Chamber and committees

A breakdown of (a) local authority; (b) housing association, and (c) private sector houses that have been improved under the central heating programme is set out in the following tables. The table for local authorities shows the position for 2001-02 only. Information on local authority stock benefiting from the programme in 2002-03 to date is not yet available.Local Authority Stock

Local Authority	Number of Council Houses Improved
Aberdeen	83
Angus	6
Argyll and Bute	28
Dundee City	604
East Ayrshire	133
East Dunbarton	8
East Renfrew	61
Edinburgh	140
Fife	319
Glasgow	1,352
Highland	24
Inverclyde	84
Midlothian	21
Orkney	60
Renfrewshire	121
Shetland	28
South Lanarkshire	863
West Dunbarton	72
Total	4,007

Housing Association Stock from 2001-02 to 24 September 2002

Local Authority Area	Number of Housing Association Houses Improved
Angus	6
Argyll and Bute	15
City of Dundee	248
City of Edinburgh	113
City of Glasgow	552
Falkirk	96
Inverclydeand	22
North Lanarkshireand	31
Shetland	29
Stirling	19
Total	1,131

Private Sector from 2001-02 to 24 September 2002

Post Code Area	Number of Housing Private Sector Houses Improved
AB - Aberdeenshire	255
DD - Tayside	663
DG - Dumfries and Galloway	112
EH - Lothian	987
FK - Stirlingshire	87
G - Glasgow	1,681
HS - Western Isles	84
IV - Highland	87
KA - Ayrshire	292
KW - Orkney	54
KY - Fife	201
ML - Lanarkshire	122
PA - Renfrewshire and Argyll	410
PH - Perthshire	98
TD - Borders	41
ZE - Shetland	5
Total	5,179

Scottish Enterprise is providing a range of measures under its New Approach to Entrepreneurship to increase the number of start-ups assisted across the Enterprise Network. I understand that a number of local measures are also being put in place by Scottish Enterprise Glasgow.

No figures at all have yet been published because, as I said in reply to question S1W-27361, the second Home Energy Conservation Act progress reports are currently being considered. I will write to Mr Brown on this issue when consideration of the second progress reports is complete.

Couple Counselling Scotland and Scottish Marriage Care receive funding from the Scottish Executive Justice Department under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968. A total of almost £339,000 will be made in grant payments to these organisations in 2002-03. Local couple counselling services, affiliated to Couple Counselling Scotland or Scottish Marriage Care, are independent and funding is a matter for them. Some financial support comes from local authorities who make local funding decisions in the light of competing priorities.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-29496 on 25 September 2002, in which new resources of £11.2 million were announced for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) for the period 2003-04 to 2005-06. It is for SEPA to decide what proportion of the additional funding is to be devoted to increasing staff resources. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

No element of the grant-in-aid allocated to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is ring-fenced for any specific purpose. SEPA spent approximately £400,000 on research and development in 2001-02 and has budgeted to spend around the same amount in the current financial year.

There are no plans to transfer civil service departments and government agencies to the greater Glasgow area. As set out in the answer given to question S1W-27024 on 26 July 2002, there are, however, several organisations currently undertaking relocation reviews, with decisions expected later this year.

The Chief Scientist Office (CSO), within the Scottish Executive Health Department has responsibility for encouraging and supporting research into health services and patient care within the NHS in Scotland.The following table provides details of the amount CSO has spent on asthma research in each of the last five years:

	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
Total expenditure	£78,784	£83,135	£62, 329	£47,596	£127,464

Details on individual projects are available from the National Research Register, a copy of which is in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 17404).

Community care plans are essentially local documents. They are not formally monitored or audited but, along with other strategic documents, inform progress on policy implementation and development.

There has been a recent change in the way care services in Scotland are regulated. The Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 set up the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care. National Care Standards covering a wide range of care services were published by Scottish ministers earlier this year, prior to the establishment of the Care Commission on 1 April 2002. The commission is required to take account of these standards in all decisions it takes under the act on the registration and inspection of care services. As part of its corporate plan for 2002-03 the Care Commission is committed to establishing a baseline of the size, number and complexity of each care service provision.