Chamber and committees

The information requested on Public Transport Fund projects can be found in the regional leaflets associated with the Scottish Executive transport delivery report, Scotland's Transport: Delivering Improvements, which was published in March 2002 and is available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/transport/stdi-00.asp. Details of a further 23 projects which received awards from the Public Transport Fund were announced on 14 November 2002 in Scottish Executive News Release SE5394/2002.Details of the distribution to local authorities of £20 million for road and bridge repairs were announced on 25 February 2002 in Scottish Executive News Release SEET181/2002. Allocations of an additional £15 million to improve local roads were announced on 31 January 2003 in Scottish Executive News Release SEet255/2003.

West Dunbartonshire Council received a total of £190,357 in Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) grant in the years 1997-98 to 2001-02 to provide a range of support services for people who slept rough, or were at risk of doing so. Argyll and Bute Council received £397,360. A further £104,347 per annum has been transferred to West Dunbartonshire's Revenue Support Grant and a further £114,480 per annum to Argyll and Bute's Revenue Support Grant to ensure the continuation of these services. In May 2001 there were no people identified as sleeping rough in West Dunbartonshire in the two week period covered by the study; in the same two-week period in 2002 there were three people who identified themselves to RSI services as having slept rough. In May 2001 the total number of people identified as sleeping rough in Argyll and Bute in the two-week period covered by the study was eight. In the same two-week period in 2002 the number was four.Both councils are currently preparing Homelessness Strategies, and revising their RSI local outcome agreements. In doing so, both councils have taken into account the findings of earlier research to ensure the wider availability of services and accommodation across their areas and the fact that they now have a statutory duty to provide, at minimum, temporary accommodation, advice and assistance for anyone assessed as homeless.

Information on households with children in temporary accommodation, having being placed there by the local authority under the homelessness legislation, has been collected centrally since June 2000. Information on the position (numbers and proportions) within each local authority area is available at the end of June, September, December and March each year since 2000. This information has been published in various Scottish Executive Statistical Bulletins/Statistics Releases, as shown in the table, which are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre.

Period	Table No.	Bulletin Ref. No.	Publication Date	Bib. Number
June 2000 to March 2001	22	HSG/2001/4	27 Sep 2001	16396
June 2001	28	HSG/2001/6	18 Dec 2001	18220
September 2001	23	HSG/2002/1	26 March 2002	20348
December 01 and March 02	13	Stats Release	24 Sep 2002	24382
June 2002	4	Stats Release	17 Dec 2002	25719
September 2002	4	Stats Release	11 Feb 2003	26454

These publications may also be found on the Published Data section of the Housing Statistics Branch Reference Website (www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/housing/hsbref).Homeless households with children may be placed in temporary accommodation for a variety of different reasons. In the main, this will be an interim short-term measure on the route to permanent accommodation. The Executive is concerned to ensure that the temporary accommodation provided for homeless households with children is of a satisfactory standard and is committed to ending the use of B&B for this purpose. To this end, funding has been provided to the authorities with most children in bed and breakfast (B&B) to provide alternative forms of temporary accommodation for homeless families, of which £289,000 was allocated to Argyll and Bute. All authorities have also received funding to increase the availability of suitable temporary accommodation more generally, following the implementation of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001.Guidance issued on the development of homelessness strategies also makes clear that these strategies should clearly identify which forms of non-permanent or intermediate accommodation are appropriate, and emphasises that the use of B&B provision for families should be eliminated. Strategies are due to be submitted by the end of March 2003.

It is for the individual partnership to determine the level of involvement of people with learning disabilities or other special interest groups. In July 1999 we produced comprehensive guidance Safer Communities in Scotland to assist Community Safety Partnerships to create the framework necessary to develop strategies and action plans. The guidance recommends that as a minimum partnerships should involve at a senior level, the local authority, police, health board and/or trust and the fire service. It also stresses that partnerships should consider the role of the private and voluntary sectors, housing associations and racial equality/community relations councils either as members of the core partnership group, or by being involved in specific working groups etc.In preparing a community safety strategy, partnerships are encouraged to undertake a community safety audit and to consult the community to enable them to be actively involved in setting priorities.

