I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

There is no maximumwaiting time guarantee for applicants to the central heating programme.

The programme is demand-led.As such, waiting times are dependent on the number of householders applying, theavailable resources, installer capacity and technical variations around type ofsystem, planning considerations etc.

Information by hospitalward is not collected centrally. However, figures for the specialties Child Psychiatryand Adolescent Psychiatry and are given in the following table.

Average AvailableStaffed Hospital Beds for Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Specialties in Scotland

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Child Psychiatry	30	23	15	16	11	9	8	8	9
Adolescent Psychiatry	39	40	48	43	38	32	35	35	35

Source:ISD(S)1.

Work to reduce inappropriateadmissions to adult beds is showing real progress. There were 186 such admissionslast year, a significant reduction from the 290 recorded for 2002. This progressreflects our drive to increase the number of dedicated beds for this important caregroup from 44 beds to 56 by 2010 and our attention on improving provision to supportchildren and young people in the community, to prevent inappropriate admissionsand to facilitate earlier and safe discharge from hospital care.

NHS Glasgow and Clydehave, following extensive consultation, developed a strategy for the future deliveryof health care services for the area covered by that board. This service strategyinvolves the replacement of a number of existing facilities which are not consideredappropriate for the delivery of health care services in the 21st Century and theVictoria Hospital falls into that category.

Not only are modelsof care vastly different to those practised when the Victoria Hospital was built but the use of modern materialsand methods of construction result in buildings which frequently differ in appearanceto those being replaced. Indeed we should expect and welcome change to the physicalappearance of healthcare buildings as we place increasing emphasis on environmentswhich are supportive of the recovery process and of the staff who work in our hospitals.

The building currentlyunder construction to replace the Victoria Hospital will be very different in appearance but what is criticalis that it delivers the appropriate range of healthcare facilities in an appropriateenvironment. I am confident that the new building will deliver these clinical servicesfrom a building which has been designed to the highest standards.

The NHS in Scotland is working to ensure delivery of a number of nationalwaiting times targets for the benefit of patients. These national targets are publishedon the Acute Hospital Care website, which is operated by NHS National ServicesScotland’s Information Services Division. The website can be accessed at: www.isdscotland.org/waiting_times.

The website is updatedregularly and statistics on performance against all the national waiting times targetsare shown on the website, with the exception of the target that every patient shouldhave access to a GP, nurse or other health care professional within 48 hours. Forthe years 2005-06 and 2006-07, NHS boards reported that some 99% of practices demonstratedcompliance with requirements for this target, compared with 97% in 2004-05.

We are supportingNHS boards as they work towards abolishing availability status codes and introducingnew arrangements for measuring waiting times, so that all patients waiting for afirst out-patient appointment with a consultant or for hospital inpatient or daycase treatment come within the scope of national targets from the beginning of nextyear.

Consideration is currentlybeing given to ways in which waiting times targets can be turned into legally bindingwaiting times guarantees and so make them more meaningful to patients. We will consultwidely on this in due course.

This informationis not held centrally.

This informationis not held centrally but with the individual local authorities.

The Clyde and HebridesFerry Services Public Service Contract requires CalMac Ferries Ltd to submit regularreports on performance (including reliability and punctuality) to the Scottish Government,to make summary information available to those attending the half-yearly consultationmeetings to be facilitated by the Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership (HITRANS)and to publish the summary information in their annual report. CalMac Ferries willalso display monthly information on punctuality and reliability on each of theirroutes in the port offices and vessels as part of their Customer Services Undertaking.

The Public ServiceContract between the Scottish ministers and CalMac Ferries Ltd for the deliveryof the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services includes a PerformanceRegime which penalises the operator if it does not operate services to the prescribedtimetables. However, the contract recognises that there will be situations wherecancellations or delays will be unavoidable or where they may be justified becauseof particular circumstances that can arise. In such cases, the penalty system isnot triggered. These circumstances are described as “Performance Relief Events”and include “Relief Events”, “Lifeline Service Relief” and “Upgrade Relief Events”.

The list ofperformance relief events is extensive and includes, for example, adverse weatherand tidal conditions, safety factors beyond the operator’s control and the holdingback of a sailing to await the arrival of a late running public transport servicethat is scheduled to connect with the sailing. However, it is intended that thestatistics that will be collected on punctuality and reliability will show boththe actual performance and the performance after the application of theperformance relief events.

Information onaverage primary class size is collected and published each year in “Pupils in Scotland” and, prior to 2003, in the “Summary Results of theSchool Census”. These are available in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre (Bib. numbers 20194, 20197, 22064 and 29040). Information publishedsince 2003 can be accessed on the Scottish Government website by using thefollowing hyperlink:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/PubPupilCensus

Information onclass sizes in secondary schools is not routinely collected as part of theSchool Census.

There is nodefinition, in statute, of “lifeline ferry service”. However, the previousadministration noted that, in subsidising ferry services, its objective was “toensure the provision of a suitable standard of transport connection, in termsof quality, frequency and capacity, to island (or, in some cases, remotepeninsular) communities which would otherwise suffer social and economicdisadvantage”. I would not dissent from that definition.