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URBAN II outline programmes for Inverclyde (Port Glasgow) and West Dunbartonshire (Clydebank South) form part of the UK proposals submitted to the European Commission today. Detailed programmes will now be developed as part of the negotiations with the Commission.

Negotiations with the European Commission on Objective 2 plans for 2000-06 for the South and the East of Scotland have now been completed, and the Commission is expected to announce in the near future approval in principle of these plans. I look forward to the Commission's announcement. The programme will attract over £45 million and over £156 million of European Funding respectively, and should assist in the creation of 3,200 jobs in the south and 17,000 in the east. Formal approval will follow next month.

The West of Scotland programme is more complex and will take a little longer. Approval is expected in February 2001.

The Minister for Justice announced on 10 October that a working group would be set up to oversee the creation of a Community Legal Service. My officials have had preliminary discussions with interested bodies such as the Citizens Advice Scotland, CoSLA and the Law Society of Scotland and I hope to issue invitations soon to certain bodies to join the working group.

It is expected that the UK review of the scheme will be completed by June 2001. The review involves a series of discussion groups with delegates from a wide range of national and local organisations and disabled people. The findings from all the discussions - those in Scotland took place on 23, 24 and 26 October - will form the basis of a consultation document which will be widely circulated. Responses to this will form the basis for recommendations on the future shape of the scheme.

I am pleased to inform members that excellent progress has been made. Learning and Teaching Scotland were commissioned to draft the new documents recommended by the working group. The documents are: Guidance for Schools and Local Authorities on effective Consultation with Parents and Carers, A Guide for Parents and Carers on Sex Education in Scottish Schools and A Summary of National Advice on Sex Education in Scottish Schools for local authorities in schools. Consultation on these documents will commence on 9 October. A draft circular for local authorities on the conduct of sex education will be issued at the same time.

The Monitoring Framework for Social Inclusion Partnerships sets out the requirement for Partnerships to undergo an evaluation towards the end of their lifespan and in some cases at the mid-point of their designation.

The immediate need for evaluations are those Partnerships formerly designated as Regeneration Programmes that end in November 2001; and those Partnerships formerly designated as Priority Partnership Areas, with a mid-point of November 2001. We intend to write shortly to those Partnerships to ask them to commission individual evaluations to ascertain what has worked within the area and what has not. For the former Priority Partnership Areas undergoing interim evaluations there will also be a need to consider the focus for the remaining period for the Partnership.

In addition, the Executive will commission a national evaluation of the former Regeneration Programmes to establish the difference which special status has meant for the areas concerned. It is expected that the national and individual evaluations will all be completed by summer 2001 and announcements on the future of the former Regeneration Programmes should follow in the autumn.

To support the individual evaluations, the Executive will provide additional funding allocations of £15,000 each. To facilitate the evaluation timetable, and to avoid the uncertainty inherent in changes to status and funding part-way through a financial year, the Executive intends to extend the designation of the former Regeneration Programmes to the end of March 2002. There will be a corresponding increase in the Social Inclusion Partnership Fund allocations to these Partnerships.

The Partnership areas affected by this are as follows:

Former Regeneration Programmes

Cambuslang; Dundee 2; Edinburgh; Falkirk; Fife; Levern Valley (East Renfrewshire); North Ayrshire; North Lanarkshire; Stirling;

Former Priority Partnership Areas

Craigmillar; Dundee 1; East End; Glasgow North; Greater Easterhouse; Great Northern (Aberdeen); Inverclyde; Motherwell North; North Ayr; North Edinburgh; Paisley; West Dunbartonshire.

We are promoting public transport through a range of initiatives including:(i) doubling the Public Transport Fund to £60 million per annum by 2003-04;(ii) spending record sums to improve lifeline ferry and air services in the Highlands and Islands;(iii) securing a replacement Scottish passenger rail franchise;(iv) bringing forward the Transport (Scotland) Bill to deliver higher quality bus services, tackle urban congestion and deliver improved concessionary fares.

I would refer to my answer to question S1O-2283.

As a consequence of the additional funding for Forces which I announced on 18 May and the extra officers being provided at Force level through the funding for the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency, Strathclyde Police will have additional funding for the equivalent of 195 extra officers. However, decisions on the deployment of officers within his force area is an operational matter for the chief constable.

We are today publishing a pre-legislative consultation paper Protecting Children: Securing their Safety. This sets out our proposals for establishing an index of adults unsuitable to work with children and, once responses have been taken into account, will enable us to take this important matter forward.

The promotion of public health is being progressed through a wide range of measures which seek to improve life circumstances, to address lifestyles and to target priority health topics, with an overarching aim of reducing health inequalities. These measures are developing from the White Paper, Towards a Healthier Scotland, which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 3036).The Healthy Scotland Convention, which brings together key partners from a range of sectors, met on 3 July to review working arrangements and how they might be enhanced to reinforce the delivery of this agenda. Particular attention was given to the options for maximising the benefit from the additional £26 million that the Scottish Executive has announced that it intends to invest to further boost work in this area.