Chamber and committees

On Friday 8 October I announced that we are now able to provide the police in Scotland with a special grant of £4.7m to help meet the additional cost of policing over the Millennium holiday period. A supplementary estimate will be submitted to the Scottish Parliament.

Capital allocations to Police Boards, for the current financial year, were announced on 25 March 1999 and shown in the table below.

Force	Section 94 Allocation £'000	Gross Capital from Current Revenue £'000	Total Funding Available £'000
Central Scotland Police	344	309	653
Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary	651	246	897
Fife Constabulary	990	0	990
Grampian Police	1,234	750	1,984
Lothian and Borders Police	1,272	1,000	2,272
Northern Constabulary	2,711	0	2,711
Strathclyde Police	9,732	0	9,732
Tayside Police	830	150	980
TOTAL FUNDING	17,764	2,455	20,219

These allocations allow for expenditure on permitted capital projects including the provision of police cars. Boards are also able to spend capital receipts on capital.

In the last financial year, 1998-99, Scottish Women's Aid was awarded central Government funding totalling almost £370,000. In the same year a start-up grant of £20,000 was awarded to CHANGE (Men Learning to End Violence Against Women).In 1998-99 Victim Support Scotland received an ad hoc grant of £30,000 from The Scottish Office to meet the costs of providing a telephone counselling and advice service for those using the freephone helpline facility which was specifically set up to support The Scottish Office domestic abuse advertising campaign.In addition, Scottish Homes approved grant funding of £136,324 in 1998-99 on three projects for households that had suffered domestic violence. This grant funding related to the total provision of 20 units (39 bedspaces). Information about funding provided by public bodies at a local level to tackle domestic violence is not held centrally.The Scottish Executive is concerned about the welfare of all of those who are the victims of domestic violence and looks forward to receiving from the Scottish Partnership on Domestic Violence recommendations which will help formulate policy on how the problem may be addressed.

I am pleased to announce that the Scottish Executive is launching today the document Making It Work Together, which sets out how our agreement on policy as outlined in the Partnership for Scotland will be implemented and the timetable to which that will be achieved. Copies of the document have been sent directly to all MSPs, and it will be debated by the Parliament on 9 September.

The Scottish Partnership on Domestic Violence is expected to submit a revised Workplan and Timetable to the Scottish Executive in October 1999.

The Scottish Partnership on Domestic Violence was established in November 1998. The current membership is shown below:-

Mrs Anne Smith QC - Chairman

Cllr Margaret Smith - Aberdeen City Council

Mrs Oonagh Aitken - Fife Council

Mr John Harris - COSLA

Dr Carol Tannahill - Greater Glasgow Health Board

Mr Graeme Pearson - Strathclyde Police

Mrs Betty Bott - Crown Office for Scotland

Sheriff Daniel Convery

Ms Agnes Robertson - HMPI Cornton Vale

Mrs Caroline Graham - MacLeod and MacCallum (Solicitors)

Ms Lesley Irving - Scottish Women's Aid

Ms Claire Houghton - Scottish Women's Aid

Ms Alison Paterson - Victim Support Scotland

Ms Lily Greenan - Scottish Rape Crisis Network

Mrs Gillian Stewart - Scottish Executive, Social Work Services Group

Dr Anne MacDonald - Scottish Executive, Health Department

Miss Lorraine Harper - Scottish Executive, Education Department

Mr Richard Grant - Scottish Executive, Development Department

Mrs Micheline Brannan - Scottish Executive, Justice Department

Dr Sheila Henderson - Reid Howie Associates

Mr John Rowell, Scottish Executive, Justice Department

There are currently no plans to extend the trunk road network. The severe pressures on the trunk road budget would mean, in any event, that trunking would be an empty gesture.