Chamber and committees

The Commission on the Private Rented Sector was set up by Shelter and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation as an independent body to look at issues in respect of the private rented sector. The commission's remit did not extend to Scotland and the Scottish Executive did not provide any evidence to it. However, the Housing Improvement Task Force is currently looking at some of the issues that the commission has made recommendations on and the commissions report has been made available to the members of the task force sub-group working on the private rented sector.

Draft guidance dealing with the right to buy changes contained in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 - including the provisions pertaining to pressured areas - was issued for consultation in December 2001. Twenty-six responses from interested bodies were received by the end of the consultation period in March. These have been considered and we hope to issue the final guidance in July.

I have asked Mr Bob Millar, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:Consistent with the priority to be given to the provision of affordable rented housing, planned expenditure by Communities Scotland in 2002-03 on new and improved housing will increase year on year by £4.231 million to £183.575 million in 2002-03.

Further education students must meet the residency criteria set out in the Further Education Bursaries (Scotland) Direction 1997 before further education colleges can consider them for course support. This support consists of maintenance and travel and study allowances along with the further education additional funds i.e. young students retention fund, hardship funds and childcare. All funding is allocated on a discretionary basis and is means tested. The student can undertake any course which is eligible for recurrent funding from the Scottish Further Education Funding Council and is for non-advanced education leading to a qualification.In terms of funding support to colleges, changes introduced by the Scottish Executive last autumn further strengthened ministerial commitment to provision of English language classes for new members of the community from overseas.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The Executive has awarded one-off funding of £1 million to the Kelvingrove Refurbishment Appeal Trust and £2 million towards Glasgow's Museums and Galleries Service. This funding has not been taken from the Strategic Change Fund.Applications have now been invited by Scottish Museums Council for the £1.5 million Strategic Change Fund, with decisions on the first round of funding to be announced in October.

The national waiting time standards for NHSScotland are set out in Our National Health which was published in December 2000. It includes a commitment to reduce the national maximum waiting time for in-patient/day case treatment to nine months, from the current 12 months by 2003, as well as a number of specific waiting times standards for coronary heart disease and cancer. The National Waiting Times Unit is currently undertaking a programme of visits to all mainland NHS boards and trusts for discussions with senior management about their plans for ensuring delivery of national waiting times standards, and on the development of local standards which will tackle the longest waits for out-patient appointments and diagnostic tests.

The schools cultural co-ordinators pilot programme will seek to maximise the contribution to children and young people's education of the full range of arts and cultural activities. The pilot programme will allow the local authorities participating to determine the ways in which this is done, reflecting local circumstance. Contemporary music has a special ability to engage and enthuse the young and I expect it to play an important part in the pilot activities.

Improving Quality in Private Housing set out the views of the Housing Improvement Task Force on the main strengths and weaknesses in the way private houses are maintained and repaired as well as the house buying and selling process. It makes no recommendations for action at this stage and is intended to provide the basis for stage two of the task force's work which will look at future policy options including what, if any, changes should be made to the housing improvement and repair grant system and other possible ways of supporting and encouraging owners to maintain their homes.

The task force has been asked to complete its work and make its final report and recommendations early in 2003.