Chamber and committees

Provision to meet the costs arising from the abolition of Advanced Corporation Tax credits increased from £27 million in 1999-2000 to £38.5 million in 2000-01. This increase accounts for 4.8% of the 3.7% increase in local authority current expenditure in 2000-01.

The total value of the actual cash (gross) expenditure on capital assets for the previous two financial years and the planned capital expenditure for the current financial year and the next two years, funded from the Scottish Consolidated Fund is given in the following table. Any analysis of the Executive's capital investment should also include capital investment levered in through the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and separate tables are shown below on this.

Table 1

Portfolio main	1997-98 actual	1998-99 actual	1999-2000 planned	2000-01 planned	2001-02 planned
	£ million
Local authority	4	4	13	6	7
Children and Central Government Education	38	35	38	44	50
Communities	161	285	276	347	328
Crown Office	1	1	2	1	1
Enterprise and Lifelong Learning	275	231	286	276	324
EU Structural Funds	84	88	106	74	98
Forestry	0	0	43	53	56
Health	23	22	64	32	34
Justice	43	37	55	46	52
New Deal	9	27	27	27	27
Rural Affairs	33	25	30	30	32
Scottish Executive Administration	10	11	23	21	17
Scottish Executive Associated Departments	2	1	2	3	1
Scottish Parliament	0	0	29	54	23
Transport and Environment	330	299	411	381	386
Unallocated Capital Modernisation Fund	0	0	0	13	13
	1,013	1,066	1,405	1,408	1,448

Note: The majority of capital expenditure by the Executive's Department and Agencies is in the form of loans and grants to third parties. This expenditure, along with the Department's own expenditure is included in Table 1.

The departmental capital expenditure expressed as a percentage of total departmental expenditure is given in Table 2.

Table 2

Portfolio main	1997-98% of total spend	1998-99% of total spend	1999-2000% of total spend	2000-01% of total spend	2001-02% of total spend
Local Authority	0.06	0.07	0.23	0.11	0.11
Children and Central Government Education	6.76	5.35	5.07	5.36	5.65
Communities	37.64	50.06	50.19	52.34	47.87
Crown Office	2.71	2.04	2.98	1.20	1.21
Enterprise and Lifelong Learning	15.12	13.42	15.25	14.67	16.25
EU Structural Funds	51.77	54.82	51.14	57.13	57.43
Executive Secretariat	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Food Standards agency	0.00	0.00	0.00	2.73	2.81
Forestry	0.00	0.00	245.79	190.68	187.42
Health	0.52	0.47	1.26	0.61	0.61
Justice	8.87	7.74	9.28	8.64	9.42
New Deal	100.00	99.49	100.00	100.00	100.00
Rural Affairs	6.54	4.45	5.54	5.35	5.40
Scottish Executive	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Scottish Executive Administration	7.07	7.30	13.03	12.69	10.55
Scottish Executive Associated Departments	17.46	14.58	15.54	18.56	4.16
Scottish Parliament	0.00	0.00	46.79	58.71	36.84
Transport and Environment	61.24	58.60	76.77	67.57	65.67
Unallocated Capital Modernisation Fund	0.00	0.00	0.00	100.00	100.00

The year-by-year percentage change of Capital spend in Real Terms (1998-99 prices) is shown in Table 3

Table 3

Portfolio main	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
Local Authority		-0.2	245.0	-53.7	5.2
Children and Central Government Education		-10.4	5.4	11.8	12.5
Communities		71.5	-5.6	22.9	-7.9
Crown Office		-21.0	57.3	-64.8	-2.4
Enterprise and Lifelong Learning		-18.5	20.9	-5.7	14.4
EU Structural Funds		0.9	18.5	-31.6	28.7
Executive Secretariat		0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Food Standards agency		0.0	0.0	0.0	-2.4
Forestry		0.0	0.0	19.9	2.4
Health		-8.1	188.5	-50.9	3.0
Justice		-16.2	44.4	-18.4	9.7
New Deal		190.5	-2.1	-2.5	-2.4
Rural Affairs		-26.3	16.1	-4.3	4.3
Scottish Executive		0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Scottish Executive Administration		1.6	112.0	-10.1	-21.5
Scottish Executive Associated Departments		-50.0	93.9	65.6	-74.6
Scottish Parliament		0.0	0.0	81.2	-58.4
Transport and Environment		-12.2	34.5	-9.6	-1.0
Unallocated Capital Modernisation Fund		0.0	0.0	0.0	-1.4
Total		1.9	28.9	-2.2	0.3

Capital Expenditure Levered in to Scottish Block services through PFI (£0.00 million, cash terms)

Agreed PFI deals	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
Local Authorities	10.4	51.1	62.5	40.3	3.8
Water & Sewerage	10.0	30.0	101.0	164.0	10.0
Further & Higher Education	2.6	0	7.3	11.4	5.5
Health	6.4	113.0	145.0	109.0	46.0
Law & Order	5.0	27.0
National Roads & Transport	41.0	45.0	10.0
Social Work		2.2	0.8
Total	75.4	268.3	326.6	324.7	65.3

Capital Expenditure Levered in to Scottish Block services through PFI (£0.00 million, cash terms)

Future PFI deals	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
Local Authorities			6.7	164.5	289.2
Water & Sewerage			20.0	205.0	83.0
Further & Higher Education
Health			23.0	68.0	46.0
National Roads & Transport
Social Work
Total			49.7	437.0	418.2
Grand Total	75.4	268.3	376.3	761.7	483.5

Figures comprise Local Authorities, Central Govt Departments and other Public Bodies.

