Chamber and committees

Authorities' bids for support under these arrangements are under consideration. I expect to announce details of our decisions early in January 2001.

Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government which takes the lead on the New Deal. In Scotland it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing organisations.

Figures to end-October show that 5,050 young people had entered the voluntary sector option, 5,590 had entered the environmental task force option and 9,530 had entered the full-time education and training option.

Comprehensive information on whether young people left their options having completed them or before having done so is not collected in that form. The New Deal aims to help unemployed people to move as quickly as possible from welfare into unsubsidised employment. Many young people will leave their New Deal options before completing them because they have found jobs in the regular labour market and are no longer unemployed. Young people do not therefore need to complete their New Deal options in order to succeed in the programme.

Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government which takes the lead on the New Deal. In Scotland it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing organisations.

The expenditure on the New Deal 18-24 programme in Scotland to November 2000 was £75.5 million This represents 8.72% of the GB New Deal 18-24 programme spend.

There is no national screening programme in Scotland for hepatitis C. Information about the cost of preventive health education and treatment provided by individual NHS Trusts and health boards is not collected centrally.

Information about the total cost to the NHS of treating patients with hepatitis C infection is not collected centrally.

Combination antiviral therapy using interferon alpha and ribavirin is proving a successful treatment in certain cases of hepatitis C infection. However, treatment has unpleasant side effects, is expensive and there is currently a clinical debate about its effectiveness. The cost of such therapy for six months is approximately £5,000.

Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government which takes the lead on the New Deal. In Scotland it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing organisations.

The average cost per participant in the New Deal for Young People is around £2,000.

Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government which takes the lead on the New Deal. In Scotland it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing organisations.

Figures to end-October show that 14,300 (66%) of the 21,800 sustained jobs secured through the New Deal for Young People were through the Gateway stage of the programme.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-10980.

The New Deal for Schools capital grant was introduced in financial year 1997-98 and provides additional capital resources of £115.7 million over five years for repairs to school buildings and to improve facilities for information and communications technology. The grant is distributed to all authorities in Scotland on a formula basis, with the detailed decisions concerning spending needs at particular schools being matters for the authorities. These additional resources are allowing many schools across Scotland to benefit from improvements to their fabric, ranging from capital minor works to work of a more extensive nature and including improved ICT facilities.

No recycling targets for local authorities have been set to date. These will be considered when the Executive has received guidance from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency following output from a working group which it has established as part of the implementation of the National Waste Strategy.