Chamber and committees

The detailed delivery of the curriculum is a matter for local authorities. This covers both teaching in and about Scots. The Scottish Executive’s National Guidelines on English Language 5-14, advises schools to “encourage discussion and develop perceptions of Scottish languages, and how they relate to the lives and experiences of Scottish people”.  This guidance also comments on the status of Scots in schools by suggesting that Scottish writing and writing about Scotland should permeate the curriculum and be introduced from an early stage, taking its place beside English literature. The guidelines note that the language children bring to school is often distinctive and schools should “enable pupils to be confident and creative in this language”. Scottish ministers welcome the use of Itchy-Coo materials and personnel in schools but recognise that the selection of these and other Scots materials is a matter for schools and education authorities.

The Scottish Executive does not hold information on the number of schools using the Itchy-Coo Scots language materials or project.

Scottish Water have been requested to build a secondary treatment works at Lerwick in compliance with Directive 91/271/EEC. Plans are being finalised and the plant is due for completion in 2006 with final commissioning due in June/July 2006.

The costs of service provision to rural areas are takeninto account within the local government settlement as a whole. In addition to severalindicators distributing money to rural authorities within the settlement, islandand rural authorities also receive a Special Islands Needs Allowance. However, transportation costs and the higher price of ingredientsare not specifically taken into account when calculating the allocation of fundsto local authorities for the provision of school meals.

At present the Scottish Executivedoes not centrally collect data on the average price of ingredients used in Scottishschool meals.

Discussions have taken place with the Department ofEnvironment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) officials in the past year with regard to designations of waters under theUrban Waste Water Treatment (91/271/EEC) and the Shellfish Waters(79/923/EEC) Directives. No changes todesignations under 91/271/EEC are planned. A consultation on our proposals for furtherScotland-wide designations under the Shellfish WatersDirective closed in January this year,and I will be announcing the outcomes of that process in the near future.

There are no official estimatesof future losses of agricultural land.  Available statistics on national net lossesof agricultural land, by category of land use outwith agriculture, are publishedannually in Table C13 of the Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture, availableon the Scottish Executive website http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/agri/ersa04-00.asp.

Available statistics on nationalnet losses of agricultural land, by category of land use outwith agriculture, arepublished annually in table C13 of the Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture,available on the Scottish Executive website: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/agri/ersa04-00.asp.

No regional estimates are available.

There are no official estimatesof future losses of agricultural land.  Available statistics on national net lossesof agricultural land, by category of land use outwith agriculture, are publishedannually in Table C13 of the Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture, availableon the Scottish Executive website http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/agri/ersa04-00.asp.

Available statistics on nationalnet losses of agricultural land, by category of land use outwith agriculture, arepublished annually in table C13 of the Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture,available on the Scottish Executive website http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/agri/ersa04-00.asp.

No regional estimates are available.

Available national and regionalstatistics on agricultural land and the agricultural workforce are published annuallyin the Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture and the Scottish Agricultural CensusSummary Sheets by Geographic Area. These are available on the Scottish Executivewebsite: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/agri/ersa04-00.aspand http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/15631/9620.

Noestimates of future land use or agricultural employment are available.

Totalpopulation data for Scotland can be obtained from the General Register Office forScotland. Results from the 2001 Census are available at: http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files/01poprep.pdf.

Populationprojections for Scotland are published on the General Register Office for Scotland website:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/library/popproj/03population-projections.html.