Chamber and committees

Since 1999, the Scottish Executive has made record resources available to Strathclyde Police which has resulted in 500 additional officers being recruited, bringing the total strength to over 7,700 officers.

The deployment and utilisation of these officers on initiatives designed to reduce fear of crime amongst older people is a matter for the chief constable.

There are a wide range of Scottish Executive initiatives designed to increase volunteering activity in Scotland that will impact on both East and West Dunbartonshire. These are:

The Volunteering Strategy, with ProjectScotland, a new full time volunteering programme for young people at its centre;

The funding of the CVS and LVC networks that support local voluntary and volunteering activity and which have been awarded funding of over £16 million for the next three years;

The refocused Millennium Volunteers programme, which is designed to sustain volunteering and promote a sense of community involvement for young people aged 16 to 25, and

General support for infrastructure bodies that provide a range of support services to the voluntary sector across Scotland.

Each of these initiatives and organisations has set targets and performance indicators that are monitored and reported on each year. Volunteering activity generally is also monitored through the Scottish Household Survey, which can be accessed at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/16002/4031.

The information requested is not available centrally. The recorded crime statistics collected centrally do not include any information on the circumstances of the crime, such as the age of the victim.

The Executive has provided significant sums to local authorities to enable them to meet their free personal care commitments.

The cost of the Scotland-wide free bus scheme for older and disabled people will be capped at a maximum of £159 million in 2006-07. Estimates of costs below Scotland-level are not available.

Since 1999, the Scottish Executive has provided record resources to Strathclyde Police. The utilisation of these resources in the fight against crime is for the Chief Constable to decide.

Information on the most recent clear up rates for the numbers of crimes recorded by the police at local authority level is published in table 6 of the statistical bulletin Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2004-05, copies of which are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 37835).

Table 1a below show the regeneration budget allocated to West Dunbartonshire through the Executive’s core community regeneration programmes for the period 1997-98 to 2004-05.

Table 1a: West Dunbartonshire Regeneration Budget Programme

Year	Social Inclusion Partnership* (SIP)		Better Neighbourhood Services Fund (BNSF)
	Allocation (£)	Sum Given (£)	Allocation (£)	Sum Given (£)
1997-98**	2,209,000	na	-	-
1998-99**	2,587,000	na	-	-
1999-2000	2,193,000	2,186,700	-	-
2000-01	2,087,000	2,086,373	-	-
2001-02	2,365,500	2,283,571	2,000,000	2,000,000
2002-03	2,514,896	2,514,896	3,000,000	3,000,000
2003-04	2,515,937	2,515,937	4,000,000	4,000,000
2004-05	2,753,937	2,753,937	3,000,000	3,000,000

Notes:

*Figures for SIP include funds allocated through the Community Empowerment Fund and End Year Flexibility.

**Relates to Programme for Partnership allocation.

West Dunbartonshire has been allocated £4,956,000 through the Community Regeneration Fund (CRF) and £60,000 through the Community Voices programme in 2005-06. These programmes combine and replace the previous SIP and BNSF programmes.

East Dunbartonshire did not receive SIP or BNSF funding. It has been allocated £271,000 through the Community Regeneration Fund (CRF) and £30,000 through the Community Voices programme in 2005-06.

The only funding specifically earmarked for community planning was allocated in 2002-03 and 2003-04 to support capacity-building around the passage of the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003. Both West Dunbartonshire and East Dunbartonshire received £20,000 each in 2002-03 and £15,000 each in 2003-04.

I refer the member to the question S1W-33868 answered on 17 February 2003 and to the questions S2W-13717 and S2W-13718 answered on 2 February 2005. 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/wa.search.

In addition to the information contained in previous answers, through the Out of School Hours Learning programme in partnership with sportscotland, the Big Lottery Fund, awarded West Dunbartonshire £41,400 in 2004-05 and £13,736 in 2005-06 with East Dunbartonshire awarded £20,000 in 2004-05 and £18,666 in 2005-06.

Both local authorities are fully involved in Active Schools and for 2005-06, West Dunbartonshire has been awarded £298,180 with East Dunbartonshire awarded £450,188.

