Chamber and committees

Wendy Alexander announced on Friday 29 October that the Scottish Executive will repeal Section 2A of the Local Government Act 1986. The repeal will be made within the Ethical Standards in Public Life Bill and we expect this legislation to come before Parliament early next year.

The additional money for education announced by Jack McConnell on 6 October has been widely welcomed. Detailed allocations of education resources for Councils will be made as part of the local government finance settlement towards the end of the year.

The Code of Guidance on Homelessness already makes provision for disabled homeless people to be regarded as being in priority need for the purposes of the homeless persons legislation. The operation of this and other aspects of the legislation come within the terms of reference of the Homelessness Task Force which I chair. The Task Force will consider whether further action is required to tackle the cases of homeless people with specific needs, including those who are disabled.

We hold information on conviction rates and sentencing decisions in the Sheriff courts in our court proceedings database.

We also publish statistics on this, both in our annual Statistical Bulletin on Criminal Proceedings in Scottish courts, and in our publication on Costs, Sentencing Profiles and the Scottish Criminal Justice System (most recently issued in March 1999).The publication on costs and sentencing profiles in the Scottish criminal justice system is intended to make sentencing information more widely available to assist in improving clarity and consistency in sentencing practice.

The Commission's Report, With Respect to Old Age, makes wide-ranging recommendations on both devolved and reserved matters. The recommendations about social security matters and pensions are reserved to Westminster. The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with Her Majesty's Government on a wide range of issues including the recommendations of the Royal Commission.

I plan to report to Parliament on the review shortly.

The recommendations in the Commission's report cover a wide range of issues. We are continuing to consider them and will respond as soon as possible.

The Scottish Executive continues to fund Alzheimer's Scotland Action on Dementia and the Dementia Services Development Centre as the best and most informed agencies to provide specific information, guidance and support for those suffering from Alzheimer's Disease and of course their carers.

More generally, the Health Education Board for Scotland, Health Boards, NHS Trusts and Scottish Local Authorities all share the support and responsibility of adding and improving awareness of local and national advice among all vulnerable groups and carers.

Advantage is also taken of national days and weeks set aside for the promotion of awareness for individual care need groups.I will be announcing shortly details on how a Strategy aimed at supporting carers will be taken forward in Scotland. As part of the Strategy, I have been considering the need for better and more targeted information to carers in such areas as services, benefits and health care information.

Additional resources of £28,000 for the training of British Sign Language Interpreters (Levels 1-3) were made available in 1998/99, with a further £8,000 in the current year. Details of the allocations of funding are as below :

Organisation	1998-99	1999-2000	Purpose
SENSE Scotland	£14,000	£8,000	Provision of Training in British Sign Language (BSL) Level 1 for 10 people and BSL Level 2 for 5 people.
Royal National Institute for the Deaf Scotland	£14,000	-	To train 27 people to BSL Level 3.

The Scottish Association of Sign Language Interpreters is in receipt of grant of £22,600 in the current year for its training activities. It also receives grant of £22,350 for its core costs. The Scottish Executive will be incorporating consideration of the training needs of those who work with people with a sensory impairment into its wider consultations about future development of education and training in social work services.Local authorities are also able to use the Specific Grant for Social Work Training to provide training for staff working with people with a sensory impairment The employment of British Sign Language Interpreters is the responsibility of all employers who wish to ensure wide access to their services.

The Scottish Executive has provided local authorities in Scotland this year with over £1.1 billion for social work services. Further increases of £43.4 million (4%) in 2000/01 and £35.7 million (3.1%) in 2001/02 are planned. It is up to local authorities to allocate these resources to meet local needs and priorities, including the need for respite care for people with Alzheimer's disease. The Scottish Executive is committed to the agenda set out in Modernising Community Care: An Action Plan which requires local authorities to develop, as a priority, effective respite services, meeting users' and carers' needs. £5 million, out of the £1.1 billion, has been allocated to local authorities specifically on the basis of their response to the Action Plan. This figure will increase in future years and will continue to be allocated on the basis of individual authorities' progress on this modernising agenda.Respite is essential in helping informal carers of people with Alzheimer's disease to take a break. I will be announcing shortly to Parliament details on a Carers' Strategy which will also address this issue.