Chamber and committees

We are concerned about levels of homelessness throughout Scotland. This is why we have established the Homelessness Task Force to look at the causes and nature of homelessness and to make recommendations for action. The Housing Bill introduced on 19 December incorporates recommendations from the task force, including extensions to the rights of homeless people and new statutory duties for local authorities. I announced on Monday that these recommendations would be backed by the allocation of £27 million to local authorities over the next three years.

Since 1997 we have made available £42 million through the Rough Sleepers Initiative to assist local authorities in delivering a range of projects which tackle the problem of people sleeping rough. A further £5.2 million was made available this year to assist local authorities develop more appropriate temporary accommodation and reduce use of bed and breakfast. The following tables give details of the allocations to local authorities, including councils in the Forth Valley area, in respect of these initiatives.

RSI Allocations
Local authority/organisation	Total 1997-2002
Aberdeen	1,300,000
Aberdeenshire	137,000
Angus	52,000
Argyll & Bute	397,000
Clackmannan	30,000
Dumfries & Galloway	78,000
Dundee	1,400,000
East &West Dunbartonshire(combined bid until 2000)	121,000
East Lothian	326,000
E Renfrewshire	52,000
Edinburgh	9,400,00
Falkirk	792,000
Fife	1,500,000
Glasgow	14,200,000
Highland	642,000
Inverclyde	183,000
Moray	548,000
Perth & Kinross	1,600,000
North, South &East Ayrshire (combined bid)	925,000
North Lanarkshire	1,300,000
Renfrewshire	438,000
Shetland	13,000
South Lanarkshire	1,250,000
Stirling	88,000
West Dunbartonshire(separate bid from 2000)	190,000
West Lothian	270,000
Glasgow Council for Single Homeless	170,000
Shelter	214,000
TOTAL	£38,000,000

In addition to the allocations set out above, a further £4 million has been allocated this year through health boards to address the health needs of rough sleepers as follows:

Health Board
Greater Glasgow	2,000,000
Lothian	1,000,000
Argyll & Clyde	138,000
Ayrshire & Arran	118,000
Dumfries & Galloway	50,000
Fife	103,000
Forth Valley	81,000
Grampian	150,000
Highland	68,000
Lanarkshire	164,000
Tayside	128,000

Funding Allocations for the Executive's Temporary Accommodation Initiative

Aberdeenshire	271,000
Argyll and Bute	289,000
Dumfries and Galloway	180,000
Dundee City	40,000
Edinburgh	800,000
East Dunbartonshire	185,000
East Lothian	400,000
Fife	460,000
Glasgow	1,125,000
Highland	400,000
North Ayrshire	100,000
Renfrewshire	258,000
South Ayrshire	85,000
South Lanarkshire	640,000
Stirling	75,000
Total	£5,308,000

These tables provide details of the initial allocations of funding. They do not take account of any subsequent slippage in spend.

The most recent information held centrally, academic session 1994-95 to 1998-99, on graduates with an initial teaching qualification in mathematics is shown in the table:

	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99
All Secondary Teaching Graduates	1,125	1,154	1,073	1,078	994
Graduates qualified to teach Maths	217	202	175	139	108
% qualified to teach Maths	19.3%	17.5%	16.3%	12.9%	10.9%

Source: HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency).

Mathematics is among the subjects on the current priority list. Teacher education institutions are expected to fill the bulk of places on postgraduate secondary initial teacher education courses from the priority list and this is reflected in the guidance offered to the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council in setting intakes to courses of initial teacher education.

Details and total scheme costs for the improvement schemes programmed for the current financial year on the A84 between Stirling and Lochearnhead and the A82 between Crianlarich and Tyndrum are as follows:

Location	Details	Estimated Total Scheme Cost
A84 Callander	New 30mph speed limit, Village Gateway signing, "Toucan" crossing, new road markings. Traffic signals at the A84/A81 junction.	£125,000
A84 Kilmahog	New 40mph speed limit.	£2,500
A84 Strathyre	Updating of traffic calming measures, including new southern Village Gateway signing.	£48,000
A82 Tyndrum	Further traffic calming measures will be installed, including extending the bus lay-by for southbound services.	£90,000
Total		£265,500

In addition, as part of a maintenance scheme, traffic signals will be installed at the railway bridge west of the A82/A85 junction at Crianlarich this year at an estimated cost of £25,000.

