Chamber and committees

General and specific capital consents allocated under section 94, local government (Scotland) Act 1973 to East and West Dunbartonshire Councils are as follows:

	East Dunbartonshire (£000)			West Dunbartonshire (£000)
	Single Formula Allocation	Specific Consents (mainly Police and Fire)	Total	Single Formula Allocation	Specific Consents (mainly Police and Fire)	Total
1997-98	5,239	222	5,461	5,072	1,863	3,209
1998-99	4,693	425	5,118	4,568	168	4,736
1999-2000	4,076	675	4,751	4,192	1,550	5,742
2000-01	4,553	789	5,342	4,382	1,427	5,809
2001-02	5,722	6,337	12,059	5,259	3,454	8,713
2002-03	5,776	5,175	10,951	5,309	876	6,185
2003-04	6,405	3,067	9,472	5,887	1,768	7,655

 

Section 94 capital consents were abolished on 31 March 2004. From 2004-05, following the introduction of a new prudential regime (for local authority capital finance), local authorities have the flexibility to determine their own programmes for capital investment. These programmes are supported centrally by a combination of specific capital grants, and loan charges up to a specified level of new borrowing each year. In addition to this councils may, in accordance with the Prudential Code, undertake self-supported borrowing as long as it is prudent, affordable and sustainable.

Sportscotland operate a number of programmes in taking forward the current Lottery Fund Strategy Raising Our Game: sportscotland Lottery Fund Strategy 2003-2007, a copy of which is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 38314).These programmes are open to any formally constituted body within East Dunbartonshire and West Dunbartonshire.

Since the lottery began projects in East Dunbartonshire have benefited by over £1.7 million and projects in West Dunbartonshire by over £2.4 million.  Further details on individual projects can be obtained from sportscotland.

Government Expenditure and Revenue in Scotland, 2003-04 will be published on Wednesday 14 December. I am pleased to announce that the National Statistician has approved it to be a National Statistics publication. This means that it meets the quality standards required by the National Statistics Code of Practice.

Copies of the publication will be available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 38338).

The specific strategies inplace to address coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, smoking andalcohol use are:

A CHD and Stroke Strategywas published in October 2002 and updated in 2004. An additional £40 millionover three years was allocated to assist with implementation of the strategy.

The Scottish DiabetesFramework was published in April2002. The diabetes programme budget for the period 2003-04 to 2007-08 is £3.8 million.

Scotland’s cancer strategy Cancer in Scotland: Action for change,published July 2001, set out the strategic direction for improvements in cancerservices. An additional £25 million per annum investment has built capacity indiagnostic and treatment services, for example at least 300 additional staffand new equipment.

A Breath of Fresh Air forScotland, the first ever TobaccoAction Plan designed specifically for Scotland, was published in January 2004. It covers a wideprogramme for action including smoking prevention and education, protection andcontrols and the expansion of high quality smoking cessation services. Inaddition it also addressed the issue of second-hand smoke. This led to theintroduction of the Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005, whichwill see the comprehensive introduction of smoke-free public places in Scotlandin March 2006. We will provide an additional £2 million in 2006-07 and £4 millionin 2007-08 for smoking cessation, and £6 million over three years for local authorityenforcement of the smoking ban.

The Plan for Action onalcohol problems, published in 2002,sets out the framework of action to reduce alcohol-related harm. An updatedplan will be published soon: this will build on progress to date and set outfurther actions for the next three years. £9.9 million has been allocated toNHS boards in the current financial year to tackle alcohol problems.

Most health expenditure isallocated to directly to NHS boards and it is their responsibility to ensurethat appropriate care is offered to patients in their area. The resourcesavailable to the Executive to support specific programmes represent only asmall percentage of total expenditure on any condition or service.

All authorities receive fundingto support the integrated community school approach. All schools in East and West Dunbartonshire are now involved in delivering integrated children’s services within theirneighbourhoods. This will involve a range of multi-agency approaches and projectswithin school clusters and individual schools. The detail on these projects is notheld centrally as it is for authorities and schools to develop approaches to meetlocal needs.

Four thousand, four hundredand fifty people in West Dunbartonshire and1,780 people in East Dunbartonshire have found employment through New Deal for Youngpeople, New Deal 25+, New Deal 50+ and New Deal for Lone Parents. Figures for NewDeal for Disabled People and New Deal for Partners are not available at local authoritylevel.

The Scottish Executive is committedto tackling poverty and deprivation wherever it is found in Scotland. Werecognise, however, that poverty is only partly about low income; it also encompassesa lack of opportunity, low aspirations, barriers to participating in social andeconomic life, and lack of access to appropriate and affordable public services.

That is why, through our Closingthe Opportunity Gap (CtOG) approach, we want to:

- prevent individuals and familiesfrom falling into poverty;

- provide routes out of povertyfor individuals and families;

- sustain individuals and familiesin a lifestyle free from poverty.

We aim to reduce the number ofpeople living on low incomes across Scotland by co-ordinating action across all of the Executive’sdepartments and agencies, and by our partners.

Increasing the chances of sustainedemployment for those not in work is central to our approach. We are developing anemployability framework that aims to increase the number of people moving into sustainedwork, as well as to tackle the issue of low paid, low skilled work. We aim to publishthe framework early in the new year.

West Dunbartonshire is one of the seven local authority areas targeted underCtOG target A, which aims to reduce the number of workless people dependent on Departmentof Work and Pensions benefits in the areas with the highest levels of employmentdeprivation by 2007 and 2010. The numerical targets agreed locally by the CommunityPlanning Partnership will be announced shortly.

In West Dunbartonshire, the Community Planning Partnership (CPP) has been allocated a total of£13.368 million from the Community Regeneration Fund (CRF) for the period 2005-06to 2007-08, and 17 of the projects receiving funding from this source are tacklingworklessness.

Communities Scotland’s WiderRole fund also contributes to seven projects in West Dunbartonshire that are employmentrelated or linked to benefits maximisation.

East Dunbartonshire CPP is developinga number of projects related to worklessness from its CRF allocation of £828,000over the next three years.

Executive mainstream fundinggoes to local authorities, NHS boards and police forces which cannot be disaggregatedinto specific expenditure on drug-related activities. There are various ring-fencedfunding streams but most of these are not allocated on a local authority basis Theexception is the Community Safety Partnership Award, which has a drugs element.Details of expenditure since 1998-99 are shown in the following table.

	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	94,530	98,507	96,373	87,674
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	18,500	118,491	122,875	120,508	108,595

 

There are no national targetsfor reducing vandalism and graffiti. From 2005, community planning partnershipsare required to prepare anti-social behaviour outcome agreements, based on theiranti-social behaviour strategies, which should identify key antisocial behaviourproblems within their areas and set out clear and measurable targets for improvement.The first reports to the Executive on progress towards the delivery of strategiesand outcome agreements will be in April 2006 and will be published on the Executivewebsite:www.antisocialbehaviourscotland.comin early 2006.

Information on the number ofprocedures undertaken by the Golden Jubilee National Hospital since 1 July 2002 is provided in the table. The Hospitalis currently working to a target of undertaking 25,000 procedures in 2005-06.

	Number of Procedures
1 July 2002 to 31 March 2003	6,149
Year ending 31 March 2004	13,043
Year ending 31 March 2005	18,509

Source: Golden Jubilee National Hospital.