Chamber and committees

I understand that the Departmentfor Education and Skills has accepted the recommendation from the Citizen InformationProject to consider whether there is scope for a child population register and iscurrently considering the position. No decision has yet been taken to establishsuch a register.

We have no plans for a children’sindex as has been legislated for in England under the Children Act 2004. Rather than hosting a single,central database with basic information on all children, our approach is that informationis shared between authenticated practitioners on a need to know basis, via the eCareFramework.

I am aware of one response tothe consultation on the possession of extreme pornography which was blocked by theExecutive’s IT system. Officials have been in contact with the respondent and theirresponse has now been received and will be included in the consultation analysis.

The current process for filtering,blocking and release of e-mails is necessary to ensure that the amount of inappropriatee-mail being received by the Scottish Executive can be kept to a manageable level.However, for future consultations on subjects of a sexual nature, we will consideron a case-by-case basis whether the filter should be disapplied.

I refer to the member to the answer to question S2W-24154 on 23 March 2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

All public transportation vehiclesare classed as no-smoking premises under the new law. A “public transportation vehicle”under the law means any vehicle available to the public as a means of transportationand specifically includes a taxi and a private hire car. Therefore, from 26 March 2006 smokingwill not be permitted at any time in a taxi. The law will apply regardless of whetheror not there are passengers in the taxi.

The aim of the three yearchild protection reform programme, now in its final year, is that children andyoung people get the help they need when they need it. It is for local agenciesto identify the specific services required to meet the needs of children intheir area and, through mechanisms such as integrated children’s servicesplanning, ensure these are secured and delivered.

Funding is also available toagencies and the voluntary sector through the Changing Children’s ServicesFund, the Children, Young People and Families Unified Voluntary Sector Fund andthe Survivors Fund to provide services required locally.

In addition, in September2005 the National Strategy for Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse wasannounced. The aim of this work is to effect a step change in servicesresponses to survivors in Scotland.

This information is not held centrally.

A number of funding streamsare available to agencies and voluntary sector organisations to support thedevelopment and delivery of local services.

One of the priorities of theChildren, Young People and Families Unified Voluntary Sector Fund is to protectchildren through effective early intervention with children and families and/orsupport when they need protection. The Unified Fund has been in existence since2004-05. The fund total for 2004-05 was £6.5 million and £7.2 million for 2005-06.

In addition one of thepriorities for the Changing Children’s Services Fund is to support packages forvulnerable children and young. Over the last three years the following havebeen spent specifically on child protection activities; 2002-03 £1,420,426 froma total fund of £27 million, 2003-04 £1,537,557 from a total fund of £41.5million, and 2004-05 £5,389,793 from a total fund of £60.5 million.

The Scottish Executive publishedits Race Equality Scheme on 30 November 2005 and details of all the race equality impact assessments that are plannedor underway are available from the scheme’s impact assessment database on the ScottishExecutive’s website:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Equality/18934/RList.Last month the full race equalityimpact assessment that was undertaken for the refresh of the Scottish Executive’sSmart Successful Scotland Strategy was published on the Scottish Executive’swebsite http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/917/0022572.pdf.

In the event of an outbreak ofavian flu in Scotland we would cull birds on infected premises with a viewto eradicating disease quickly. If further measures to control and eradicate diseasein Scotland were needed we would consider the role vaccination couldplay. Its use is not straightforward given that the vaccination does not providecomplete immunity against infection and can make detection of infection more difficult.Additionally, vaccinated birds may continue to excrete virus which has implicationsfor the control of an outbreak.

Any decision will be based onveterinary and scientific advice and will take into account all relevant evidencerelating to any proposed vaccination programme.

As part of our preparedness workthe Executive is working closely with other administrations to explore vaccination’spotential as a more developed disease control tool.