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In Scotland there is no statutory amount of time required for any curriculum area or subject. However, in the 5-14 curriculum (covering P1-S2), national guidelines recommend that education authorities and schools have a minimum time allocation of 15% for the expressive arts (including physical education). In addition, Scottish curriculum guidelines include a 20% flexibility factor which schools are encouraged to use for activities which reflect their own needs and circumstances. Some schools may choose to use some of this time for physical education.

For secondary schools approximately 90 minutes of physical education per week is received by S1 and S2 pupils and 115 minutes per week by S3 and S4 pupils. For S5 and S6 pupils there is no nationally recommended minimum time allocation for physical education. However, around 5,500 pupils in S5 and S6 participated in National Certificate or Higher courses in physical education this year.

Information on the average number of hours of physical education received by pupils in primary schools is not collected by the Scottish Executive.

The Scottish Executive welcomes discounted fares initiatives such as the Moray Fare Travel Scheme which promotes greater accessibility to public transport for young people. Some public transport operators already offer a wide range of pricing initiatives and we expect that further development will be driven by operators' recognition of the potential commercial benefits in terms of increased patronage and revenue generation such initiatives can offer.

There is currently no plan to do so. Since the launch of the joint community safety strategy with CoSLA and ACPOS in 1998, all Scottish local authorities and police forces have participated in multi-agency activity designed to improve safety in their communities without the need to legislate.

None. The Direction will remain until North Lanarkshire's Business Plan for recovery is achieved.

The Executive's research report Climate Change: Scottish Implications Scoping Study, published December 1999 (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/cru/kd01/ccsi-01.pdf), sets out the possible implications of climate change for Scotland. Flooding, including flooding of coastal areas, was identified as one of the main impacts of climate change for Scotland. In response to the report's findings the Executive have commissioned further research to examine, among other things, the effect of climate change on the frequency of floods, including coastal flooding, and the effect on design standards of existing riverine flood prevention schemes.

This research, together with research due to be published next year by the UK Climate Impacts Programme to update their Climate Change Scenarios for the United Kingdom, will provide a clearer view of the impacts of climate change on Scotland, including sea level rise and increased storminess. In anticipation of this we are gathering information to identify those areas which may be vulnerable to the predicted increases in sea level.

The Key newsletter will be distributed to all council tenants to inform them of issues related to the development of a proposal for housing transfer. The frequency of issue will be determined in the light of tenants information requirements. It is estimated each edition will cost £30,000 including postage. The costs will be met from the New Housing Partnership funding allocated to the council.

DETR's proposals for arms length companies have limited attraction in Scottish circumstances as there are no plans to relieve the companies of any debt burden, in the same way as we are doing for Scottish councils who move to community ownership. In addition, all borrowing by the proposed arms length companies will be subject to the normal controls on public expenditure and, consequently in Scottish circumstances, would be met from the resources available in the assigned budget.

We will of course continue to monitor how any proposals are taken forward by DETR.

The Executive supports the aim of providing patients with full and useful information about prescribed and over-the-counter medicines. UK law now requires medicines to be supplied to consumers with specified information on the label and with an accompanying leaflet to ensure safe and correct use. There has therefore been a general move by manufacturers towards supplying medicines in packs which have patient information leaflets sealed into them.

Following the abolition of Crown Exemption from non-domestic rates from 1 April 2000 police forces are liable to pay non-domestic rates for police properties. The Grant Aided Expenditure (GAE) settlement for 2000-01 was increased to recompense in full the costs associated with the payment of rates. The effect of Crown Exemption on the police is therefore cost neutral and has no bearing on officer recruitment.

The additional £8.9 million invested in the Scottish police will enable the recruitment of more than 300 extra police officers. Decisions on recruitment and deployment of staff are, however, matters for individual chief constables. After allocating £1 million to the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan for the training of the additional recruits the funds were distributed as shown in the table below. Also shown is the notional number of additional officers that could be recruited from the extra money available.

Police Force	Additional Funding £000	Number of Additional Officers
Central Scotland Police	369	15
Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary	233	9
Fife Constabulary	435	17
Grampian Police	676	27
Lothian and Borders Police	1,442	58
Northern Constabulary	423	17
Strathclyde Police	3,710	148
Tayside Police	612	24
TOTAL FUNDING	7,900	315