Chamber and committees

I have arranged for a copy of the summary report on the study (Scottish Enterprise - M74 Northern Extension, Economic Impact Assessment, Report Summary) to be lodged in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe).

The Scottish Executive has no plans to do so.

The following table sets out the total number of complaints received by the Housing Association Ombudsman for Scotland in 1998-99 and how these were dealt with:-

Total Complaints Received	117
Outside Ombudsman's remit	17
Withdrawn by complainant	19
Referred back to housing association's complaints procedure	12
Investigated and not upheld	25
Investigated and upheld	31
Ongoing investigation (as at 31 March 1999)	13

Since 1 April 1999 the Ombudsman has received two complaints about Grampian Housing Association. Both of these complaints have been referred back to the association's complaints procedure.

No. Registered housing associations are subject to monitoring and regulation by Scottish Homes. The regulatory framework includes a requirement to comply with a detailed set of Performance Standards which cover a range of important issues including governance, accountability, probity and propriety. Scottish Homes ensures compliance with the Performance Standards by carrying out regular and rigorous audits.

A videotape in cellophane wrapping was presented to me on 18 November. When played, nothing was discovered to be contained on the tape.

I understand that a contribution of nearly £100,000 to a Community Fund was the subject of a private arrangement between J W Soils Ltd and the Community Council. It formed no part of the planning considerations and will, therefore, be a matter for the Community Council to pursue with any alternative developer.

The report of the Public Local Inquiry held in June/July 1998 fully addressed all of the environmental protection issues associated with the extraction of coal by the open cast method. As with all PLI reports, copies are provided to those parties who attended the inquiry. The Planning Exchange in Glasgow also receive a copy which can be accessed by others who have an interest. Subsequent use of the site for landfill purposes did not form part of this planning application.

When I announced the conclusions of the Strategic Roads Review on 4 November, I indicated that the City of Glasgow and South Lanarkshire Councils should take forward consideration of the M74 Northern Extension, involving neighbouring authorities and other bodies with an interest in the scheme. I emphasised that the road would have to be consistent with and justified on the basis of the contribution it could make to the local transport strategies of these authorities. I also said that I would be urging the councils to carry out a multi modal study of the route. This would allow the economic and environmental impacts and the costs of alternative transport solutions to be considered.

No such estimates have been or will be made by the Scottish Executive.

The bid document for all Objective 2 coverage in the UK was that published by DTI, the Scotland Office and other UK Government Departments on 8 October (URN99/1021). On that day I made available to this Parliament the proposals for Scotland, which were based on recommendations from this Executive, including our proposed ward list for Scotland.

Since then I announced on 2 December some minor modifications to our original proposals in order to better reflect the criteria in the EU Regulation. These documents are available in SPICE.There is no rank ordering of all wards in Scotland that meet EU criteria for Objective 2 funding, since the proposals represent a balance between deserving areas in Scotland based on the industrial, rural, urban and fisheries criteria set out in the EU Regulation. In preparing our recommendations we based our proposals on data available from Eurostat, the Office for National Statistics, the General Register Office for Scotland, the Scottish Area Deprivation Index and other relevant material.