Chamber and committees

Up to the end of June 2002, 2,800 of the 44,300 young people who had gone into jobs from the New Deal for Young People in Scotland, were from Renfrewshire. This represents 6.3% of the Scottish total.

People of working age in Renfrewshire Council area will continue to benefit from recent changes in tax and benefits. The UK Government is helping to make work pay through tax credits and the National Minimum Wage.Working in partnership, the UK Government and the Scottish Executive offer a range of welfare to work initiatives to help people of working age. Across Scotland, the New Deals are helping more unemployed people on benefits to find work. As set out in Smart, Successful, Scotland the Scottish Executive's enterprise strategy places an emphasis on improving learning and skills which will help improve the earning potential of working age people on low income. Local projects such as the community-based partnership Buddies for Learning Project, which provides literacy and numeracy support to adults in the social inclusion partnership areas in Renfrewshire, are helping local people to remove the barriers to employment.In addition, the Scottish Budget for 2003-06 as announced by the Executive will further help working people on low incomes through funding increases in areas such as skills and learning and entrepreneurship.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-31572 on 27 November 2002. 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.

Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government which takes the lead on funding and delivery of the New Deal. In Scotland it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing Scottish organisations.Both the New Deal for Disabled People and New Deal for Lone Parents are available on a voluntary basis in the Renfrewshire Council area. Additionally, people who face particular disadvantage may be granted early entry to other New Deal programmes without having to complete the qualifying period of unemployment.A new initiative, called progress2work, to help people with drugs problems will shortly be introduced by Jobcentre Plus into the Renfrewshire Council area. A further initiative along the same lines is being developed for other harder to help client groups.Early entry to the Training for Work programme is available to a wide range of groups who are particularly disadvantaged in the labour market, including lone parents, people with disabilities, those aged 50 and over and individuals resident in social inclusion partnership areas. Also there are individual New Futures Fund projects in Renfrewshire which help clients facing particular difficulties in entering the labour market.

The Executive has no initiatives directed specifically at the Renfrewshire Council area. Over the whole of Scotland, we have taken the following action:(a) On smoking:Following publication of the White Paper Smoking Kills in 1998 in which young people were identified as a priority group for action, Health Education Board for Scotland (HEBS) has been allocated an additional £3.4 million over three years (2001-04) from the Health Improvement Fund to target young people and smoking. This is in addition to their current anti-smoking budget.Since 1997 the HEBS has promoted non-smoking messages to young people, including 12- to 15-year-olds through their highly successful Think About It mass media campaign.In addition, within the schools sector, the 5-14 Health Education Guidelines developed in conjunction with HEBS address the issue of tobacco education, while the Health Promoting Schools approach focuses on the development of smoking policies in local authorities which includes schools.The Argyle and Clyde NHS Board appointed a Tobacco Co-ordinator in February 2000, overseeing a range of cessation services.(b) On teenage pregnancy:A Headline Target was set in the White Paper Towards a Healthier Scotland published in February 1999 of a 20% reduction in the rate of pregnancy among 13- to 15-year-olds for the period 1995-2010.In November 2000, the £3 million Healthy Respect project, one of four National Health Demonstration Projects which were proposed in the White Paper, was launched in Lothian and is still running. It aims to radically transform teenage attitudes to sexual health and sexual relationships, reduce the level of teenage pregnancies and prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections. The lessons learned will be applied across Scotland.In April 2000 a grant of £150,000 was made to Brook in Scotland (subsequently renamed Caledonia Youth) for start-up costs for four new drop-in centres in Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow and Falkirk. The Executive is also committed to a substantial contribution to running costs. The centre, in Glasgow, was opened by in May 2002 and will be accessible by young people from Renfrewshire.The Scottish Executive has announced its plans to develop a national sexual health strategy for Scotland. One of the strategy's main aims is to tackle the high level of unwanted teenage pregnancies in Scotland. An expert group has been established to assist in the development of the strategy, by harnessing the expertise of respected practitioners at both local and national level.(c) On suicides:On 2 December 2002, the Scottish Executive published a National Strategy and Action Plan to Prevent Suicide in Scotland, which highlights risk factors related to suicide, identifies priority groups (including young people) and sets out appropriate actions at both national and local levels.