Sportscotland provides guidance and financial support for the development and promotion of sport and physical activities around the school day but the organisation of school sport such as inter-school competitions is a matter for headteachers and ultimately local authorities.

The available information is given in the following table. The recorded crime statistics collected centrally cannot distinguish a lower level of detail than the local authority level.

Percentage change in the numbers of crimes recorded by the police in West Dunbartonshire and East Dunbartonshire, 1996-97 to 2004-05.

	West Dunbartonshire	East Dunbartonshire
1996-97	-	-
1997-98	-9	-2
1998-99	-5	1
1999-2000	1	-13
2000-01	-9	-1
2001-02	2	-8
2002-03	3	-6
2003-04	-3	-5
2004-05	9	21

 

The increase in crimes recorded in 2004-05 was an expected effect of the introduction of the Scottish Crime Recording Standard.

The UK Government has the main responsibility for unemployment. Jobcentre Plus (JCP) delivers a range of employment programmes to support individuals into work, specifically through the New Deal. In West Dunbartonshire, Action Teams for Jobs also helps jobless people from disadvantaged groups who may not use JCP mainstream services. A range of complementary services, funded through the Scottish Executive, Scottish Enterprise, European Social Fund and Local Authorities, such as vocational training (Training for Work), childcare services, financial advice, and the Working for Families Fund (in West Dunbartonshire) supports development of employability skills and the removal of barriers to employment.

The source of unemployment at ward level is the claimant count, which is the number of people claiming unemployment benefits. Table 1 below shows the unemployment rates for all wards in East Dunbartonshire and West Dunbartonshire, the totals for East Dunbartonshire and West Dunbartonshire local authorities and the total for Scotland.

Table 1: Claimant count unemployment rates for East and West Dunbartonshire, 1996-2004

