Chamber and committees

This is a matter for Scottish Water. I have asked Jon Hargreaves, Chief Executive of Scottish Water to respond. His response is as follows:Through regular sampling of drinking water supplies, Scottish Water identifies areas where water is picking up lead from old plumbing and treats the water so it is not absorbing so much lead. When renewing old water mains, Scottish Water replaces the part of any of their lead service pipes that have been uncovered. They advise customers about lead in private pipework and steps that can be taken to reduce any risk. When a customer replaces their private lead pipes, Scottish Water also removes any lead pipes that are their responsibility. In addition, Scottish Water is working closely with the Scottish Executive to develop a long-term strategy to reduce lead in drinking water supplies.

This is a matter for Scottish Water. I have asked Jon Hargreaves, Chief Executive of Scottish Water to respond. His response is as follows:There are areas of Scotland where there are no lead pipes on the public water supply network, although there may still be lead in customers' private service pipes and plumbing.

The Scottish Executive is fully committed to the education and training of all health professionals and recognises the important and vital role played by the Scottish Universities and NHS Education for Scotland in supporting education.The Scottish Executive is currently undertaking a Scottish consultation on the government's intention to establish the NHS University before welcoming the initiative. When the results of the consultation have been fully considered the Scottish Executive will be able to respond appropriately to the plans.

No. The operation of concessionary travel schemes (including schemes for taxis) is a matter for individual local authorities, based on local needs and circumstances. As part of their concessionary travel schemes, a number of local authorities provide taxicard initiatives which offer reduced taxi fares to provide mobility for those unable to use conventional public transport.

Higher education institutions are autonomous bodies and are therefore responsible for deciding the type and levels of subject provision. Ministers have no locus in these decisions.The Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, working with institutions, seeks to encourage and develop coherent provision of subjects across the sector.

Section 16 of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978, as amended, enables NHS boards to give grant to voluntary organisations subject to certain conditions. It would be for boards to consider whether any application from an organisation dealing with dyslexia met the conditions in section 16.

The Scottish Executive has a range of funding programmes available to voluntary organisations, including dyslexia organisations. The Executive is currently funding two specific projects, through the Special Educational Needs Innovation Grants Programme 2002-04, to provide practical support to teachers and parents in the inclusion of children with dyslexia. The Dyslexia Trust have been allocated £102,875 for a project entitled, Count Me In. This project will build on current best practice and will deliver to schools a range of tools and materials in a variety of formats. Dyslexia Scotwest have been allocated £79,356 to finance a Development Officer as part of their Dyslexia Friendly Schools project. These projects aim to improve understanding and develop skills in order that the needs of young people with dyslexia may be better addressed in schools.

We established the Scottish Textile Forum in June 2000 to develop measures to support the textile sector and to provide an opportunity for regular consultation on issues facing the Scottish textile industry. The Scottish Textile Forum launched a three-year action plan for the sector in January 2001. Scottish Textiles is the team within Scottish Enterprise responsible for delivery of the plan and good progress is being made, for example, on training, industry image and marketing/brand development.

There is no threshold at the moment in relation to the number of taxis operating in Scotland which are accessible for people with disabilities. Nor are there any powers under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 or other legislation at the present time which would provide Scottish ministers with the powers to introduce such a threshold. The powers to determine the technical specifications for accessible taxis are contained in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and are reserved to the Westminster Parliament under the terms of the Scotland Act 1998. The 1995 act provisions have not yet been commenced. Once they are commenced, the Scottish Executive will consult widely on the proposals and will introduce the provisions by means of regulations using their powers under section 20 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (as amended by section 39 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995), albeit subject to the approval of the Scottish Parliament. In the short term, section 10(2) of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 provides local authorities with the discretion to determine what vehicles can operate as taxis in their area. As such, the Scottish Executive has written to councils on two occasions actively encouraging them to consider improving the level of accessible taxis in their area.

Executive officials have twice written to local authorities in recent years to update them on progress on the introduction of the taxi provisions contained in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. This is a reserved matter for the Westminster Government and as yet no implementation date for these provisions has been set. In writing to local authorities, we have taken the opportunity on both occasions to encourage them to improve the accessibility of taxis to people with disabilities in advance of the regulations coming into effect and offering advice as to how they could proceed if they decided to do so. There are no immediate plans to send out a further letter although the position will be kept under review.