Chamber and committees

The information requested is given in the table:Scottish Applicants and Accepted Applicants to B3 Pharmacy in Scottish Universities, 1998-2002*

Data	Year
	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Applicants	535	465	502	540	640
Accepts	190	167	184	173	244

Source: Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.Note:*B3 Pharmacy was called B2 Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmacy in 2002.

The Scottish Executive supports the disabled persons housing service model of provision. Where available, these services are funded by local authorities who have a duty under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 to take account of the housing needs of disabled people in the development of their local housing strategies. The Scottish Executive does not consider that it would be appropriate to provide separate grant funding to support this aspect of local authorities' housing responsibilities.

The Scottish Executive Childcare Strategy aims to provide affordable, accessible, good quality child care for children aged 0 to 14 in all neighbourhoods. Responsibility for addressing local child care needs rests with the local authorities in conjunction with Childcare Partnerships.The Executive is providing £16.75 million in the current financial year (2002-03) to local authorities to meet the aims of the strategy. In the Scottish Budget 2003-06 the Executive announced significant increases in Childcare Strategy funding. The allocations for the period are shown in the following table.

Financial Year	£ Million
2003-04	19.25
2004-05	29.75
2005-06	40.65

The Executive has also made available £20 million Social Justice funding in years 2004-05 and 2005-06 for child care. This is to help parents in the most disadvantaged areas get into education or employment.

The Executive began accepting applications from 3 March 2003.

Recognising the misery and distress that flooding can cause and having resolved to improve current arrangements to address flooding concerns, ministers have agreed to implement the recommendations of the Ad Hoc Committee on Flooding Issues in full. These decisions build on our existing strategic framework for addressing flooding based on awareness, avoidance and alleviation.We will improve awareness of the risks of flooding through the provision of better flood risk information and additional flood warning systems.We will publish revised national planning policy to strengthen the ability of planning authorities to prevent unsuitable further development where there is significant flood risk.In addition to investing £40 million over the next three years to reduce flood risk for 1,850 properties, we will reduce the risk of sewer flooding by continuing to encourage the use of sustainable urban drainage systems and working with Scottish Water to ensure that such systems are properly maintained.We will manage flood risk better by improving national guidance and administrative procedures for promoting new flood alleviation schemes.We will ensure joint working between local authorities, Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Scottish Water to improve flood risk management and will establish a national technical advisory group.We are helping those who might be affected by flooding by encouraging the take up of insurance by householders, in particular those in the social rented sector. We will ensure better support to those affected by flooding.Implementation of these measures will strengthen the existing arrangements to address flooding and thereby reduce the risks and the impacts of flooding on those individuals and communities in vulnerable areas.

The Scottish Executive is committed to ensuring that further education opportunities are accessible by everyone no matter where they live or their personal circumstances. Our widening access policy aims to break down barriers and ensure that social prejudice plays no part in who gets to benefit from further education.We have delegated to the Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC) the duty to secure adequate and efficient provision of further education in Scotland. We expect SFEFC to allocate budgets to individual colleges, and offer other support and guidance, in a way which takes account of that duty.

I am delighted to be able to announce that the consultation paper, the Scottish Human Rights Commission has been published today. The Executive's proposals for the establishment of a Scottish Human Rights Commission firmly underline our commitment to human rights and represent a significant development for Scotland. The powers and functions we propose for the commission will give it the potential to make an important contribution to fairness and justice in Scottish society.The consultation period will be open until Friday 6 June. I hope that the paper will be widely considered and commented on. The debate will be assisted by the major conference Establishing our Rights, which takes place on Monday 17 February.

No. The Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc. (Scotland) Bill covers non-executive ministerial appointments to non-departmental public bodies in Scotland. Further education colleges are independent corporate bodies under the terms of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992.

Employment issues within further education colleges, which are autonomous bodies in terms of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992, are for the colleges themselves to address.

In general, the Boards of Management of further education colleges are accountable to the Scottish ministers through powers delegated to the Scottish Further Education Funding Council in the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992. Where there is a proposal to merge two or more colleges, ministers are obliged to consult the relevant education authority and any other person appearing to ministers to be affected by the proposal.