	Unemployment Rate
	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Scotland	7.2%	6.0%	5.4%	5.0%	4.5%	4.0%	3.9%	3.8%	3.5%
East Dunbartonshire:
Barloch	3.2%	2.6%	2.1%	1.7%	1.5%	1.4%	1.3%	1.4%	1.0%
Keystone	3.3%	2.2%	1.8%	1.4%	1.3%	1.4%	1.3%	1.4%	1.3%
Craigdhu	5.3%	4.4%	3.9%	3.1%	2.8%	2.2%	2.0%	2.4%	1.7%
Clober	4.9%	3.8%	3.2%	2.5%	2.5%	2.2%	2.1%	2.2%	1.7%
Kilmardinny	2.7%	1.9%	1.4%	0.9%	0.9%	1.0%	1.0%	0.9%	0.7%
Thorn	3.0%	2.2%	1.8%	1.6%	1.1%	1.2%	1.2%	1.2%	0.9%
Castlehill	3.9%	2.9%	2.5%	2.2%	2.2%	2.0%	1.8%	1.8%	1.4%
Westerton	2.9%	2.8%	2.1%	1.4%	1.5%	1.5%	1.6%	1.6%	1.2%
Kessington	3.1%	2.5%	2.1%	1.5%	1.7%	1.4%	1.4%	1.4%	1.4%
Chapelton	3.6%	2.9%	2.4%	1.8%	1.9%	1.6%	1.6%	1.4%	1.4%
Hillhead/Broomhill	14.1%	12.0%	11.7%	10.8%	10.0%	8.9%	7.6%	7.1%	6.7%
Harestanes	6.0%	4.6%	3.9%	3.4%	3.3%	2.8%	2.7%	2.7%	2.2%
Central	4.9%	4.3%	3.8%	3.1%	3.3%	2.7%	2.8%	2.4%	2.0%
Woodhead	4.4%	3.5%	3.2%	2.4%	2.6%	2.1%	2.0%	1.8%	1.7%
Lenzie	4.0%	3.1%	3.0%	2.8%	1.9%	1.6%	1.7%	1.4%	1.2%
Kenmure and Baldernock	3.8%	3.1%	2.4%	1.6%	1.7%	1.6%	1.7%	1.3%	1.2%
Cadder	3.8%	2.8%	2.2%	2.1%	1.6%	1.5%	1.4%	1.2%	1.1%
Woodhill	3.9%	3.2%	2.4%	1.9%	1.9%	1.5%	1.6%	1.7%	1.2%
Auchinairn/Crowhill	8.4%	7.6%	6.8%	5.8%	4.8%	4.0%	4.0%	3.8%	3.1%
Campsie and Torrance	7.0%	5.7%	5.6%	4.5%	4.0%	3.7%	3.9%	3.5%	2.6%
Milton and Gartshore	5.3%	4.5%	4.5%	3.5%	3.6%	3.2%	2.9%	3.0%	2.2%
South Lenzie/Waterside	4.4%	3.1%	2.8%	2.1%	2.0%	1.7%	1.7%	1.8%	1.2%
Total East Dunbartonshire	4.8%	3.9%	3.4%	2.8%	2.6%	2.3%	2.2%	2.1%	1.8%
West Dunbartonshire:
Whitecrook	12.6%	11.5%	10.8%	9.3%	8.2%	7.4%	7.3%	6.3%	6.0%
Dalmuir/Central	15.0%	13.7%	12.9%	12.7%	10.9%	10.3%	10.8%	9.9%	8.9%
Mountblow	9.7%	8.9%	7.3%	6.7%	6.0%	5.7%	6.1%	5.6%	5.4%
Parkhall	6.4%	5.3%	5.0%	5.1%	5.0%	4.2%	4.0%	3.7%	3.2%
Linnvale/Drumry	10.7%	10.2%	9.9%	9.2%	7.5%	7.6%	7.1%	6.6%	6.1%
Kilbowie	8.4%	7.5%	6.9%	5.5%	5.0%	4.6%	4.9%	4.6%	3.8%
Kilbowie West	11.4%	10.5%	9.0%	7.8%	7.1%	7.0%	7.2%	7.2%	6.5%
Faifley South	12.4%	10.3%	10.4%	9.9%	8.3%	7.2%	7.9%	7.8%	6.4%
Faifley North	15.9%	14.7%	12.4%	12.0%	10.3%	9.5%	10.0%	8.5%	7.2%
Hardgate	5.3%	3.7%	3.4%	3.3%	2.9%	2.5%	2.3%	2.4%	1.9%
Duntocher	7.8%	6.7%	6.2%	5.4%	4.6%	4.4%	4.7%	4.5%	3.4%
Old Kilpatrick	7.2%	6.4%	5.9%	4.8%	4.5%	4.5%	4.5%	3.9%	3.1%
Dumbarton West	13.4%	12.9%	11.9%	11.0%	9.8%	9.3%	8.9%	7.1%	7.2%
Dumbarton Central	6.1%	5.7%	5.3%	4.9%	4.6%	5.1%	4.8%	4.3%	4.0%
Dumbarton North	15.2%	13.4%	12.2%	11.8%	10.4%	9.5%	8.2%	6.7%	7.4%
Dumbarton South	6.1%	4.8%	4.1%	4.4%	4.3%	3.5%	3.4%	3.3%	3.0%
Dumbarton/Bowling	5.3%	4.6%	4.1%	3.3%	3.3%	3.2%	3.3%	2.7%	2.5%
Renton/Alexandria South	9.8%	8.5%	8.2%	7.2%	7.3%	7.6%	7.3%	6.7%	6.2%
Tullichewna/Luss	8.9%	7.0%	6.3%	5.4%	4.5%	4.6%	4.9%	4.5%	3.8%
Haldane/Kilmaronock	9.6%	7.6%	6.8%	6.6%	6.3%	5.8%	5.2%	4.7%	4.0%
Bonhill East	11.5%	9.3%	9.6%	8.1%	7.5%	7.3%	6.0%	5.7%	5.5%
Riverside	6.7%	5.7%	5.7%	4.6%	4.3%	4.8%	5.0%	4.4%	4.3%
Total West Dunbartonshire	9.5%	8.2%	7.6%	6.9%	6.3%	6.0%	5.8%	5.3%	4.8%

Source: Office for National Statistics.