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The level of fixed penalty fine for littering was increased from £25 to £50 on 1 July 2003. We are currently consulting in Putting our communities first: A Strategyfor tackling Anti-Social Behaviour on means of improving the enforcement ofpenalties for littering.

The Executive provides funding to the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP)and REMADE Scotland that aim todevelop and expand markets for recycled products and materials. We will work in partnership with these bodies and the Enterprise Network to ensure that opportunities to make new products manufactured from waste are maximised.

Information on NHS waiting lists is compiled and recorded on different bases in England and Wales and in Scotland, and the two sets of information are therefore not comparable.

Waiting list figures for Scotland are published on a quarterly basis on the Information and Statistics Division website, at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/info2.jsp?pContentID=1170&p_applic=CCC&p_service=Content.show&.

Waiting list figures for England are published on a monthly basis on the Departmentof Health website, at:

http://www.doh.gov.uk/waitingtimes/index.htm

Waiting lists are not an effective indicator of NHS performance. What matters to patients is how long they have to wait for treatment, not how many people are ahead of them. That is why we have set challenging national maximum waiting times targets in the clinical priorities of cancer and heart disease, as well as for all out-patient consultations and in-patient and day case treatment. By the end of this year no patient should wait longer than nine months for in-patient/day case treatment, falling to six months by the end of 2005. The NHS is making good progress towards achieving the nine month target.

Our strategy for ensuring that sustained reductions in waiting times are delivered for patients across Scotland was set out in Partnership for Care - Scotland's Health White Paper, which was published on 27 February 2003. We have made clear in our Partnership Agreement that reducing NHS waiting times is our key priority for the health service for the next four years.

Challenging national maximum waiting times targets have been set for out-patient consultations and for hospital in-patient and day case treatment. In addition, specific maximum waiting targets have been set for the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease and cancer, and for access to a member of a primary healthcare team. The targets in relation to waiting for in-patient and day case treatment have been guaranteed to patients: if boards are unable to provide treatment within the maximum waiting times themselves, they will be obliged to arrange treatment elsewhere - either within NHS Scotland or with other providers. Each NHS board has agreed local targets with the National Waiting Times Unit which demonstrate the progress they are expected to make towards delivery of the national targets and guarantees in 2003-04.

Increased support is being provided to NHS boards and trusts to reduce waiting times, by my department, and in particular the National Waiting Times Unit and the Centrefor Change and Innovation, by for example:

- introducing a new, national programme of service improvement and redesign;

-leading work on capacity planning;

- ensuring the Golden Jubilee National Hospital supports NHS boards by contributing appropriately to reducing waiting times for out-patient, diagnostic, day caseand in-patient services;

- booking spare capacity in the private sector to reduce the longest waiting times, where such action complements NHS boards’ strategies for developing sustainable local solutions to tackle long waits, and

-sharing examples of good practice across NHS Scotland.

We are determined to address rising out-patient waiting times which are a stubborn problem for a number of reasons, including implementation of the New Deal for Junior Doctors and the European Working Time Directive. The Executive has included a commitment in the White Paper, Partnership for Care, and the Partnership Agreement, Partnership for a Better Scotland, that no patient will wait longer than 26 weeks for a first out-patient appointment following GP referral, by 2005.

The National Waiting Times Unit is currently discussing and agreeing plans and local out-patient waiting times targets with NHS Greater Glasgow which will demonstrate the progress they are expected to make towards delivery of the 26weeks target.

To help NHS Scotland achieve the 26 weeks target, I launched the Out-patientAction plan on 13 June 2003. The Centre for Change and Innovation will drive forward the implementation of this plan through a co-ordinated programme of service redesign and the promotion and dissemination of good practice across NHS Scotland.

The Nicholson report is being published today. The Executive is very grateful to Sheriff Principal Nicholson and his committee for producing a comprehensive and coherent report on this complex area of Scottish legislation. Given the far-reaching implications of the many recommendations, the Executive will be formally consulting interested parties about the report over the next four months.The report can be viewed on the Executive website and copies are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 28903).

I have already announced the appointment of Sandra Hood OBE, former Assistant Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police, as the chair of the Group. We are currently discussing the membership, remit and timetable with Ms Hood and I will make another announcement when these matters have been finalised.

The Clyde Waterfront Working Group, which was established in 2001 to explore the regeneration potential of the Clyde waterfront from Glasgow Green to Erskine Bridge, is expected to submit its report on the regeneration of the Clyde to me shortly.After this, ministers will need to consider the extent to which we will be able to take forward the different elements of the proposals.

A report prepared for the Home Office into pilot schemes for electronic monitoring of young offenders under 16 is available at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/occ-tagging.pdf, as well as from the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 28276). The consultation paper Putting our communities first considers how best to introduce electronic monitoring as an additional disposal for children's hearings in specific circumstances.

The Scottish Executive has already sent copies of the consultation document Putting Our Communities First: A Strategy for Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour (Bib. number 28038), which includes proposals to electronically tag young offenders, to a wide range of children's organisations inviting written comments. We also held informal discussions with various children's organisations prior to the publication of the consultation paper, and we will have further discussions with a range of stakeholders, including children's organisations, in the course of the consultation period.