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Funding from sportscotland for school sport is available on the basis of applications from local authorities and/or individual schools as part of wider programmes and there is no central record on which elements of the funding will be specifically diverted to work with disabled young people.

For example funding under Active Schools is provided on the basis of local authority implementation and investment plans which aim to address each Council’s specific requirements.

Active Schools funding is targeted at all children and disability has been identified as one of the five key target areas. There are currently 11 Special Educational Needs (SEN) co-ordinators within the Active School network who have specific responsibility to ensure the inclusion of children with disabilities in Active Schools. In authorities where there are no SEN co-ordinators, the Active Schools Co-ordinators are directly responsible for the inclusion of disabled children.

Every special school in Scotland has been provided with an opportunity to receive SportSability training and associated resources.

This information is not held centrally.

The need for this research has been considered as part of the development of the Social Research Programme. However, in light of the current difficulties surrounding collating the essential data, it is not possible to commission this research at this time. Consideration will be given to how this research could be carried out in the future.

Sportscotland are working in partnership with Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) and the Youth Sport Trust to develop a new disability inclusion module on including people with a disability in physical education, physical activity and sport. This module will be rolled out across Scotland from 2006 and every Active Schools Co-ordinator will be provided with an opportunity to attend the training. It is anticipated that this training will replace SDS’s current disability awareness training which is available to local authorities, governing bodies of sport and other agencies. This training along with Coach UK disability courses currently appear in the Support and Training manual produced by sportscotland and issued to the Active Schools Network to underpin Active School Co-ordinators’ work with young disabled people.

No specific funding is provided to local authorities for the provision of translation and interpretation services. It is for each authority to decide how it will use its grant settlement to ensure that these services are provided at an appropriate level.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-15951 on 20 April 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Funding to aid the integrationof refugees and asylum seekers through the implementation of the Scottish RefugeeIntegration Forum Action Plan is awarded annually on a case-by-case basis accordingto proposals submitted. Promotion of positive images of refugees and asylum seekersis one of the actions in the action plan. While there are no specific plans to increasefunding for this area the Executive will continue to support this work as appropriate.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:

The Govan Citizen’s Advocacy Project has to date received no money from the Greater Govan SIP.

Data on training and education for refugees and asylum seekers is not held centrally.

However, data is available on the number of people attending further education colleges on a part-time English as a second or other language (ESOL) course or another part-time non-advanced course whose fee was waived under certain asylum seeker programmes. Table 1 shows the number of fees waived by local authority area.

The Scottish Executive recently produced a research report called Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Scotland: A Skills and Aspirations Audit which aimed to audit the skills and aspirations of refugees and asylum seekers living in Scotland. This can be found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/cru/resfinds/sjf10-00.asp.

Table 1 - Number of Further Education Enrolments: Fee Waiver - Asylum Seeker (Part-Time)¹

	Academic Year
	2002-03	2003-04
Scotland	6,740	5,010
Aberdeen City	0	30
Dundee City	5	5
East Dunbartonshire	15	20
East Lothian	0	5
East Renfrewshire	5	15
Edinburgh, City of	135	220
Falkirk	0	5
Fife	5	10
Glasgow City	5,995	4,355
North Lanarkshire	0	10
Renfrewshire	10	15
South Lanarkshire	5	15
West Dunbartonshire	5	5
not known	540	305

Source: Scottish Further Education Funding Council: FES2 data.

Note: 1. All numbers have been rounded to the nearest five; authorities with less than three enrolments are not shown. Because of rounding the total may not exactly match the sum of the component parts.

Bridging the Gap- Improving access to primary health care servicesfor disabled people - was commissioned and published by the Scottish ConsumerCouncil (SCC) on 16 March 2005. Consequently, there have been no discussions as yetwith SCC about this report or its recommendations. We would intend to progressthe report’s conclusions and recommendations in the context of an on-goingthree year project with the Disability Rights Commission, who are working withNHS Scotland to ensure services respond sensitively to the needs of disabledpeople.