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I will publish a consultation document on this issue later today. Copies will be available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 44281) and can be viewed at the abolition of council tax consultation website .

This consultation will last for a period of four months in order to give all parties an extended opportunity to comment on this significant change to the taxation system of Scotland. I look forward to working constructively with the Parliament on our proposals to make local taxation fairer.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing and myself will meet this afternoon with Energy Action Scotland and a number of other stakeholders to discuss their view of the current fuel poverty situation and the best way of ensuring stakeholder participation going forward.

Assessments regarding exceptional circumstances are determined by the clinical circumstances in each case and for this reason there is no prescribed deadline for completion of an assessment. Information regarding the time taken to consider individual cases is not collected centrally.

The SIGN Guideline remit is the diagnosis and pharmaceutical management of Parkinson''s disease. SIGN will therefore not be considering deep brain stimulation for inclusion. As a neurosurgical intervention, it falls outwith the remit for the guideline.

If there is sufficient evidence of sufficient quality to permit comment, the topic of treatments which simulate natural dopamine release may be included in the final guideline.

The exact number of people diagnosed with idiopathic Parkinson''s disease in Scotland is not available centrally.

An estimate, based on the numbers consulting a member of their practice team for the conditions in practices participating in Practice Team Information (PTI) suggests there may be 4,800 people idiopathic Parkinson''s disease in Scotland. Estimates cannot be provided at NHS board level, as the PTI practice sample is not representative at board level.

Information on small businessesin the form requested is not held centrally. However,information on the number and rateable value of non-domestic properties which maybe eligible for relief under the Small Business Bonus scheme is available for thelocal authority area concerned on the Scottish Assessors Portal (www.saa.gov.uk). This information is shown asfollows:

Number of Properties by Local Authority Area	Rateable Value of Property
	Up to  £8,000	£8,001-£10,000	£10,001-£15,000	Total up to £15,000
North Ayrshire	3,075	257	401	3,733

Notes:

(i) The rateable value rangesshown in the table correspond to those on page 12 of the Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007.

(ii) The table shows the numberof non-domestic properties with rateable values of up to £15,000 in all of the NorthAyrshire local authority area.

(iii) The number of eligiblebusinesses will be lower than the number of non-domestic properties in each area,because some businesses have more than one property. This may affect eligibilityfor relief under the Small Business Bonus Scheme, which will depend on:

the combined rateable value ofall properties in Scotland properties in Scotland for which the business is liable to pay rates;

whether the property is eligiblefor one of the existing rates relief schemes, and

the level of other public sectorassistance received by the business.

The decision on whetherto bid to host the 2015 Rugby World Cup or the 2016 European Football Championshipis ultimately a matter for the Scottish Rugby Union and the Scottish Football Associationto take following consultation with the Scottish Government.

The informationavailable is shown in table 1.

Table1: Number of Babies born at Gestations of 28 Weeks or Less and 37 Weeks or Lessand How Many of these Babies Survived; Scotland, 1999 - 2005

at 28 weeks gestation or less	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
live births1	258	304	269	253	283	285	290
stillbirth2	83	101	73	82	72	88	89
deaths within first month (neonatal death)2	99	107	97	79	96	91	91
number of babies surviving at 28 days3	159	197	172	174	187	194	199
deaths from 1st month to end of first year (postneonatal death)2	9	22	13	18	17	16	19
number of babies surviving at one year4	150	175	159	156	170	178	180

 

at 37 weeks gestation or less	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
live births1	6,880	6,749	6,378	6,424	6,690	6,743	6,532
stillbirths2	210	226	216	204	228	234	203
deaths within first month (neonatal death)2	138	160	142	115	147	126	131
number of babies surviving at 28 days3	6742	6589	6236	6309	6543	6617	6401
deaths from 1st month to end of first year (postneonatal death) 2	26	45	32	46	46	38	42
number of babies surviving at one year 4	6,716	6,544	6,204	6,263	6,497	6,579	6,359

Source:SMR02 Maternity and Neonatal Linked Database.

Notes:

1.Live births recorded from SMR02 (maternity hospital discharge summary).

2.Still births and infant deaths recorded from Scottish Stillbirth and InfantDeath (SSBID) returns.

3.Babies surviving at 28 days = total live births - deaths within first month.

4.Babies surviving after 1 year = total live births - deaths within first month -deaths from first month to end of first year.

 

We are committed toincreasing nursery entitlement for three and four-year-olds by 50% and to provideaccess to a teacher for every child in pre-school, starting in deprived communities.Initial steps towards achieving these commitments were announced by the CabinetSecretary for Education and Lifelong Learning on 20 June 2007 and we are working with partners in local governmentto consider further steps in this process.

The Chartered Teacherproject is open to all teachers at the top of the main grade salary scale who havemaintained a CPD Portfolio. There are two routes available to teachers: the programmeroute (a twelve module masters degree), and the accreditation route (involving thesubmission of a portfolio‑based claim against the Standard for Chartered Teacher).Candidates are expected to meet the costs of which ever route they undertake. Sixsalary increments are available, one on completion of every two modules or all sixon completion of the accreditation route.

The Chartered Teacherproject is currently being reviewed and a report to the Scottish ministers is expectedlater this month. We will publish the report, along with our response, followingdue consideration of its recommendations.