The information requested is given in the following table.Mortality Rates from Coronary Heart Disease¹ Per 100,000 Population², 1996-2001

Year	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
West Dunbartonshire	323	338	287	290	272	266
Argyll and Bute	348	356	308	295	294	286

Notes:1. International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes 410-414 (1996 to 1999) and Tenth Revision codes I20-I25 (2000 and 2001), ischaemic heart disease.2. The rates have been calculated using the latest available mid-year population estimates. Those for 1996 to 2000 are subject to revision to make them consistent with population results from the 2001 Census. The rates have not been age standardised.

Education maintenance allowances (EMAs) were first piloted in West Dunbartonshire from the start of academic year 2001-02. Five hundred and twenty-six West Dunbartonshire young people received EMAs during 2001-02 and in year 2002-03 there are currently 680 being paid EMA.EMAs are not available to young people in Argyll and Bute unless they attend a secondary school in West Dunbartonshire. In 2001-02, five Argyll and Bute young people received EMAs and in 2002-03 there are 10.

Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire Council have benefited from additional resources for a range of specific initiatives. The following tables give details of some of the largest additional funds that have been allocated to the councils outwith the main revenue settlement since 1997.

Argyll and Bute (£ million)	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Housing Revenue Account Allocations	1.582	1.607	1.607	1.607	1.607	1.607
Criminal Justice Social Work Services	0.347	0.354	0.395	0.408	0.516	0.510
Pre-School Education Grant1	1.221	2.094	2.3740.074	2.6330.105	0.125
Better Neighbourhood Services Fund					0.600	0.900	1.200
Strategic Waste Fund				0.080	1.100	1.810

West Dunbartonshire (£ million)	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Housing Revenue Account Allocations	5.569	5.657	5.657	5.657	5.657	5.657
Criminal Justice Social Work Services	0.668	0.714	0.779	0.884	0.992	1.037
Pre-School Education Grant1	1.074	2.248	2.3410.044	1.6820.123	0.151
Better Neighbourhood Services Fund					2.000	3.000	4.000
Strategic Waste Fund				0.046		0.138

Note:From 2002-03, Pre-School Education Grant is paid through general revenue grant.

The general revenue grant settlement allocations, with percentage increases, for Argyll and Bute Council are:

	£ Million	%
1997-98	108.035	-1.83%*
1998-99	107.728	-0.28%*
1999-2000	110.884	2.93%
2000-01	113.524	2.38%
2001-02	121.880	7.36%
2002-03	136.675	12.14%
2003-04	149.062	9.06%
2004-05	158.074	6.05%
2005-06	163.427	3.39%

The general revenue grant settlement allocations, with percentage increases, for West Dunbartonshire Council are:

	£ Million	%
1997-98	106.067	-7.68%*
1998-99	105.610	-0.43%*
1999-2000	110.152	4.30%
2000-01	112.855	2.45%
2001-02	123.778	9.68%
2002-03	135.502	9.47%
2003-04	146.596	8.19%
2004-05	152.456	4.00%
2005-06	158.714	4.10%

Note:*The allocations for 1997-98 and 1998-99 reflect transfers of responsibility out of general grant (e.g. for funding the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority) and the phasing out of transitional arrangements following local government reorganisation.

Two distinct groups are eligible for concessionary travel in Scotland - elderly people and disabled people. Data on the number of disabled people eligible for concessionary travel is not held centrally.All men and women aged 60 and over will be eligible for concessionary travel from 1 April 2003 when men aged 60 to 64 are added to those currently eligible. The 2001 census results show a total of 12,845 men and women aged 60 and over in the Dumbarton parliamentary constituency and 19,353 in the West Dunbartonshire local authority area.

Funding for concessionary travel is allocated to local authorities as part of their unhypothecated general block grant allocation. Strathclyde Passenger Transport (SPT) has been delegated as the administrator of the Strathclyde Concessionary Travel Joint Committee, and allocation of funds to SPT is a matter for the 12 unitary authorities within its area.