Chamber and committees

Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government which takes the lead on funding and delivery of Welfare to Work programmes. In Scotland it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing organisations.The New Deal for Lone Parents is available on a voluntary basis in the Dumbarton parliamentary constituency. Following a qualifying period of unemployment Jobcentre Plus clients are eligible to join the New Deal for Young People and the New Deal for the Long Term Unemployed. Both these programmes have targets to achieve parity of outcomes for those clients from Minority Ethnic Groups.Action Teams for Jobs, available in three Dumbarton wards - Dumbarton North, Dumbarton West and Dumbarton Central, is a programme which aims to increase employment rates amongst disadvantaged groups in employment deprived areas. This programme is available to lone parents and ethnic minorities. The action team has co-funded two One Plus Child Care training courses to help address child minding problems of lone parents returning to work. The action team is also able to provide additional funding to lone parents not available through mainstream provision.A number of disadvantaged groups have early access to the Training for Work programme (TfW). TfW offers a selection of work focused training opportunities and, in the Dunbartonshire area, is enhanced by the JOBlink project and by the Adult Recruitment and Training Credit that is available to employers recruiting unemployed TfW eligible clients.

The Scottish Further Education Funding Council has been responsible for allocating funds to further education colleges since 1 July 1999, when it took over that responsibility from the Scottish Office Education and Industry Department. The annual allocations to Clydebank College were as follows:

Year	£
1997-98	7,432,900
1998-99	8,346,450
1999-2000	8,386,494
2000-01	9,058,602
2001-02	13,078,008

The amount of additional funding, provided from the spending review in 2002 over the three years 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06, was as follows:

	£ million
Police	317
Fire	72
Prisons	15

The breakdown for Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire is not available as it is a matter for the relevant Chief Constable, Fire Master or Chief Executive (in conjunction with the Prison Board) to decide how much is allocated within each area. However, the amounts added to Strathclyde Police and Strathclyde Fire Brigade Grant Aided Expenditure, following the spending review were as follows.

	2003-04(£ million)	2004-05(£ million)	2005-06(£ million)
Police	18	41	71
Fire	5	10	16

Tuition fees have been abolished for Scottish domiciled and EU students studying full-time higher education courses in Scotland. This support is not repayable and is available to all eligible full-time students to undertake one first degree, or comparable course of higher education, provided they have not previously undertaken such a course with assistance from public funds. This support is paid irrespective of the students' family income.Scottish domiciled students who study full-time higher education (HE) courses elsewhere in the UK make an annual means tested contribution of up to £1,100 towards the cost of their tuition. Such students from low-income families will, therefore, have their tuition fees paid on their behalf by SAAS.In the current academic year there are 2,018 undergraduate students from Argyll and Bute and 1,808 undergraduate students from West Dunbartonshire local authority area who have had their tuition fees waived. Scottish domiciled students who study part-time HE courses in Scotland can apply to their institution to waive their fees if they have a disability, are claiming benefits or are from a low income family. Information on the number of part-time students who have their fees waived is not held centrally. Students studying at institutions overseas generally do not receive tuition fee support.

The statutory scheme of drink-drive rehabilitation courses is a reserved matter. The Department for Transport, which administers the scheme, has commissioned research into the operation of these courses and their effectiveness in discouraging reoffending since the creation of a permanent scheme in January 2000. The research will cover Scotland and the Scottish Executive will have access to the results of that evaluation as soon as they are available. Monitoring of the pilot scheme, which ended in 1999, found that those offenders who had attended a course were between two and three times less likely to re-offend than those who had not.

Young Scottish students studying full-time higher education courses in Scotland from 2001-02 are entitled to an annual Young Students' Bursary (YSB) of up to £2,050, which replaces part of their loan support. Young Scottish students studying elsewhere in the UK for the first time from 2002-03 onwards are entitled to an annual Young Students' Outside Scotland Bursary (YSO) of up to £510, which is provided in addition to their student loan entitlement. Both bursaries are provided as an entitlement based on the level of parental income and eligibility is assessed as part of the overall assessment of eligibility for student support.In the current academic year, to date, 21,384 YSB awards and 317 Young Students' Outside Scotland Bursary awards have been made, of whom 403 were domiciled in Argyll and Bute and 450 were domiciled in West Dunbartonshire.Non-repayable supplementary grants are also available for those students who have additional financial needs, such as students who have dependants or who have a disability. Additional discretionary grants are available from individual colleges and universities for new mature students with child care costs and for any student who faces particular financial difficulties, which might prevent them from accessing or continuing their course.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-33868 on 17 February 2003. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

Spend by a local authority on crime prevention is a matter for that local authority. The information is not held centrally.Under the Make our Communities Safer Challenge Competition, which ended in March 2002, the awards detailed in the following tables were made:Argyll and Bute

1996-97	Campbeltown Town Centre CCTVDunoon Town Centre CCTVHelensburgh Town Centre CCTV	£11,700£76,288£23,544
1997-98	Oban Town Centre CCTV	£71,000
1998-99	Rothesay Town Centre CCTV	£63,300
1999-2000		£0
2000-01	Campbeltown CCTV	£9,500
2001-02	Dunoon New Community Schools	£8,100

West Dunbartonshire

1996-97	Clydebank Town Centre CCTV	£108,490
1997-98	Clydebank Town Centre CCTVDumbarton CCTV	£27,000£63,000
1998-99		£0
1999-2000	Dumbarton Town Centre CCTV	£160,000
2000-01	New Bonhill CCTV	£140,000
2001-02	Clydebank Trust CCTVYouth Shelters	£129,440£18,500

On 1 April 2002, we introduced a new Community Safety Partnership Award Programme for all council-led Community Safety Partnerships. For 2002-03, Argyll and Bute Community Safety Partnership were awarded £84,127 to address local community safety priorities, West Dunbartonshire Community Safety Partnership were awarded £118,491.

Councils' expenditure on home care services is funded through the general local government settlement. Between 1997-98 and 2001-02, Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire Councils' net expenditure on home care services increased by 26% to £3.7million and by 28% to £3.0 million respectively. The following tables show the number of clients in receipt of care at home in each of these areas from 1997. Argyll and Bute Home Care Clients

Year	No. of Clients	No. of Clients over 65
1997	1,033	855
1998	1,007	906
1999	949	814
2000	972	829
2001	927	786
2002	957	827

Source: SEHD H1 Home Care Return.West Dunbartonshire Home Care Clients

Year	No. of Clients	No. of Clients over 65
1997	1,641	1,490
1998	1,699	1,449
1999	1,760	1,388
2000	1,767	1,387
2001	1,558	1,244
2002	1,647	1,300

Source: SEHD H1 Home Care Return.

Young Scottish students studying full-time higher education courses in Scotland from 2001-02 are entitled to an annual Young Students' Bursary (YSB) of up to £2,050, which replaces part of their loan support. Young Scottish students studying elsewhere in the UK for the first time from 2002-03 onwards are entitled to an annual Young Students' Outside Scotland Bursary (YSO) of up to £510, which is provided in addition to their student loan entitlement. Both bursaries are provided as an entitlement based on the level of parental income and eligibility is assessed as part of the overall assessment of eligibility for student support.In academic year 2001-02, there were 13,579 recipients of YSB. In the current academic year, to date, 21,384 YSB awards and 317 YSO awards have been made. The following table shows the percentage of recipients domiciled in each area since the bursaries were introduced.

Area	% in 2001-02	% in 2002-03
(a) Argyll and Bute	1.80	1.86
(b) West Dunbartonshire	1.97	2.07
(c) Dumbarton	1.45	1.76