Chamber and committees

No. Both hospitals have Cardiology Departments, and I understand from NHS Lothian that there are no plans at this stage to change their configuration. Cardiac surgery is carried out only at the Royal Infirmary.

The specification for the Executive's Central Heating Programme does not prevent the council from specifying condensing boilers in improvement works, providing they come within the £2,500 grant.

This is a matter which has been taken forward by the Trust and which I understand has now been resolved successfully.

Education authorities are responsible for providing school meals and have local arrangements for monitoring their quality.

The Executive included considerable detail on safety in the performance specification for gas central heating. The specification states that all gas central heating systems must be installed in accordance with all relevant Health and Safety legislation. It also states that landlords are wholly responsible for ensuring that Health and Safety legislation and regulations are complied with. Further advice is given on the need for landlords to ensure that all subcontractors, agents, operatives and other representatives adhere strictly to health and safety regulation and that all personnel involved in the scheme are suitably qualified. Local authorities and housing associations are required to install carbon monoxide detectors (except where the heating system is electric) fire detectors and cold alarms as a condition of receiving grant under the Central Heating Programme. Eaga must install these alarms in the private sector.

It need not have this effect. The industry standard is the Seasonal Efficiency of Domestic Boilers in the UK database which categorises central heating systems by bands. Band D contains high efficiency non-condensing boilers with modulating burners which operate at efficiencies equal to some condensing boilers. The similar performance of some condensing and non-condensing boilers was influential in deciding to specify a minimum annual seasonal efficiency of 78% for gas fired boilers in the performance specifications for the central heating programme.

It is for Glasgow City Council to answer questions about its central heating policy. The specification for the Executive's Central Heating Programme does not prevent the council from continuing to specify condensing boilers in future improvement works, providing they come within the £2,500 grant or the council pays the balance itself.

The guidance on the Central Heating Programme includes performance specifications for gas, oil and coal-fired wet central heating and electric storage heating systems. The specifications demand that all relevant legislation, regulatory requirements and manufacturers' instructions are met. The specifications also set out design principles and methods of installation that are fully in accordance with recognised good practice standards. The technical standards put in place by Glasgow City Council must at least match these requirements.

The Central Heating Programme provides that local authorities will receive grant of up to £2,500 per dwelling to install the heating and insulation package. Glasgow City Council have not advised us that they will have to add £700 of their own money to meet the cost in every case. They are free to do so if they wish. Eaga, the Managing Agent for the private sector, can install the heating and insulation package at an average cost of £2,500 per dwelling across all sectors of the stock.

The provision of the school meals service is a matter for the local authorities, and the Scottish Executive has no role in monitoring the qualifications of those involved in catering for that service. The Model Nutritional Guidelines for Catering Specifications for the Public Sector in Scotland issued in 1996 as part of the Scottish Diet Action Plan contain a number of general principles concerning the qualifications of staff. Amongst these is the suggestion that dieticians should be part of the formal advisory structure in both the preparation and monitoring of specifications; that menus should be analysed by a dietician or nutritionist, and that training of all levels of staff should be delivered by suitably qualified staff such as dieticians.

I announced how the programme was to be extended on 21 September.