Chamber and committees

This information is not held centrally. However, under the Schools (Health Promotion and Nutrition) (Scotland) Act 2007, local authorities have a duty to have regard to guidance issued by Scottish Ministers on the application of the principles of sustainable development when providing food or drink or catering services in schools.

The existing guidance, Integrating sustainable development into procurement of food and catering services, is available on the Scottish Government website at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/Procurement/PublicProcurement/ProcurementPolicy/coporate-responsibility/Integrationofsusdevinfood.

The guidance contains advice on various sustainable development issues, including fairtrade and local sourcing, and how to pursue these various issues whilst staying within EU procurement law.

Health visiting skills, as part of a multi-disciplinary team, are important in the support and care of young children and in achieving the aims of the early years framework. Working with others, NHS Education for Scotland are running a number of education initiatives to ensure that the training and development needs of health visitors and practitioners are met. The recruitment and employment of health visitors is a matter for health boards who will determine their workforce based on the needs and demographics of local populations.

The Scottish Government is committed to promoting fair trade and Scotland''s Fair Trade Nation campaign not only within Scotland but also abroad. Glasgow City Council has achieved Fair Trade City status and the Scottish Government, along with our partners, including Glasgow City Council, is alert to the opportunities to encourage Fair Trade around the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Local Government supported by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities are developing a portal to advertise Public Information Notices online. The pilot authorities are City of Edinburgh, Fife, Glasgow City, Inverclyde and South Lanarkshire. The project also includes a review of current legislation relating to statutory notice requirements which should be completed by February 2009. Public Information Notices frequently have a statutory basis and the law of these could not be changed without parliamentary procedure. There will be consultation on the proposals and regulations will be drawn up which, if made, form the legal basis to allow certain notices to be published electronically. These regulations have to be laid in Parliament and will be subject to parliamentary procedure including scrutiny by parliamentary committees.

The current funding provided to the Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme run by Community Service Volunteers (CSV) is a project grant offered for three years and due to come to a natural conclusion in March 2009.

We are working with CSV to alert Scottish local authorities and community planning partnerships to the opportunities offered by RSVP and to identify where they could contribute to local outcomes.

We are committed to ensuring that volunteering, for all age groups, across Scotland is supported including through our support for the national volunteer centre network.

Through our Government Economic Strategy, we have set a number of strategic targets to focus activity on delivering our overarching Purpose of increasing sustainable economic growth. These include a specific target to increase healthy life expectancy in Scotland. We have put in place a framework which includes measures such as mental wellbeing and poverty levels to track progress toward that target and to ensure that policies are aligned to provide more Scots with the opportunity to maximise their potential.

The improvements to seals legislation that were included in the recent Scottish Government consultation on proposals for a Scottish Marine Bill were developed with the participation of the Sustainable Seas Task Force and the Scottish Seals Forum. The Scottish Seals Forum includes representatives of organisations with expertise on animal welfare issues.

The Scottish Government receives advice from the Special Committee on Seals on estimates of the common seal population and also holds information on the number of seals killed under licences issued for control of seals under the Conservation of Seals Act. The Scottish Government has been seeking to improve the quality of information on the number of seals killed in Scotland and recently initiated a data collection exercise in collaboration with key partners of the Scottish Seals Forum.

The Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals have not rejected any written representations made in respect of the proposed Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route. The eeporters, who have been appointed by Scottish ministers, will only consider written representations that fall within the remit of the public local inquiry and the terms of their appointment in their report and recommendations to Scottish ministers.

Scottish Natural Heritage identified 148,000 hectares of ancient woodlands in Scotland, in their Scottish Ancient Woodlands Inventory, published in 1987. Of these woodlands, 60% were still semi-natural woods and 40% were composed of plantations that had replaced the original, more natural woods.

Currently, all ancient and other native woodlands in Scotland are being surveyed under the Native Woodlands Survey of Scotland. This major project, led by Forestry Commission Scotland, will be completed in 2013. We will then, for the first time, have a comprehensive picture of the extent and current ecological condition of our ancient and native woods.

The Scottish Government recognises that ancient woodlands include many of the most valuable woodlands for biodiversity, and that they are also important in terms of cultural heritage. About 25% of ancient woods are currently protected within sites designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest for their woodland habitat features.

Improving the condition of designated woodland features and increasing the area of ancient and native woods that are being managed to restore biodiversity are priorities under the Scottish Government''s Forestry Strategy.