The computerised random selection of questions for Question Time takes place on Wednesday each week, as soon as possible after 2pm. The Visual Basic random number generator (a function of the programming language that underpins the Word template) utilises a variable derived from the current date to create and assign a random number to each question in turn. The questions are then sorted in ascending order of their attached random number. On average between 50 and 60 questions are lodged each week for Question Time, so each question has approximately a 50% chance of being selected. First Minister's questions are not of course selected by this method.

Employment Policy is reserved to the UK Government which therefore takes the lead on the funding and delivery of the New Deal throughout Great Britain, although in close consultation with its partners, including the Scottish Executive. Many partner organisations at local level also provide New Deal services under contract or provide funds and other resources, including training funds to enhance the quality of New Deal in their areas. The public and voluntary sector organisations, which contribute to the New Deal in this way, fall within the remit of the Scottish Executive.

Since the New Deal for Young People was introduced, 23,000 people have been employed in subsidised and unsubsidised jobs (up until the end of February).

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 as indicated in the answer to question S1W-6437 also answered today.

PQ S1W-6438 also covers the answer to this question.

Employment policy is reserved for 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 as indicated in the answer to question S1W-6437 also answered today.

The unit of delivery tables below detail the number of young people who have moved into unsubsidised employment and the numbers who have joined the New Deal for Young People since it was introduced (up until the end of January).

	Joined	Entered Unsubsidised Employment
Ayrshire	4,514	1,789
Tayside	4,333	1,818
Borders	722	316
Dumfries & Galloway	1,266	489
Dunbarton	1,991	873
Edinburgh, East & Mid Lothian	3,666	1,484
Fife	3,683	1,529
Forth Valley	2,663	1,085
Glasgow	8,934	3,009
Grampian	1,775	701
Moray, Strathspey & Badenoch	408	204
Lanarkshire	6,722	2,905
Renfrewshire	2,885	1,246
West Lothian	1,117	557
Argyll & The Islands	494	217
Caithness & Sutherland	278	102
Inverness & Nairn	478	205
Lochaber	90	52
Western Isles	221	84
Orkney	73	27
Ross & Cromarty	337	160
Shetland	60	27
Skye & Lochalsh	85	35

Scottish Executive Ministers have attended the following EU Councils of Ministers:

Year	Date	Council	Location	Minister	Portfolio
1999	24-25 Sept	Informal Meeting of Ministers of Education	Tampere, Finland	Sam Galbraith	Minister for Children and Education
	26 October	Fisheries Council	Luxembourg	John Home Robertson	Deputy Minister for Rural Affairs
	22 Nov	Fisheries Council	Brussels	John Home Robertson	Deputy Minister for Rural Affairs
	13-14 Dec	Environment Council	Brussels	Sarah Boyack	Minister for Transport and the Environment
	14-15 Dec	Agriculture Council	Brussels	Ross Finnie	Minister for Rural Affairs
	16-17 Dec	Fisheries Council	Brussels	John Home Robertson	Deputy Minister for Rural Affairs
2000	17 March	Informal Education Council	Lisbon	Nicol Stephen	Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning
	20-21 March	Agriculture Council	Brussels	Ross Finnie	Minister for Rural Affairs

I am currently considering the need for a wide-ranging review of the diligence system as a whole. Any such review would include consideration of the periodic updating of the Tables in Schedule 2 to the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987.

The Scottish Executive contributed to the UK government's response to the European Commission's e-Europe initiative. I refer to my reply to question S1W-5821.

The Diet Action Plan contains 71 recommendations for action to be taken over a 10-year period to improve Scotland's diet. The wide range of action taking place at both national and local level demonstrates that steady progress is being made with implementation. It is my intention to bring together a range of individuals and interests in the near future to assess progress to date and to address how we might give added impetus to our work on improving diet.

This is a complex area but is one which we must handle effectively if we are to bring about sustainable improvement in the health of the Scottish people. Scotland's diet will not be improved overnight, not least because of the population's strong cultural attachment to unhealthy dietary behaviours. A number of sources are being utilised to track ongoing change in Scots' eating habits. These include the Scottish Health Survey, the UK National Food Survey, the UK Diet and Nutrition Survey and the Infant Feeding Survey. The work of the Food Standards Agency, which was established on 3 April, will also contribute to the monitoring of change in the Scottish diet.