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Local authorities have no powers to backdate council tax discount entitlement retrospectively.

This information is not held centrally.

A consultation paper, titled Local Tax Liability of Residents in Housing Support Accommodation, was issued on 14 July 2005. Copies have been sent to interested organisations (including Abbeyfield Homes) and individuals. The closing date for responses is Friday 2 September 2005.

Responses to the consultation paper issued on 14 July 2005 have been requested by 2 September. Once we have analysed those responses, we will seek to reach a conclusion as early as possible.

I am pleased to announce that we are today publishing our detailed response to the report of the second phase of the adoption policy review, which was published on 10 June 2005.

The Executive accepts almost all of the report’s recommendations, and strongly supports its central proposal for a new legal framework for those children who can no longer live with their families, to complement adoption. Responses to the consultation paper are invited by 31 October 2005.

The report is available at:

 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/06/27140607.

The Executive’s consultation paper is available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/06/29170235.

Printed copies of the report and our consultation paper will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre in the next week (Bib. numbers 36862 and 36863 respectively).

Communities Scotland is a key delivery arm of the Executive and its recently published Corporate Plan sets out the vital role that it has in delivering our housing and regeneration policies.

Communities Scotland has about 500 staff working from eight locations around Scotland, of whom about 220 are currently based outside Edinburgh. The remaining staff are located in three offices in Edinburgh City Centre engaged on a range of national, local and headquarters functions. In line with our relocation policy we have been considering the location of these Edinburgh functions and have concluded that 100-110 posts engaged on housing investment, community regeneration and regulation and inspection of social landlords will transfer from Edinburgh to Glasgow by the end of 2007. The headquarters of Communities Scotland will remain in Edinburgh, together with a local office.

I acknowledge the impact this decision will have on the staff involved and Communities Scotland management are in discussions with staff. However, I believe that this plan has considerable benefits in bringing our service delivery closer to stakeholders.

We are working with the agencies to provide comprehensive single shared assessments of need are applied in each case to identify the supports and services necessary to maintain the individual successfully in a community setting. This will include an assessment of risk.

As part of our Closing the Opportunity Gap commitment to tackling financial exclusion and as highlighted in our recent Financial Inclusion Action Plan, we are committed to working at ways of increasing individuals’ levels of financial literacy. We are exploring different approaches to this with three separate financial education projects in partnership with Citizens Advice Service, Greater Easterhouse Money Advice Project and the Young Scot Money Line initiative – totalling £1.4 million over the next two years. The aim of these projects is to allow  individuals to increase their financial capability and make better informed decisions about which products best meet their needs.

I have today published a new framework document for the improved governance, operation and accountability of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS).

Copies of the Scottish Prison Service framework document have been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre and are on the SPS website.

I have recently agreed with the Scottish Law Commission its Seventh Programme of Law Reform. This was presented to Parliament and published today. Copies will be placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 35282). The new programme, which consolidates and supersedes all previous programmes, describes the projects on which the commission will be working between now and the end of 2009.

The content of the Seventh Programme was finalised following extensive consultation by the commission. As with the previous Sixth Programme, work on property law is a major element where the commission expects to complete within the life of the programme its current work on conversion of long leases to ownership and on land registration. It will also continue its review of trust law. In addition, the commission expects by the end of the programme period to undertake and complete reviews of the law relating to judicial factors, unincorporated associations and the criminal law defences of provocation, self defence, coercion and necessity, and to begin work on the assignation of, and security over, incorporeal moveables. Finally, a major element of the programme will be a review of the law of succession to take account of developments since the commission’s last report on the subject in 1990.

The Executive welcomes this programme. The fixing of priorities and timetables will help all of those with an interest in law reform to keep track of and prepare for changes in the law that the commission might recommend.

The Scottish Law Commission has a general remit to keep the law of Scotland under review for the purpose of its reform and consolidation. In addition to the Programmes of Law Reform agreed from time to time with ministers the commission also receives references on specific issues and provides other advice on specific areas of the law.