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The number of planning applications referred to the Scottish ministers since 1 May 1999 totals 830. A breakdown by monthly receipt is given in the following table:Cases Notified to the Scottish Ministers since May 1999:

	1999	2000	2001	2002
January	-	15	19	12
February	-	34	28	25
March	-	25	27	-
April	-	31	32	-
May	8	34	25	-
June	22	35	25	-
July	26	40	18	-
August	25	22	19	-
September	25	24	17	-
October	29	22	23	-
November	16	20	19	-
December	25	31	32	-
Total	176	333	284	37

Planning applications, notified to the Scottish ministers, are recorded by planning authority area. Since 1 May 1999, 830 have been referred, but it is not possible to accurately identify these by parliamentary constituency. This is because the information on the planning application form is not always sufficiently precise to do so.

The following table gives the number of firearms covered by certificates in Scotland and in Strathclyde on issue at 31 December 1999 and 31 December 2000. Figures for 2001 will not be published until autumn 2002. The information held is not broken down below force level.

Firearms on certificate		1999	2000
Scotland	Possessed	62,421	58,862
	Authorised to be purchased/acquired	11,272	9,934
	Total	73,693	68,796
Strathclyde	Possessed	11,314	10,857
	Authorised to be purchased/acquired	1,937	1,513
	Total	13,251	12,370

Note: The recorded totals in the table, may include an element of double counting in that two or more individuals may each hold a certificate that allows them to possess the same firearm.

The available information is given in the table. Other crime categories, such as possession of an offensive weapon and robbery, may also involve firearms. However, the numbers of such cases cannot, from the information held centrally, be separately identified from the total numbers of prosecutions and convictions for these crime categories. Data for the year 2001 are not yet available.Persons proceeded against in Scottish courts for specified firearms offences, 1999-2000

Main crime and result	Year
	1999	2000
Possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life or commit crime
Persons proceeded against	19	20
Of which had a charge proved	12	12
Reckless conduct with firearms
Persons proceeded against	56	50
Of which had a charge proved	39	42
Miscellaneous firearm offences1
Persons proceeded against	213	161
Of which had a charge proved	170	143
Total
Persons proceeded against	288	231
Of which had a charge proved	221	197

Note:1. Includes other offences under the Firearms Act 1968 (as amended) and section 50(5) of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982.

The number of patients admitted to hospital in each of the last three years with a diagnosis related to a firearms¹ incident are shown in the table

	Year ending 31 Dec:
Treated in:	1999	2000	2001P
NHS Glasgow	30	36	42
NHS Scotland	140	138	136

^P Provisional.Notes:1. includes incidents involving handguns, rifles, air guns and unspecified.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The caries prevention scheme is open to all registered six- and seven-year-olds in Scotland. In the period April 2001 to January 2002 payments under the scheme amounted to £1.15 million; and it estimated that a further £250,000 will be paid in the remainder of the financial year. In the financial year 2002-03, the scheme is expected to cost around £1.5 million. The financial resources for the scheme are allocated through the General Dental Services budget.

None of Scottish Homes houses at any time transferred to Communities Scotland. All Scottish Homes tenants were supplied with a newsletter in September 2001, which explained the future for Scottish Homes and its remaining tenants. A copy of the newsletter has been put in the Parliament's Reference Centre.

The Scottish Legal Aid Board, at present, does not hold information on the ethnicity of applicants. Applications for advice and assistance are monitored by gender only and this is reported in the board's annual report.As a public body, under the recently laid Race Relations Act 1976 (Statutory Duties) (Scotland) Order 2002, the board will be required to publish a race equality scheme setting out how they intend to fulfil their duties under the order. All bodies have until 30 November 2002 to comply with the order.

Institutions already have a significant degree of flexibility in the use of Hardship Funds. Institutions themselves decide how to disburse the Hardship Funds to individual students within guidelines laid down by the Scottish Executive. For example, institutions are allowed to offer short-term repayable cash advances; to use up to 10% of their total Higher Education (HE) allocation to provide scholarships or bursaries and to provide payments of up to £3,500 per year to individual students without recourse to the Executive. Each institution is also free to determine its own "means-test" and the frequency of instalments. Institutions have also now been advised that they may vire up to 20% of their Mature Students' Bursary Fund (MSBF) allocation to their HE Hardship Funds, provided that this is consistent with the objective of targeting support on assisting mature students with childcare costs. This will enable institutions to adjust the distribution of their funding allocations based on their actual student population in the current academic year, as MSBF is phased in.