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The Disabled Students' Allowance is currently available to all full-time postgraduate students in receipt of support towards tuition fees and/or living costs from the Students Awards Agency for Scotland. While we have no current plans to extend these arrangements to other postgraduate students, we will consider this in the light of the forthcoming lifelong learning strategy.

The information is as follows:

	2001-02	2000-01	1999-2000	1998-99	1997-98
Number of Senior Civil Servants Recruited to the Scottish Office/Scottish Executive	28	10	12	5	9
Chaired by Civil Service Commissioners	1	4	3	1	4
Run by the Scottish Executive	27*	6	9	4	5

Note:*Including 19 people (both internal Scottish Executive and external candidates) recruited through one exercise.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-28019.

This information is not retained by the Scottish Executive once competitions have concluded and the successful candidate is in post.

The Disability Rights Commission has sent copies of its Code of Practice (Schools) to all schools and local authorities in Scotland. Local authorities and schools will be able to use this code to ensure that they understand and meet their new duties under Part IV of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) is reserved to the UK Parliament. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) is working to ensure that service providers and employers, including local authorities, are informed of the current requirements and are prepared in good time for the new duties coming into force in 2004. A UK Government campaign for 2002-03 is currently being formulated. The Scottish Executive is looking to work with the DWP and the Disability Rights Commission in Scotland in taking this and future campaigns forward.Previous awareness-raising activity has included:In 1998, a mailshot to service providers alerting them to the consultation on the code of practice on rights of access. An extensive national press and radio advertising campaign, advising service providers to call the DDA Helpline to find out more, complemented the mailshot.In June 1999 the "See the Person" campaign aimed to challenge stereotyping and raise awareness of rights and responsibilities under the DDA. It included TV and radio advertising, posters, articles and endorsements by celebrities."What have you got to offer?" launched in autumn 2000, was specifically aimed at small and medium businesses who provide goods and services to the public, focussing on practical advice and guidance.The latest campaign "Open to Change" which ran from January to March this year in the national, regional and trade press, was aimed at service providers and illustrated the types of changes they can make to improve the delivery of their goods and services to disabled people. The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) also published a new code of practice in February this year, covering the 2004 accessibility duties. The code is accompanied by a series of guides for small businesses. The DRC will take the lead in ensuring that the duties of the DDA are complied with.

The information requested is not held centrally. Schools and authorities decide how computers should be deployed within the school.

The information requested is not held centrally. The latest School Census, carried out in September 2001, showed that the pupil:computer ratio was 11:1 in primary schools and 5:1 in secondary schools. The targets for 2002 are 7.5:1 in primary schools and 5:1 in secondary schools. Schools and authorities decide how these should be deployed within the school.

Information is only collected centrally about numbers of new public sector schools completed, rather than begun, in each financial year. For the period April 1999 to March 2001, 20 such new schools were completed, of which six were funded by public private partnership or private finance initiative. Information for the period from April 2001 is not yet available.

On 15 May 2002, three judges of the Court of Criminal Appeal referred an appeal (McKinnon, McKay and Norwood v Her Majesty's Advocate) to a Bench of five judges with a view to clarifying an aspect of the law of concert, which applies to situations where a number of persons are accused of acting together to commit a crime. This is a normal part of judicial process to resolve an unclear area of law.The decision of the five judges would represent an authoritative statement of the law on the point, and would be binding on all courts of criminal jurisdiction in Scotland. No date has yet been set for the hearing before five judges.