Chamber and committees

The number of planning applications referred to the Scottish ministers since 1 May 1999 totals 830. A breakdown by monthly receipt is given in the following table:Cases Notified to the Scottish Ministers since May 1999:

	1999	2000	2001	2002
January	-	15	19	12
February	-	34	28	25
March	-	25	27	-
April	-	31	32	-
May	8	34	25	-
June	22	35	25	-
July	26	40	18	-
August	25	22	19	-
September	25	24	17	-
October	29	22	23	-
November	16	20	19	-
December	25	31	32	-
Total	176	333	284	37

Planning applications, notified to the Scottish ministers, are recorded by planning authority area. Since 1 May 1999, 830 have been referred, but it is not possible to accurately identify these by parliamentary constituency. This is because the information on the planning application form is not always sufficiently precise to do so.

It is for chief constables to determine how best to adhere to the Lord Advocate's guidance. Whilst the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland continues to provide forces with comprehensive guidance on all national policing issues concerning racial diversity. The Commission for Racial Equality in Scotland are also aiming to publish, for consultation, their draft Statutory Code of Practice and associated guidance for devolved public bodies in Scotland, including police forces, in early May. The code will provide practical guidance to bodies on how to fulfil both their general and specific duties and will be supported by examples of best practice.

The information requested is not held centrally.

Funding for the police, which is currently at record levels, is allocated in total to each force. It is for police authorities, in consultation with chief constables, to set budgets for individual forces. Once a budget has been agreed, the use of that budget to meet the operational needs of each force is a matter for individual chief constables.

The Scottish Legal Aid Board, at present, does not hold information on the ethnicity of applicants. Applications for advice and assistance are monitored by gender only and this is reported in the board's annual report.As a public body, under the recently laid Race Relations Act 1976 (Statutory Duties) (Scotland) Order 2002, the board will be required to publish a race equality scheme setting out how they intend to fulfil their duties under the order. All bodies have until 30 November 2002 to comply with the order.

Since autumn 2001, both the thresholds for parent and spouse contributions and the amounts available for support for students over 18 have been the same regardless of whether the student is on a further or higher education course. We are considering whether there are additional changes which should be made to the support arrangements in order to achieve further alignment.

Institutions already have a significant degree of flexibility in the use of Hardship Funds. Institutions themselves decide how to disburse the Hardship Funds to individual students within guidelines laid down by the Scottish Executive. For example, institutions are allowed to offer short-term repayable cash advances; to use up to 10% of their total Higher Education (HE) allocation to provide scholarships or bursaries and to provide payments of up to £3,500 per year to individual students without recourse to the Executive. Each institution is also free to determine its own "means-test" and the frequency of instalments. Institutions have also now been advised that they may vire up to 20% of their Mature Students' Bursary Fund (MSBF) allocation to their HE Hardship Funds, provided that this is consistent with the objective of targeting support on assisting mature students with childcare costs. This will enable institutions to adjust the distribution of their funding allocations based on their actual student population in the current academic year, as MSBF is phased in.

Good progress has been made. Over 1,400 central heating systems have now been installed and Eaga hope to install 3,500 heating systems by March 2002.

The final response to the questionnaire was received in mid-February and the results are being analysed. I expect to report on the results in the next few weeks.