Chamber and committees

I have been advised by the Food Standards Agency that the annual cost to abattoirs of veterinary inspections is monitored. Historically this has been undertaken at a Great Britain level and the agency has provided an estimate of the cost to the industry in Scotland since the MHS was established on 1 April 1995. The data for each financial year is as follows:

Year	Scottish estimate (£ million)
1995-96	1.5
1996-97	1.1
1997-98	1.2
1998-99	2.3
1999-2000	2.3

The Food Standards Agency has advised me that the cost of implementing the recommendations of the Report of the Meat Inspection Charges Task Force, assuming 100% OVS supervision in 2000-01, is estimated to be £1.75 million for Scotland out of a GB total of some £19 million.An analysis of this is as follows:

Red Meat Slaughterhouses	1.25 million
Poultry Slaughterhouses	0.2 million
Cutting Plants	0.3 million
All Plants	1.75 million

Scottish Opera's programme is a matter for the company, in consultation with the Scottish Arts Council.

There are currently two Patients' Travelling Expenses Schemes. A non-means tested Highlands and Islands Scheme for patients resident or working in the former Highlands and Islands Development area and a means tested scheme for the rest of the country.Under the Regulations patients, and where considered medically necessary their escorts, are reimbursed, either fully or partially, their travelling expenses. In addition the cost of unavoidable overnight expenses can be reimbursed if the health board is satisfied that an overnight stay is in practice unavoidable.Health boards also have discretion to reimburse the travel costs and unavoidable overnight expenses of patients not eligible for assistance under the statutory travel schemes when this is viewed as an extension to patients' treatment costs and is deemed to be clinically necessary.

An action plan for dental services in Scotland was published on 18 August 2000. The plan addresses issues of service availability and access to dental services. It is available on the Scottish Executive website at www.scotland.gov.uk.

As announced by Deputy First Minister Mr Jim Wallace on 19 June (by PQ S1W-8083), in launching the third progress report of the Land Reform Action Plan, we decided to take time to resolve some of the technically complex areas of this legislation prior to publishing the draft Bill. We will make a further announcement shortly regarding our plans for publication.

The additional £8.9 million being allocated to Scottish police forces will be sufficient to enable the recruitment of more than 300 extra police officers. Grampian Police will receive £676,000, which is the equivalent of an additional 27 officers. However, the recruitment and deployment of staff is an operational matter for chief constables taking account of local circumstances.

No.

The information available is set out below. The figures include local authority and Scottish Homes right to buy, rent to mortgage and voluntary sales, all of which were made under the right to buy legislation. Figures for 1999-2000 are not yet available.

Total value of public sector Right to Buy discounts (£)
	1997-98	1998-991
Scotland	299,496,472	258,632,309

Notes:1. Excludes 91 sales for 1998-99 for which details of the discount are not yet known.

The consultation document An Open Scotland, published in November 1999, set out the Executive's view that the police and police authorities in Scotland should be covered by the Scottish freedom of information legislation. This would be in respect of all their activities, both operational and administrative, subject to a number of exemptions protecting sensitive information, in particular information relating to criminal investigations. Currently we are analysing the responses to the consultation exercise and, in relation to coverage of the police, will bring forward detailed proposals in due course.