Chamber and committees

The available information isgiven in the following table.

Persons Aged Under 18 inGrampian Police Force Area with a Charge Proved in Court for Carrying Knives orPossessing an Offensive Weapon¹, 2001-02 to 2005-06

Year	Having in a Public Place an Article with a Blade or Point	Possession of an Offensive Weapon	Total
2001-02	7	9	16
2002-03	5	7	12
2003-04	11	6	17
2004-05	6	8	14
2005-06	11	5	16

Note: 1.Where main offence.

The total amount of hardshiprelief for which local authorities budgeted in 2005-06, as reported in auditedreturns they made to the Scottish Executive, was £192,092.

£2.2 million per annum overthe period 2005-06 to 2007-08 is made available to Grampian Health Board toprovide drug treatment and care services. It is the responsibility of alcoholand drug action teams to decide what services are required at a local level,according to local needs and priorities.

There are no definedtreatment programmes for crack cocaine or substitute drugs that can beprescribed and therefore treatment is motivational and counselling based. Alldrug services in Grampian will provide support to individuals reporting use ofcrack cocaine. Further information on services in Grampian area is set out inthe local alcohol and drug action teams annual corporate action plan which isavailable online at http://www.drugmisuse.isdscotland.org.

£23.7 million per annum overthe period 2005-06 to 2007-08 is made available to health boards to providedrug treatment and care services. Planning of drug treatment services is doneat a local level rather than a national level. It is the responsibility oflocal alcohol and drug action teams to decide what services are required,according to local needs and priorities.

There are no definedtreatment programmes for crack cocaine or substitute drugs that can beprescribed and therefore treatment is motivational and counselling based. Wehave set up a Scottish Advisory Committee on Drug Misuse short-life projectgroup to look at psychostimulants, including crack cocaine, to consider howaccess, quality and the range of services available to psychostimulant userscould be improved.

The Scottish Executive launchedan air weapon publicity campaign on 23 March 2005, including a leaflet explainingthe dangers of air weapons in the wrong hands and encouraging people to hand themin to the police if they were no longer required. This will be updated to take intoaccount the further measures to strengthen the law on air weapons within the ViolentCrime Reduction Act 2006, which will come into effect later this year.

I have worked closely with UK ministersto strengthen the law, including the introduction of a new offence of possessingan air weapon in a public place without reasonable cause and banning the importand sale of certain weapons.

Next year the Violent Crime ReductionAct will increase the age for owning an air weapon to 18 years; purchase will berestricted to outlets run by Registered Firearms Dealers only, and a new offenceof indiscriminate and reckless firing of an airgun from private premises will becreated.

The Strategic Funding Review,established jointly by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, the Conventionof Scottish Local Authorities and the Scottish Executive, accepted, in February2003, the general principle that the funding of the voluntary sector should normallybe awarded on a three year funding basis. However, it is for each local authorityto determine local arrangements.

I have asked Dr. PaulStollard, Chief Executive of the Scottish Building Standards Agency (SBSA), toanswer. His response is as follows:In analysing the recentpublic consultation on proposed revisions to the energy standards, it was foundthat there was significant support for the proposals to introduce condensingboilers into the guidance that supports the functional standard for heatingsystems in Scottish building regulations. A final decision on this subject hasstill to be taken. The analysis of the consultation can be found at www.sbsa.gov.uk.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-28197 on 20 September 2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Section 15 of the Land Reform(Scotland) Act 2003 gives a power to local authorities and national park authoritiesto install and maintain means of contributing to the comfort and convenience ofthose exercising access rights, and in exercising this power they are required tohave regard to the needs of people with disabilities.

Scottish Natural Heritage hasrecently published a report on research aimedat finding out the special requirements that deaf people have when visiting thecountryside. The report includes a number of recommendations that could be takenforward relatively easily and quickly by all bodies responsible for the provisionof access, when running an event, providing facilities and having a centre or sitethat is open to the public.