(a) Information on the percentage of young people who have been smokers between the ages of 12 and 15 years in Renfrewshire Council area is not held centrally. Information for Scotland for 1998 and 2000 on the percentage of pupils aged 12-15 years who are or have been smokers is shown in the following table. Information for 1999 and 2001 is not available.Percentage of Pupils Aged 12-15 Years Who Are or Have Been Smokers

	1998	2000
Scotland	32	26

(b) All teenage pregnancy statistics, broken down by both NHS board and council area, are available on the website at:http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/isd/publications/publications.htm.The percentage of young people who have become pregnant between the ages of 13 and 15 years old for Scotland and Renfrewshire council area is shown in the following table:Percentage of Females Aged 13 to 15 Becoming Pregnant

Year ending 31 December
	Scotland	Renfrewshire
1997	0.9	0.9
1998	0.9	0.8
1999	0.8	1.1
2000P	0.8	0.8
2001P	0.7	0.7

^PInformation for 2000 and 2001 is provisional because North Glasgow University Hospitals Trust data are not yet available.(c) There are so few suicides in this age group that the figures expressed as a percentage are very small. The figures in the following tables, obtained from the Registrar General for Scotland, are given as rates per 1,000 of young people in the age group:Suicide and Undetermined Death Rates in Young People Between 12 and 15Renfrewshire

	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
Suicide	-	-	0.11	-	-
Undetermined	-	-	-	-	-
Total	-	-	-	-	-

Suicide and Undetermined Death Rates in Young People Between 12 and 15Scotland

	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
Suicide	-	0.02	0.01	-	-
Undetermined	0.02	0.01	0.01	0.02	-
Total	0.02	0.03	0.02	0.02	-

The annual average percentage of working age people who have been unemployed in the Renfrewshire Council area in each year from 1996 to 2001 is shown in the following table:

Year	Annual Average %
1996*	6.2
1997*	5.1
1998*	4.8
1999*	4.4
2000	3.8
2001	3.4

Note:*The annual average percentage of unemployed working age people will be subject to revisions for 1996 to 1999 when revised mid-year population estimates become available from analysis of the 2001 census.

While it is for NHS boards and trusts to effectively manage local services, the Scottish Executive remains committed to putting the policy frameworks in place and providing the resources to ensure that waiting times are kept to a minimum at each stage of the patient's journey. The National Waiting Times Unit is working with NHSScotland to reduce delays for patients. Since April this year, the unit has funded approximately 50 initiatives across in-patient, out-patient and day case activity to support the drive towards achieving local out-patient and national in-patient/day case targets. To date, the unit has allocated £459,000 to NHS Argyll and Clyde with further funding to be agreed. This initial allocation has facilitated the transfer of 154 patients to the National Waiting Times Centre for cardiology and orthopaedics treatment; the transfer of 72 patients to the private sector for general surgery and ENT treatment, and the recruitment of an orthopaedics consultant who will perform an additional 100 elective operations a year. There are also currently 29 One-Stop Clinics operated by NHS Argyll and Clyde providing services for patients for a wide range of conditions including diabetes, breast cancer and chest pain.

(a) Following publication of the White Paper Smoking Kills in 1998 the Scottish Executive allocated £1 million pounds per year to health boards to provide smoking cessation support to priority groups, pregnant women who smoke, young people and people on low incomes. Additional Health Improvement Funding has also been available for smoking cessation services since 2001. The Argyll and Clyde NHS Board appointed a Tobacco Co-ordinator in February 2000, overseeing a range of cessation services. The total number of clients given support in Paisley over the past two years is 866. Total clients given support in West Renfrewshire and Renfrew is 396. It should be noted that these figures represent the number of people seen for support and not the number of referrals (which is higher).In addition Zyban has been available on prescription since June 2000 and nicotine replacement therapy since in April 2001. (b) The Executive's Plan for Action on alcohol problems, published in January, sets out a range of national and local measures to reduce alcohol-related harm in Scotland. The plan requires Alcohol Action Teams, including the team covering Renfrewshire, to assess needs in their areas and produce local prevention, education and support and treatment strategies to address these by April 2003.(c) There are several food initiatives operating in Renfrewshire which aim to provide access to good quality, low cost fruit and vegetables to the community. These include the Foxbar Healthy Eating Initiative, Fresh Loaf Project, Johnston West Food Co-op and the Renfrewshire Food Federation. (d) The Executive is investing £6 million in Have a Heart Paisley, one of the four national demonstration projects, to reduce the impact of coronary heart disease in the population of Paisley and so suggest action than can be implemented widely to deliver similar benefits throughout Scotland as a whole. The project is taking forward wide ranging activities in many different settings across Paisley, with a particular focus on reducing health inequalities.

Since 1997, older people on low incomes in Renfrewshire have benefited from the combined effect of UK Government increases to the Basic State Retirement Pension, the introduction of the Minimum Income Guarantee, and the Winter Fuel Payment. In addition, a range of initiatives will help with levels of disposable income, including free off-peak bus travel, the Warm Deal, and the central heating programme, which is saving an average of £550 on bills.