	33	11.2	44	15.0	47	16.0	42	14.3	51	17.3
N Ireland	32	18.0	30	17.2	30	17.2	20	11.5	35	20.1
Total	777	12.9	770	13.0	751	12.5	764	13.7	793	13.2

 

The Scottish Executiveadvertising spend on organ donation campaigns in each of the last five years isset out in the following table:

Year	Spend £
2002-03	28,355
2003-04	143,859
2004-05	121,012
2005-06	190,570
2006-07	218,850

 

It is not clear thatchanging to a system of opting out would necessarily lead to an improvement inorgan donation rates in Scotland. Such a move would need strong support from thepublic and the health professionals involved, but the extensive consultationscarried out in relation to the organ donation and transplantation provisions of the Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006 showed strong support for strengthening thepresent system of opting-in. That is the approach which is embodied in the Act.

We feel that there areserious risks associated with a change to a system of presumed consent, giventhat the disclosures about organ retention at post-mortem examination showedthat for many people presumed consent is regarded as denying them a proper sayin what should happen to their body after death. A time may come when it wouldbe possible to move to a system of presumed consent, but we do not believe thattime is now.

Both approaches aim toincrease the number of organs becoming available for transplantation, an aimwhich we fully support. I wish to explore with the other health departments thegains which could be achieved through changes to the present organ donation andtransplantation infrastructure.

The Scottish Organ RetrievalTeam (SORT) continues to retrieve all organs which become available fortransplantation anywhere in Scotland.

The outcome of theevaluation of the performance of SORT during the year September 2004 to August2005, when it included consultant anaesthetist participation on a pilot basis,was very positive. The results of the evaluation are being taken into accountby the Organ Donation Task Force set up by NHS Blood and Transplant and by theBritish Transplantation Society, which is looking at recommendations for betterretrieval arrangements across the UK.

Firearms law andair guns, including the provisions in the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, havebeen the subject of regular discussions between officials. We are keeping thematter under close review and shall be holding detailed discussions with UK ministerson this matter in due course.

The curriculum inScotland is not based on statutory prescription. Itis for schools, in the light of the curriculum framework within which they operate,to determine how best they organise the syllabus.

However, I can confirmthat there are no plans to include intelligent design as part of the Curriculumfor Excellence review. There is no evidence from HM Inspectorate of Education tosuggest intelligent design is being taught in school science classes.

Interpretation of the law is a matter for the courts in the particular circumstances of the case inquestion. Following the recent public consultation, I expect to make an announcementafter the summer recess on our intentions in relation to the law on snaring.