Seòmar agus comataidhean

The UK Government has agreed to make available extra funds to the Scottish Executive to help meet the agreed additional policing costs arising from the G8 Summit at Gleneagles.

Operational policing is a matter for individual Chief Constables. While anevent of the nature of the G8 Summit will clearly require a significant police presence, there is at this stage no reason to believe that police cover in Tayside or elsewhere in Scotland during the event will be reduced below what is operationally appropriate.

Since academic year 2000-01, Scottish domiciled students undertaking full-time higher education courses in Scotland have been entitled to free tuition. The fees are paid on behalf of eligible students by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. They are not deferred and do not have to be repaid by the student. Students who have been ordinarily resident in the UK for the three years prior to the first day of the first academic year of the course, and who were ordinarily resident in Scotland on that day, are eligible for free tuition provided that they have not previously received support from public funds to undertake a course at the same academic level.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-9271 answered on 29 July 2004. All answers towritten parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, thesearch facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

The information requested isnot held centrally.

This information is not heldcentrally. Capital funds are nowallocated to NHS boards using the Arbuthnott formula adjusted for crossboundary flows and weighted for the provision of regional specialities. Thismeans that NHS Boards can determine, based on their local knowledge or thelocal needs of the local area how this money should be spent.

In 2003 the ScottishExecutive appointed a stakeholder group to assist in identifying the issues forour consultation paper Rights of Appeal in Planning. The group is madeup of people from local authorities, industry and trade union bodies, communityand environmental groups, and other planning experts. The group has held twomeetings with Executive officials.

In the past year, ScottishMinisters and officials have met many organisations and individuals in order todiscuss a wide range of issues. The planning system in general and rights ofappeal in particular will have been discussed at some of those meetings.

As part of the current consultationon Rights of Appeal in Planning, the Executive is engaged in a programmeof meetings with key stakeholders, such as business, environmental, localauthority and community representatives.

While this is primarily amatter for NHS Argyll and Clyde, I understand that the decision to postpone thisround table workshop was made by West Dunbartonshire Council for VoluntaryServices (CVS), who had agreed to handlethe organisation of these workshops in the Lomond area.

Iunderstand that West Dunbartonshire CVS, who were keen to make sure they wereadequately prepared to make this first workshop run effectively andproductively, did not feel that the 17 June date gave them sufficient time toorganise and prepare properly. NHS Argyll and Clyde understood and supported this approach and I understandthe CVS have now set a revised date of 5 August for the round table workshop inHelensburgh.

We are consulting widely. The initial distribution of the consultation paper sent copies to a wide range of interested organisations and individuals. The consultation has been well publicised and we are continuing to provide copies of the paper to anyone who requests them.

In addition, the consultation paper is available on the Executive’s website.

Consultation is an active process. We have already held meetings with a range of stakeholders and we will continue to do so during the consultation period, which ends on 30 July.

NHS Argyll and Clyde have indicated that the responses received to consultation will be broken down by geographical area.