Seòmar agus comataidhean

The breakdown by planning authority area of the 830 planning applications referred to the Scottish ministers since May 1999 is as follows: Cases Notified to the Scottish Ministers since May 1999 by Council

Council	1 May 1999 - 28 Feb 2002
Aberdeen City	12
Aberdeenshire	39
Angus	21
Argyll and Bute	26
City of Edinburgh	56
City of Glasgow	98
Clackmannanshire	7
Dumfries and Galloway	18
Dundee City	14
East Ayrshire	14
East Dunbartonshire	14
East Lothian	21
East Renfrewshire	22
Falkirk	15
Fife	41
Highland	49
Inverclyde	9
Midlothian	42
Moray	26
North Ayrshire	16
North Lanarkshire	63
Orkney	8
Perth and Kinross	12
Renfrewshire	21
Scottish Borders	14
Shetland Isles	15
South Ayrshire	20
South Lanarkshire	32
Stirling	16
West Dunbartonshire	6
West Lothian	59
Western Isles	4
Total	830

This is a matter for each individual local authority.

With the advice of the working group I referred to in my previous answer, we have prepared a consultation paper on the implementation of Part 6 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, which was published on 22 March this year and seeks responses by 14 June. Depending on the outcome of the consultations and any further work that may generate, we hope to implement the provisions in Part 6 as a single package in the late autumn of this year.

The Cities Review Team aim to conclude their review by the end of May. Their report will then be submitted to Scottish ministers for consideration and the findings will be published thereafter.

The number of employee jobs is available from the Annual Business Inquiry and the net change in the number of employee jobs is available. The latest available data are for 2000.

	Net change in the Number of Employee Jobs1999-2000
Glasgow Kelvin	15,033

UK Government and Scottish Executive employment initiatives in Glasgow Kelvin include the New Deal programmes, the Glasgow Employment Zone and Training for Work. It is not possible to completely separate the impact of these initiatives on unemployment since May 1999, from the effects of improved economic conditions over the period. However, claimant unemployment in Glasgow Kelvin fell by 11% between May 1999 and March 2002.

In clearing this outline planning application back to Glasgow City Council on 28 June 2001, the Scottish ministers indicated that they were content for the matter to be dealt with by the local authority. It is now for the council to deal with all planning related matters and any associated consultation processes.

The Housing Improvement Task Force has already begun the work of considering the options for revising local authority powers, as part of the second stage of its work which is due for completion in early 2003. The Scottish Executive will give careful consideration to any recommendations made by the task force.

Issues in Improving Quality in Private Houses: The first report of the Housing Improvement Task Force makes no specific recommendations for action by the Executive and is intended to inform the second stage of the work of the Housing Improvement Task Force. The task force plans to conclude the second stage of its work, on examination of policy options, during the early months of 2003. In launching the first stage report and in anticipation of the need to resource new policy initiatives in this area, I announced that £10 million in 2003-04 would be available for the implementation of the task force's recommendations. The Executive will consider the need for further resource allocations in this area in the light of priorities identified in the expenditure review and the eventual recommendations of the task force itself.

A draft specification for the Time Out project is currently being drawn up. This work is near completion and will be followed by a formal tendering exercise.Work is also under way on progressing the other conclusions in respect of alternatives to custody for women offenders set out in the ministerial report A Better Way.