Chamber and committees

School league tables are not published in Scotland. School examination performance results for the 2000 post-appeal and 2001 pre-appeal diets will be published together this November.

I understand that the distribution of Your World: Biotechnology & You on a pilot basis was arranged by Scottish Enterprise after discussion with Learning and Teaching Scotland (the umbrella organisation for the Higher Still Development Unit) and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education. Discussions are under way to determine whether the continued distribution would be useful to Scottish Students.The Biotechnology Institute, the American organisation which publishes Your World, is currently funded by contributions from foundations and non-profit making organisations, corporate grants and teacher subscriptions. In general no donor contributes more than 5% of the total funding of the institute. I understand the financial contributors to the institute do not have a role in reviewing, editing or approving the Your World issues.

The Action Plan for Dental Services in Scotland, published last August, highlighted the range of preventative programmes in development and the need for health boards to monitor and expand toothbrushing schemes in nurseries. Given recent findings of research in Dundee, the Executive is reviewing how it can support the development of toothbrushing in nursery and primary schools as part of the on-going activities to improve oral health in Scotland.

The Parliament's Procurement Office is developing an environmental procurement policy which aims to minimise the adverse impacts on the environment through effective environmental purchasing. The Facilities Management Office is currently developing an environmental Intranet page 'Help Manage Your Environment' which aims to raise staff awareness of the three R's: reduce, re-use and recycle.No sole member of staff at present has specific responsibility for promoting environmental sustainability. Nevertheless, an environmental working group made up of staff from across the Parliament group considers environmental issues relevant to the parliament and ways in which to raise staff awareness and promote sustainability.

Fly ash from incinerators is classified as special waste under the Special Waste Regulations 1996 and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) must be notified prior to all movements of the waste. The transportation and disposal of special waste is carried out under strict conditions and documented in consignment notes. The Executive has no plans to direct SEPA to undertake any separate investigation into how special waste from incinerators is used.

Bottom ash from incinerators is relatively inert and, therefore, capable of being recycled provided this is carried out in accordance with a Waste Management Licence issued by SEPA. The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has commissioned a risk assessment covering the implications for health and the environment from using bottom ash from incinerators in road construction, and I await the outcome of that study with interest.

This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The Scottish Executive does not hold this information centrally.

This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The Scottish Executive does not hold this information centrally.

The figure quoted in Roots for Growth was calculated using data from the Annual Employment Survey in Scotland. In addition, some allowance was made for those who were self employed, those who worked in related activities in the construction and service industries and those people working in northern England whose economic activity was directly linked with the Scottish forest industry resource.

The principal reason for the difference in the numbers is the narrower definition of the forest industry used in the Forest Employment Survey. This survey only takes into account forestry and primary wood processing jobs which are located in Scotland and which deal with British grown timber. Moreover, its estimate relates to full-time equivalent jobs, whilst the figure quoted in Roots for Growth relates to people in employment.

The Forest Employment Survey, carried out by the Forestry Commission, collects information on employment in forestry and primary wood processing industries. It has shown a decline from 15,245 full-time equivalent jobs in 1988-89 to 10,694 in 1998-99. However, both the scope of the survey and the methodology of data collection have changed, thereby making strict comparisons difficult. No information is collected on whether forest employment was in urban or rural areas.

Woodland area and timber production have both increased between 1989 and 1999. Woodland area increased from 1.107 to 1.297 million hectares and annual timber production increased from 2.37 to 4.69 million cubic metres. More information is available in the publication Forestry Statistics available from the Forestry Commission website at:

www.forestry.gov.uk/statistics.

Control of radioactive discharges from Sellafield is a matter for the Environment Agency and the UK Government.