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I have asked Ms Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

The Housing (Scotland) Act1987 establishes statutory requirements in relation to the allocation of housesby Registered Social Landlords. Landlords are required to give reasonable preferencein allocations to the statutory categories of priority need.

There is a range of acceptableapproaches that landlords can take in order to achieve this; a points based systemfor housing applications is one of these. A landlord is free to adopt its preferredsystem as long as it can demonstrate that it is complying with the requirementsof the legislation and the performance standards published jointly by CommunitiesScotland, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the Scottish Federationof Housing Associations.

Negotiations are taking placeacross Scotland between NHS boards and GPs on the provision and fundingof enhanced services (including services for drug misusers) under the new GeneralMedical Services contract. We are monitoring the position, but we do not believethat it would be appropriate to intervene in local negotiations at this point.

Our understanding is that agreementhas been reached between health authorities and GPs in Glasgow for aone year period, and that a review will be undertaken during that period of howservices for drug misusers will operate beyond then. Transitional arrangements arebeing put in place in Lothian to cater for patients from GP practices which havedecided to opt out of providing services for drug misusers.

The new contract incorporatesa Patient Service Guarantee, which will ensure that patients will receive at leastthe range of services they currently receive, although these may not necessarilybe delivered in the same way. The new contract is being supported by an unprecedented33% increase in investment in primary care services, which will see spending ongeneral medical services rise to £575 million in 2005-06. The Executive has alsoinvested an additional £34 million over the three years 2001-02 to 2003-04 in improvingdrug treatment and rehabilitation services.

The table shows the number and percentage of all GP Practices, by NHS bard, that prescribed methadone (all formulations) in December 2003.

Number and Percentage of GP Practices Prescribing Methadone

NHS Board	December 2003
	Methadone	Total	%
Argyll and Clyde	62	102	60.78
Ayrshire and Arran	8	62	12.90
Borders	10	24	41.67
Dumfries and Galloway	16	37	43.24
Fife	51	63	80.95
Forth Valley	22	63	34.92
Grampian	61	88	69.32
Greater Glasgow	166	221	75.11
Highland	29	75	38.67
Lanarkshire	92	110	83.64
Lothian	116	141	82.27
Orkney	0	15	0.00
Shetland	2	10	20.00
Tayside	57	72	79.17
Western Isles	0	14	0.00
All NHS Boards	692	1097	63.08

 

The table does not present the full picture of methadone prescribing services across Scotland, since specialist drug services also prescribe methadone, both in community and residential settings.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

In 2003-04, the planned investment for rural affordable housing by local authority was broken down as follows:

	£ Million
Aberdeenshire	7.622
Angus	2.177
Argyll and Bute	4.138
Dumfries and Galloway	5.215
East Ayrshire	1.339
Fife	3.094
Highland	10.678
Moray	1.639
North Ayrshire	0.025
Orkney	1.746
Perth and Kinross	3.589
Shetland	0.900
South Ayrshire	3.933
South Lanarkshire	3.723
Stirling	2.238
The Scottish Borders	3.266
Western Isles	2.199

Note:

Planned expenditure figures are used in this table as year-end expenditure reconciliation is ongoing. Figures exclude social and environmental grants provided in rural areas.

Through the Land Reform (Scotland) Act2003 the Executive has promoted sustainable development throughout rural Scotland, diversityin land ownership and the involvement of local communities in decisions that affecttheir futures. The proposals in the act were informed by studies of current practicesin relation to land ownership in a number of European member states, and by responsesto consultation from outwith Scotland.

The Executive will continue tomonitor practices in other countries when developing its future land reform policies.It does not routinely collect information on European practice in relation to morespecific and detailed aspects of buying and renting land and property.

Officials are working with patientgroup representatives to ensure that the applications forms are user friendly andfit for purpose. Comprehensive guidance will be provided with the application formand the Skipton Fund will operate a telephone helpline.

The Skipton Fund was incorporatedas a company limited by guarantee on 25 March 2004.No substantive appointments have as yet been made.

An appeals process will be establishedbut this is still under discussion.

There have been a number of meetingsbetween officials of the four UK administrations since the announcement of the schemein August 2003 concerning fundamental aspects that have a bearing on the applicationforms. Draft application forms prepared by the Macfarlane Trust were discussed ata meeting on 26 March 2004 which was also attended by representatives of HaemophiliaSociety, the Scottish Haemophilia Groups Forum, the Hepatitis C Trust, the MacfarlaneTrust, the Primary Immunodeficiency Association, Capital C, and Haemophilia Wales.A representative from the Haemophilia Society of Northern Ireland was invited butwas unable to attend.

We are not at this time making specific funding available in this way.

I refer the member to the answer given to S2W-7978 on 18 May 2004, for how we are tackling the parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.