Chamber and committees

We are investing in public transport, travel information, cycling and walking infrastructure and Smart Measures:

improving rail services and service times between our major cities including faster and additional services from Edinburgh to Glasgow;

supporting improved accessibility and lower fares to encourage increased bus use and service provision through the Bus Service Operators Grant;

funding Transport Direct and Traveline Scotland to develop travel information systems;

funding Sustrans to provide cycling and walking infrastructure across Scotland and Cycling Scotland to take forward the Cycle Friendly Employer Scheme;

funding local authorities through the Cycling, Walking and Safer Streets grant fund;

funding for School Travel Co-ordinator posts has been rolled-up into the block grant for local authorities to use to meet their local priorities and needs, and

focusing significant effort on travel planning in the public and private sector.

Following agreement with Cycling Scotland, funding beyond 2008-09 will be on a project basis with a core element used for running costs.

Cycling Scotland (CS) will undertake a best value review over the summer to assess its impact to date on promoting cycling and active travel and to ascertain the level of demand for its services. The review will also include an assessment of the landscape that CS operates within in relation to other delivery bodies such as Scottish local authorities, regional transport partnerships, Sustrans, the Paths for All Partnership and Living Streets.

The Scottish Government welcomes this approach and will consider the findings in due course.

In 2008-09, an estimated 1% of the Scottish Executive''s transport budget as published in the Budget Bill 2008-09, will be spent on cycling projects. However, it is difficult to measure this figure exactly as cycling infrastructure forms an integral part of many road improvements which is not separately costed. Also, funding for the general refurbishment of 25x class 158 trains based at Inverness has been made available and will include cycle storage for on board carriage.

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

Full details of the proposed prison development programme and sources of funding are available in the Scottish Government''s Infrastructure Investment Plan 2008.

Work is underway to prepare for the commencement of the procurement process for HM Prison Grampian, to replace HM Prison Aberdeen and HM Prison Peterhead, which will require planning permission and possibly the acquisition of a suitable site.

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

Full details of the proposed prison development programme and sources of funding are available in the Scottish Government''s Infrastructure Investment Plan 2008.

Work is underway to prepare for the commencement of the procurement process for HM Prison Grampian, to replace HM Prison Aberdeen and HM Prison Peterhead, which will require planning permission and possibly the acquisition of a suitable site. The site for HM Prison Grampian will be in the Peterhead area.

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

Options for the development of a new prison to serve north east Scotland are under consideration. The Scottish Government has announced that this prison will be built in the Peterhead area and there are no plans for prison facilities within the city of Aberdeen.

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

HM Prison Grampian, which will replace HM Prison Aberdeen and HM Prison Peterhead, will be located in the Peterhead area. Planning permission will be sought following identification of a site for this development and public consultation will be carried out as required by the planning process in due course.

Although the school-based immunisation programme for tuberculosis (TB) was discontinued in 2005 a targeted risk-based vaccination programme for TB does still operate in Scotland. This change was introduced on the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation in response to the changing nature of the epidemiology of TB in the UK.

The targeted vaccination programme operating offering vaccination to those at the highest risk of tuberculosis (TB) was instituted on the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation in response to the changing nature of the epidemiology of TB in the UK. In Scotland the delivery of this programme has relied on individual NHS boards developing a mechanism for the best local delivery of their vaccination programme based on the existing vaccination infrastructure and the target population. In Glasgow for example the NHS board have opted for a system in which children born to mothers/families at higher risk of TB are offered BCG vaccination at, or shortly after, birth while they are still an in-patient in maternity units. Additionally they use the routine contacts made with children, for example at screening assessments or routine immunisations or once at school at the child''s contact with the school medical and nursing service, to continue the task of offering and administering BCG vaccine.