Chamber and committees

Since 1 April 2000, 10 letters have been received from one Member of Parliament, four Members of the Scottish Parliament and five members of the public expressing concern about the release of an appellant pending the determination of his appeal in five specific appeal cases.

We remain committed to the ethos of sport for all regardless of age. Sportscotland has committed significant funds to widening opportunities and its target set in 2000 of increasing the percentage of adults over 55 participating in sport from 34% to 45% by 2003 was achieved by March 2001.The recently published census figures confirm that we have an ageing population in Scotland. It is one of the issues that has been highlighted during the current review of Sport 21 and it is one that will need to be addressed in the revised and updated national strategy for sport in Scotland to be published next year.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is continuously developing its procedures and decision-making processes in relation to issuing pollution prevention and control permits. SEPA is currently reviewing particular aspects of the application and determination process to ensure that no undue regulatory burdens are imposed on industry, whilst ensuring that permits continue to protect the environment. The Scottish Executive will consider whether any changes to SEPA's procedures, or to the relevant legislation, are necessary once the agency has completed its review. Following an extensive consultation, and in the light of experience since the regulations were first introduced two years ago, the Executive plans to introduce a number of amendments to the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2000 later this year.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-29089 on 20 September 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.

The Police Grant Aided Expenditure Working Group has met formally on 10 occasions, most recently on 24 September 2002. The previous such meeting was in June 2001, when the group considered some provisional recommendations put forward by consultants, but regarded these as inconclusive. In the interval between these two meetings, further work was undertaken and a number of informal meetings and exchanges of correspondence took place between members of the group. Following these, the group was able to reach agreement in principle on its recommendations at its September 2002 meeting. A report of the processes and analysis involved is being prepared and will be submitted to ministers in October, following which consideration will be given to wider publication.

This information has to be collected from various departments. I will write to the member with the information early November. A copy of this information will be placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre.

News website team comprises:One Editor (£39,140 - £54,656) and two Assistant Editors (£18,926 - £25,011).The news website has an operating budget for 2002-03 of £140,000. A revamped news website, Executive News Online, was launched on 2 September 2001. Since then an increase of 63 per cent in page impressions has been recorded.Site usage and activity is running at approximately 2 million page impressions a month.This compares with: UK Online at 4.6 million; Department of Health at 2.5 million, andDTI at 1.3 million.

The duties of the news website team are:To create and maintain a regularly-updated news and information website that reflects the Executive's commitment to open and accessible government.A revamped news website, Executive News Online, was launched on 2 September 2001. Since then an increase of 63 per cent in page impressions has been recorded.Site usage and activity is running at approximately 2 million page impressions a month.This compares with: UK Online at 4.6 million; Department of Health at 2.5 million, andDTI at 1.3 million.

The Scottish Executive's capital budget for the financial years 2000-01, 2001-02 and 2002-03 was as listed:

2000-01	£1,364 million
2001-02	£1,597 million
2002-03	£1,663 million

These figures include direct and indirect capital budget.

All of the £100 million expenditure package has been allocated on the basis of a three-year programme, to remove uncertainties about funding at local level and encourage sustained activity. The following table gives a breakdown of the allocations:

Area of spend	2001-02(£ million)	2002-03(£ million)	2003-04(£ million)	Totals(£ million)
Treatment	2.0	4.0	4.0	10
Rehabilitation	6.8	6.8	6.8	20.4
Training	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.6
Prisons	2.0	4.0	4.0	10
Training and Employment Bridges	1.5	2.5	2.5	6.5
Community Disposals	2.0	3.5	4.0	9.5
Young people and families	4.0	6.0	8.0	18
Schools Education	1.0	1.0	1.0	3.0
Youth Crime	0.0	0.5	0.5	1.0
Public awareness initiatives	2.1	2.1	2.1	6.3
Scotland Against Drugs	1.5	1.5	1.5	4.5
Social Inclusion Partnerships	-	2.0	3.0	5.0
Research	0.666	0.666	0.666	1.998
Local structures, good practice and evaluation	0.6	0.6	0.6	1.8
Management information and systems	0.5	0.5	0.5	1.5
Total	24.866	35.866	39.366	100.098