Consideration will be given to the nature and level of Scottish Executive support for a bid for the Euro 2008 football championships once a decision has been taken by the Scottish Football Association on whether or not it intends to bid for the championships.

I have asked the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council to devise a mechanism to provide additional support to institutions which reflects the extent to which they provide places for students from under-represented groups. I expect this to be funded by the council from an element of the £18 million the Executive has earmarked, for the first time, to support our wider access policy over the next three years. This will be a permanent feature of future funding and reflects our continuing commitment to widening access and helping ensure students have a positive learning experience and successfully complete their course. It is properly for SHEFC to determine the detail of how this should be implemented.

This initiative is in addition to improvements in student support from 2001-02, particularly for those from low income backgrounds, which were announced in my answer to question S1W-11141 on 10 November.

The Executive is not aware of any research on this particular issue.

Total cost for the publication, launch and distribution of A Toast to the Future is £3,533.20. This cost is shared between the Scottish Executive and the Scotch Whisky Association at £1,766.60 each.

Schools have set their own targets in agreement with local authorities for the three-year period from 1998-2001. The information as requested is not available; targets are not set annually and information showing progress towards schools' three-year targets is only available for the first year of the initiative (1998-99). This is set out in the table below. Information on progress towards Standard Grade and Higher targets at local authority level for the period 1997-99 is set out in Raising Standards - Setting Targets: Setting Targets in Scottish Schools: National and Education Authority Information 1999. (A copy is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre, Bib number 3938).

	1995-97 (Based on 391 Schools)		1996-98 (Based on 391 Schools)		1997-99 (Based on 389 Schools)
Target Measure	Attaining or Exceeding Level set for 2000-01	Not Yet at Level	Attaining or Exceeding Level set for 2000-2001	Not Yet at Level	Attaining or Exceeding Level set for 2000-01	Not Yet at Level
SG English 1-6	80	299	114	265	162	217
SG Mathematics 1-6	77	302	113	266	150	229
5+ SGs 1-6	30	349	61	318	98	281
5+ SGs 1-4	12	367	34	345	91	288
5+ SGs 1-2	6	373	26	353	89	290
3+ HGs A-C	7	372	36	343	64	315
5+ HGs A-C	24	355	46	333	67	312

SG (Standard Grade) HG (Higher Grade)Notes:1. Performance against targets is measured using a three-year rolling average.2. Targets were set for 2000-01 and as such are not expected to be attained until that time. Conversely, it will not necessarily be the case that schools attaining or exceeding their targets at present will attain or exceed them in 2000-01.3. It should be noted that the figures giving the level of performance averaged across 1995-97 and 1996-98 relate to examination performance which pre-dates any planned programme of improvement associated with the setting-targets initiative. The first year in which examination performance was directly influenced by the setting-targets initiative was 1999.4. 1995-97, 1996-98 and 1997-99 figures are all based upon post-appeal data.

Data about injury road accidents are collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive using the STATS 19 statistical report form. The table below gives the numbers of road accidents which were identified in the STATS 19 returns as occurring on the A81 between its junction with the A891 at Strathblane and its junction with the A821 at Aberfoyle over the period 1995 to 1999 inclusive, that were classified as fatal, serious or slight.

It should be noted that the statistics given below are based upon the data which are held in the central statistical database and which were collected by the police at the time of the accident and subsequently reported to the Executive. They may differ from any figures which the local authority would provide now, because they do not take account of any subsequent changes or corrections that the local authority may have made to the statistical information, for use at local level, about the location of each accident, based upon its knowledge of the road and area concerned.

Injury road accidents on the A81 between its junctions with the A891 at Strathblane and the A821 at Aberfoyle, by severity.

Year	Fatal	Serious	Slight	All
1995	0	3	5	8
1996	0	4	1	5
1997	1	5	13	19
1998	0	3	5	8
1999	1	8	1	10

The Executive is in close touch with SQA about their progress with the appeals process and has also discussed with them their arrangements for dealing with concerns about the outcome of appeals.