Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-19708.

Allocations to individual colleges, for the current and future financial years, will be made by the Scottish Further Education Funding Council.The additional resources are intended to cover the cost of waiving course fees, providing essential books and assisting asylum seekers with the costs of travelling to college.

Hardship funds, formerly known as access funds, are an integral part of the new support arrangements for further and higher education students. These funds are administered by individual colleges and universities under guidance provided by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland.

The advertisement for the chair and lay members of the Judicial Appointments Board was placed in The Scotsman, The Herald and on the Scottish Executive website.The Scottish Executive is committed to ensuring that the membership of public bodies reflects all of Scottish society. The Executive has the following targets for appointing more people from under represented sections of society to public office:- to increase by 2002 the proportion of women appointees from the 1998 level of 47% to 50%- to increase by 2002 the proportion of bodies chaired by women from the 1998 level of 22% to 35%- to increase by 2002 the proportion of appointments held by people from an ethnic minority background from the 1998 level of 0.4% to 1.3%.The current targets were inherited from the Scottish Office ministers.

This is in the first instance an issue for the Law Society of Scotland. I understand that the society has written to the local faculties and associations to highlight the particular issues involved in asylum cases, has recently held a conference for practitioners on this subject and is planning a further training event for early 2002. However, the Executive has agreed to fund a pilot project under Part V of the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986 in which the Scottish Legal Aid Board will employ two suitably qualified solicitors to handle asylum casework in the Castlemilk and Sighthill areas of Glasgow and to develop local expertise in the relevant issues.

The consultation period on the Review of Strategic Planning closed on 31 October. We have received over 250 responses and an independent consultant has been appointed to analyse these responses. He will report at the end of January next year and his report will be published. A seminar will be held in January to provide initial feedback to consultees. I intend to announce conclusions in the spring.The timetable for any changes to the arrangements for strategic planning will depend on the conclusions reached and, in particular, on whether primary or secondary legislation is required to implement the outcome of the review.

The police have reported a number of incidents across Scotland linked to the 11 September atrocities. But it is too early to say whether there is an increasing trend in racist incidents. I have made absolutely clear that racist attacks have no place in today's Scotland and will not be tolerated.

Through Historic Scotland, the Scottish Executive is currently consulting on the proposal to abolish the Historic Buildings Council of Scotland as part of the Review of Public Bodies and also on the proposal that, if the council were abolished, expert advice would continue to be sought from external sources, but in a more focussed, more inclusive and less institutional way.

Through Historic Scotland, the Scottish Executive is currently consulting on the proposal to abolish the Historic Buildings Council of Scotland as part of the Review of Public Bodies. Historic Scotland is the part of the Scottish Executive which supports Scottish ministers in carrying out their statutory responsibilities for the protection and presentation of Scotland's built heritage. Historic Scotland is directly accountable to Scottish ministers and the checks and balances applied are the same as with any other equivalent Executive agency.

Consultation on individual Public Transport Fund Bids is a matter for the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority (SPTA) as the promoting authority for this project.I understand that to date SPTA has consulted with industry partners, the statutory rail bodies, local authority officers, emergency services and rail user groups in the area. In addition a presentation of the full outline of the proposals was held for these organisations plus Glasgow City Council Planning officials on 3 September 2001.