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First ScotRail must perform well in three key areas: punctuality, service quality and delivery against the committed £40 million of expenditure on improvements. First ScotRail has made good progress in turning around the declining levels of punctuality experienced in 2004, although the levels of performance overall on the Scottish Network are still unacceptably low. The Scottish Executive has made clear to the franchisee and its industry partners that further improvement is required in train punctuality and the reliability of the network. On service quality, First ScotRail has responded well to the stricter quality regime in the new franchise, with improvements at stations and on trains. On the committed expenditure, good progress has been made and plans are currently being finalised which will see significant investment on new facilities, particularly at stations, over the next 12 months.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-14076, answered on 22 March 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Data about injury road accidents are collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive using the Stats 19 statistical report form.

Prior to January 2005, the Stats 19 returns did not record the causes of the accidents. Under a pilot scheme, 15 police forces across Great Britain voluntarily submitted information on contributory factors to accidents along with their Stats 19 returns. However, it is not possible to use the pilot contributory factor data to provide figures which are representative of accidents in Scotland because only two Scottish police forces took part in the scheme. An article which provides some of the overall results of the trial is available on the Department for Transport website at:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_rdsafety/documents/page/dft_rdsafety_031458.pdf.

With effect from 1 January 2005, a new set of questions on contributory factors was added to the Stats 19 injury road accident reporting system. Information about contributory factors should henceforth be supplied by all police forces for personal injury accidents which are reported either (a) following attendance at the scene by a police officer or (b) by a member of the public to police staff at a police station. There are separate codes for "exceeding speed limit" and "travelling too fast for conditions". However, it should be noted that the new information reflects the reporting officer's opinion at the time of reporting, and is not necessarily the result of extensive investigation. Subsequent enquiries could lead to a change in the opinion of the reporting officer. There may also be accidents for which the reporting officer cannot identify any contributory factors.

In my statement on 9 February in Parliament, I outlined our objectives for Scottish Water’s next investment programme.

My announcement noted that funding of £14 million would be made available in each year of the next investment programme specifically to reflect the cost of local water and sewerage infrastructure required by affordable housing projects developed by registered social landlords.

The Minister for Communities made an announcement on the 8 March giving details of the plans for affordable housing in Scotland.

Sustainable development, of which climate change is a key element, has been a cross-cutting theme in the last two spending reviews. It is, therefore, central to our decisions on spending allocations. In Spending Review 2004, all portfolios had to show how they were taking this issue forward and mainstreaming it within their work, taking particular account of the sustainable development priority areas of resource use, energy and travel.

There are also many initiatives taking place within departments. Other mechanisms by which projects and spending programmes are assessed for environmental impact include Pre-expenditure Assessments, the Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) and Environmental Impact Assessment. The Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Bill, which will extend the scope of environmental assessment, was introduced to Parliament on 2 March. 

For further detail, I refer the member to my statement to the Environment and Rural Development Committee on 2 March.

The Scottish Executive is developing a programme of local andnational activities, in partnership with a range of organisations, to mark thissignificant anniversary.

This will includea Wallace website, an Edinburgh Book Festival lecture, and a gala dinner co-hostedwith Stirling Council to mark the conclusion of the Wallace celebrations.

The Executive has made clearthat it does not intend to use the tax-varying power in the lifetime of the currentParliament. We have therefore not commissioned any work to estimate the potentialadministrative costs of collection.

This is an operational matter for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-14582 on 1 March 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament/webapp/wa.search.

The information on applications received and available places at Dundee and Glasgow Dental Schools from 2002 to 2004 is provided in the following table.

Year	Dundee Dental School			Glasgow Dental School
	Applications	Available Places	Ratio of Applications to Places	Applications	Available Places	Ratio of Applications to Places
2004	393	67	5.9:1	414	90	4.6:1
2003	311	61	5.1:1	374	80	4.9:1
2002	282	61	4.6:1	326	80	4.2:1

Source: Admissions Offices, Dundee and Glasgow Dental Schools.

Notes:

1. For Dundee the figures combine those for a preliminary Predental Year, and for direct entry to Year 1.

2. The “Available Places” includes those for overseas students.

Between 2001 and 2004, the number of applications received and places available for dental training have increased with a healthy ratio of applications to places.