Chamber and committees

No formal research has been undertaken. The Scottish Health Plan, Our National Health: A plan for action, a plan for change, states that improving the way the NHS responds to the needs of patients is a key priority for every part of the NHS. This includes making the best use of the skills of all members of the health care team, including physiotherapists and challenging traditional ways of working to improve the speed, responsiveness and quality of care. This work is already under way.

The Scottish Executive's Housing Research Programme has commissioned a study of mortgage arrears and repossessions. The research, which is currently at the fieldwork stage, is collecting details of repossession cases from a sample of court records in 1994 and 2000. The study is also exploring, through questionnaires and interviews, the experiences of people who have had serious arrears or have had their houses repossessed, and the policies and practices of lenders.The study is due for completion in spring 2002.

In the Sheriff Court, rights of audience are generally restricted to the parties themselves or their legal representative, unless specific provision has been made in the primary legislation. The Mortgage Rights (Scotland) Act makes no specific provision for lay representation.The approach taken in the Act requires that statutory notices to the debtor draw attention to the advisability of getting legal and other advice (such as advice on debt management). This should ensure that households facing mortgage repossession action secure appropriate advice and support at an early stage to help find a way through their difficulties and ultimately get back on their feet.

The funding arrangements that exist between local authorities and voluntary organisations are a matter for the parties concerned. However, the Scottish Executive is committed to encouraging other funders to work towards a stable funding environment for the voluntary sector and its indicative three-year financial settlements for local authorities will make it easier for them, in turn, to offer three-year funding to voluntary groups.As part of the Executive's review of its funding for the voluntary sector, we intend to look at whether it is possible for all funders of the sector, including local authorities, to work together to ensure that they are operating in way that meets their own needs and the needs of the sector.

Court procedures are regulated by the court and not by the Executive.However, I understand that a review of small claim procedure in the sheriff court by the Sheriff Court Rules Council has just been completed and that new procedure rules are being proposed. The approval of new rules is a matter for the Court of Session under section 32 of the Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act 1971.

The Scottish Court Service is committed to providing full access to the courts where possible. However, the court estate is varied in age, scale and condition. Around 85% of the estate is listed. It is inevitable that there will be some areas where the court buildings cannot be made fully accessible due to insurmountable planning or technical constraints.Nevertheless, earlier this year, the Scottish Court Service appointed the Joint Mobility Unit, a specialist access consultant, to provide a comprehensive and detailed audit to establish the current compliance of the court estate with the Disability Discrimination Act. The results of the audit will inform plans for future investment in the estate to ensure compliance with the Act by the implementation date in October 2004.

I established the New Deal Implementation Support Group (ISG) in September 1999 as a partnership arrangement with the Scottish Junior Doctors Committee of the British Medical Association (BMA) to work with NHSScotland Trusts in supporting their efforts to reduce hours of work for training grade staff. This work has been underpinned by the New Contract for Doctors in Training which introduced a contractual requirement for all Pre Registration House Officer (PRHO) posts to comply with the New Deal by 1 August 2001 and for Senior House Officer (SHO) and Specialist Register (SpR) posts by 1 August 2003.

I recently announced that 97% of PRHO posts have now been declared by the ISG as New Deal compliant, which is a significant improvement on the 13% declared by the ISG in their March 2001 report. In particular, all PRHO grades training in the Glasgow area have been declared by junior doctors, trusts and the ISG as fully compliant with New Deal standards on hours of work and rest. The current position on compliance for SHO and SpR grades has yet to be confirmed. Completed returns from trusts are awaited, but trusts are aware of the August 2003 compliance deadline. It is anticipated returns will identify that progress has been made with these grades of doctors in training.

In addition to the recruitment of an extra 100 junior doctors announced in June 2000, I also announced in April this year a commitment to employ 375 more junior doctors by 2003. This represents an increase of approximately 10% and I expect these additional resources to be used to best effect in targeting areas of hour's non-compliance.

In relation to other issues such as accommodation, catering and security, UK national minimum standards have been agreed recently between the four UK Health Departments and the BMA. The ISG is currently in the process of undertaking visits to trusts to assess where variations from standards exist and to advise on necessary improvements. On completion of this assessment process, trusts will be invited to submit plans detailing how they are to address any shortfalls against standards and to submit on-going progress reports as appropriate to the Health Department on a six-monthly basis.

The National Cultural Strategy recognises the particular position of Glasgow and committed the Executive to work with Glasgow City Council to examine the circumstances of the museums and galleries in the city. We have already had preliminary discussions but it is now for the council to set out its own plans for the future of its museums and galleries as the basis of further discussions with the Executive.

We are supporting the establishment of a national debtline service to be piloted in Fife early in the New Year, which will cover all aspects of money and debt advice. The Executive is working with advice agencies and other partners, including the financial sector, to improve the availability of debt and housing advice in Scotland. I have published the Facing up to Debt report which maps existing services and provides an assessment of demand.

The review is unlikely to be completed until the New Year.