Responsibility for ensuring compliance for all buildings lies with the local authority. Where cases of non-compliance occur, the local authority will be in a position to serve a notice in order to address contraventions.

I have today written to the convener of the Finance Committee with an update of the actions that the Scottish Government has taken since we published our response to Professor Crerar’s review. The update sets out a number of actions that are under way. They will help to deliver a more proportionate system of scrutiny which gives more trust and responsibility to service delivery bodies to deliver and improve services but maintains the assurances that independent assessment of key services provides.

A copy of the letter has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib 45957).

This information is not held centrally.

Hospices in Scotland are independent organisations operating on a charitable basis. As such they receive funding from a range of sources including donations. With regard to adult hospices, the NHS in Scotland provides funding for up to 50% of agreed operating costs in accordance with guidance contained in HDL (2003) 18:

http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/mels/HDL2003_18.pdf.

The Children''s Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS) receive 12.5% of annual running costs from the NHS in Scotland and also receives grant funding through the Children, Young People and Families Unified Voluntary Sector Fund.

NHS boards are responsible for the planning and provision of NHS services and work closely with a range of organisations, including hospices. Palliative care and end of life services are delivered through managed clinical networks and palliative care networks which seek to ensure integration of specialist and general care.

Good quality, accessible palliative and end-of-life care is fundamental to those living with and dying from any advanced, progressive or incurable disease, and for their carers. An action plan will be published this year which will ensure a consistent approach in the provision of these services across all NHS boards, reflecting best practice. NHS Quality Improvement Scotland and the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care have produced standards regarding care in the NHS and the independent sector. Monitoring of individual care plans takes place within the context of these standards, and other guidance produced by professional bodies and is a matter for NHS boards and those organisations providing palliative and end of life care.

Guidance for the provision of medicines for people in receipt of end of life care is included in HDL (2003) 18 http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/mels/HDL2003_18.pdf which describes the costs which will be met by NHS boards.

The planning and provision of NHS services is a matter for NHS boards in accordance with the guidance contained in HDL (2003) 18:

http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/mels/HDL2003_18.pdf.

Information on funding levels is available directly from NHS boards.

I have agreed to provide £10 million to establish a new institute in Dundee led by Sir Philip Cohen. The institute will be called the Scottish Institute for Cell Signalling.

Funding for the institute will be provided by the Funding Council via the University of Dundee, while the Funding Council will work in partnership with Scottish Enterprise to maximise delivery of commercial outputs.

The institute will maximise the benefits to Scotland and add value to the existing public investment in life sciences. I look forward to visiting Dundee and meeting Sir Philip Cohen to discuss plans to take the Institute forward.

Scottish ministers have set Registers of Scotland the financial goal of achieving a return of 10% on net capital employed over the three-year period ending 31 March 2009.

In addition, the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland will shortly publish Registers of Scotland's (RoS) 2008-13 Corporate Plan, which sets objectives to secure continuing performance improvements. In particular, as milestones for 2008-09, the keeper has set the following goals for the conduct of registrations and for customer service, which ministers endorse:

to reduce the standard production cost index by 1% for the three years ending 31 March 2009 compared with the three-year performance to 31 March 2008;

where it is in the Keeper's power and is legally appropriate, to complete the recording and registration of:

80% of Sasine writs within 20 working days; with the remainder to be completed within 40 working days;

60% of Dealings with Whole within 30 working days; with the remainder to be completed within 100 working days, and

70% of standard First Registration applications within 70 working days:

as milestones in a three-year strategy to deal with older, complex casework, where it is in the Keeper's power to do so and is legally appropriate, to:

complete registration of 25,000 Transfers of Part cases, along with their consequential Dealings with Whole, and eliminate all pre-January 2006 First Registration casework.

to achieve a registration accuracy rate of at least 98.5% for applications despatched during the previous 12 months;

to continue to operate at Charter Mark standards by:

achieving a 98% rating for overall customer care in the annual customer satisfaction survey, and

processing 98% of all customer enquiries in compliance with RoS's published response standards.

I understand that Texol is currently in administration and that, regrettably, 85 staff were made redundant on Tuesday 5 March 2008. The affected staff are being contacted by the Scottish Government''s local partnership action for continuing employment (PACE) team who will provide them with full details of the support, advice, guidance and retraining options available to help them access alternative employment opportunities. Should the administrator be unable to avoid further redundancies, PACE assistance will be also available to all those affected.

As you are aware, I met with you and Cllr. Joe Morrow on 11 March 2008 to discuss the impact of recent redundancies on the economy of the city of Dundee. This was a constructive meeting and I have agreed to facilitate a key stakeholder discussion forum, focusing on the city''s economic future, in the coming months.