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Marlin Lodge, Newton Mearns

Mr. Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what plans he has for the future use of Marlin lodge, Newton Mearns. [11657]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: The national roads directorate proposes, subject to planning approval, to use Marlin lodge as a temporary office from which the contractor and the Scottish Office's site representative would manage site operations during the Dumbreck to Malletsheugh's three-year maintenance period. A planning application for a "change of use" for the property has been lodged with East Renfrewshire council.

When the land required for the adjacent road scheme is identified, it is expected that Marlin lodge and any surplus land will be disposed of in line with the statutory guidelines.

23 Jan 1997 : Column: 742

Employment (Glasgow)

Mr. Marshall: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what estimate he has made of the number of manufacturing jobs that have been (a) created and (b) lost in the city of Glasgow in each of the last five years. [11865]

Mr. Kynoch: Statistical information relating to the creation of new jobs and the loss of existing ones is not available. The 1991 and 1993 censuses of employment and the 1995 annual employment survey identify the total number of employees in employment at specific points of time.

The table sets out the number of people employed in the manufacturing sector in the last three census of employment years.

Manufacturing employees in employment: Former city of Glasgow district

	Manufacturing	Total employees in employment
1991	46,700	336,700
1993	37,200	322,000
1995	37,600	330,600

Source:

Office for National Statistics.

Glasgow Regeneration Alliance

Mr. David Marshall: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what assessment he has made of the work of the Glasgow regeneration alliance since it was established; and if he will make a statement. [11867]

Mr. Raymond S. Robertson: The Glasgow regeneration alliance has an important role to perform in bringing together bodies and interests concerned with regeneration activities in the city. Officials from the Scottish Office attend meetings of the executive officers group of the alliance as observers. No assessment of the alliance's performance has been made. The Scottish Office will be monitoring progress in the individual priority partnership areas and the regeneration programme in Glasgow.

Mental Illness Specific Grant

Dr. Godman: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, pursuant to his answer of 12 December, Official Report, column 329-30, if he will place in the Library a copy of the report prepared by the Nuffield centre for community care studies, Glasgow university, relating to the mental illness specific grant; and if he will make a statement. [12019]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: When the report is finalised, it will be published and copies placed in the Library.

Irvine Development Corporation

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much the Scottish Office has received as a capital receipt from (a) the Irvine housing association and (b) the North Ayrshire council, following the disposal of the housing stock of Irvine development corporation; and how many properties were transferred to each landlord. [11916]

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Mr. Kynoch: Proceeds realised by Irvine development corporation from the disposal of its housing stock and numbers of houses sold are shown in the table. Of the receipts shown, £20.8 million contributed to the total repayment of £52.7 million made by the corporation to my right hon. Friend during wind-up.

	Capital receipt	Number of properties
	£ million
Irvine housing association	12,541	1,576
North Ayrshire council	20,046	1,978

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much the Scottish Office has raised from the disposal of the commercial assets of Irvine development corporation. [11917]

Mr. Kynoch: Proceeds from the disposal of industrial, office, retail and other commercial property and land owned by Irvine development corporation contributed £31.9 million to the total repayment of £52.7 million made by the corporation to my right hon. Friend during wind-up.

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland which body had responsibility for setting the housing allocation policy relating to the properties disposed of by Irvine development corporation during the transfer of its housing stock to other landlords; and which body retains the records of housing allocations made during this period. [11919]

Mr. Kynoch: Irvine development corporation had responsibility for housing allocation policy prior to the transfers of its stock. Since the transfers, North Ayrshire council and Irvine housing association have this responsibility. The records of housing allocations were passed to the new landlords.

New Homes

Mr. Chisholm: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many new homes were started by (a) local authorities, (b) new towns and (c) housing associations in each year since 1974. [12045]

Mr. Raymond S. Robertson: The information requested is set out in the table.

New housebuilding starts--Scotland 1974 to 1995

Period	Local authority	New towns	Scottish homes(30)	Housing associations
1974	16,324	2,600	2,578	660
1975	12,326	3,683	2,612	592
1976	7,572	2,665	2,547	1,362
1977	5,829	1,673	1,631	629
1978	4,185	2,202	1,174	1,365
1979	4,858	984	1,046	963
1980	2,770	1,155	1,511	1,261
1981	1,929	733	223	1,051
1982	2,585	765	613	2,446
1983	2,141	194	468	1,068
1984	1,755	126	493	1,239
1985	1,693	190	324	1,487
1986	1,671	141	580	1,414
1987	2,145	374	453	1,988
1988	1,433	495	573	2,068
1989	871	680	175	2,748
1990	886	720	27	2,111
1991	864	134	37	3,448
1992	429	395	--	3,051
1993	503	429	--	5,020
1994	568	208	--	4,886
1995	308	160	--	5,413

(30) Scottish special housing association prior to 1 April 1989.

23 Jan 1997 : Column: 744

School Boards

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, pursuant to his answer of 2 December 1996, Official Report, column 562, when he expects the information requested on number of school boards to be available and if he will arrange for it to be sent to the hon. Member for Cunninghame, South. [12133]

Mr. Raymond S. Robertson: Provisional results of the most recent round of school board biennial elections, conducted in 1995-96, were published on Tuesday 21 January by the Government statistical service. I have arranged for the relevant information to be sent to the hon. Member.

More detailed information on the outcome of the elections, including a breakdown of boards by education authority area, will be published once the results are confirmed. This information will be sent to the hon. Member on publication.

Sex Offenders

Mr. Dalyell: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, pursuant to his letter of 16 October 1996, AAB 03104.106, what assessment he has made of the programmes for sex offenders in prisons cited in his letter. [10826]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: A formal evaluation of the sexual offender programme at Peterhead was carried out by the social work research centre at the university of Stirling. It was commissioned to provide insight into the issues associated with establishing an intervention programme within an institutional setting; to assess the impact of establishing the programme on the prisoners and staff of HMP Peterhead; and to explore the feasibility of such programmes in other establishments in the Scottish prison system. The study was not able to consider the programme's impact on reoffending, as an insufficient number of prisoners have so far been released back into the community to allow any meaningful conclusions to be drawn. The report will be published shortly.

The operation of the programme at Peterhead has also been assessed on two occasions by Professor William Marshall, of Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, who is one of the world's leading authorities on the treatment of sexual offenders.

Plans are in hand to commission an 18-month evaluation of the programme at Barlinnie. The aim will be to assess the impact of the programme on the attitudes and behaviour of prisoners participating; to examine the links between the prison-based programme and equivalent

23 Jan 1997 : Column: 745

community-based provision for monitoring, supporting and counselling sexual offenders on release back into the community; and to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme in preventing those sexual offenders who have been on the programme from committing further sexual offences. It is expected that the contract to undertake this work will be issued in March or April.

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