Chamber and committees

The Executive is fully committed to developing a modern integrated transport system for Scotland. The Executive's record levels of investment are set out in the Transport Delivery Report, which highlights our key priorities for improving public transport, both urban and rural.The Executive has also recently awarded an additional £20 million in revenue funding to local authorities to tackle the backlog of repairs to local roads. This extra cash injection is in addition to an extra £70 million in capital allocations over the three years to March 2004 for local roads and bridges.Under the Public Transport Fund 79 projects are supported across Scotland with investment of £175 million. Through our rural funding schemes local authorities and Strathclyde Passenger Transport have received £15 million between 1998 and 2002. £4.7 million and £5.1 million has been allocated for 2002-03 and 2003-04 respectively.

The Scottish Executive has no function in relation to unemployed people, including carers, seeking employment. The responsibility for assisting unemployed people into work rests with Jobcentre Plus. Carers are benefiting from changes to the earning limits for Invalid Care Allowance which mean that those who combine work with their caring responsibilities can keep more of their earnings.

In 2001-02, 36 confiscation orders totalling almost £800,000, were made by the courts, mainly against persons convicted of drug offences, a marked increase over previous years. The Proceeds of Crime Bill, currently before the Westminster Parliament, will provide wide-ranging new powers to investigate, recover and confiscate the proceeds of crime. The Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency has also recently established a money laundering unit, with partners from other enforcement agencies including the National Criminal Intelligence Service, actively to target criminals and criminal organisations who engage in drug trafficking and other serious crime in Scotland, identify the assets gained illegally and, where appropriate, make these available to the courts for confiscation or civil forfeiture.

Scottish Executive ministers have regular discussions with their counterparts from the other UK administrations and the Republic of Ireland through the British-Irish Council (BIC). While there have been no direct discussions between the Scottish and Northern Ireland Executives about anti-drugs campaigns in schools, drug misuse policy has been a priority issue for BIC and a programme of action across the member countries is currently under way on a range of fronts to take the anti-drugs agenda forward.

The Victim Liaison Office is an information service which provides case specific details and information about the criminal justice process in general to victims together with information about, and referrals to, voluntary organisations who can provide support and counselling. In those parts of the country where it is operational its services are available to victims of domestic abuse.Where Procurators Fiscal have been informed that victims are fearful of reprisals they can take steps either to oppose the accused's bail application or to have special conditions attached to the granting of bail, for example, conditions not to approach or contact the victim and to reside elsewhere. Procurators Fiscal are aware of the difficulties faced by victims of domestic abuse and seek to deal with each individual case in the most appropriate manner. Where allegations of intimidation are brought to the attention of the procurator fiscal, they will be investigated by the police on the instructions of the procurator fiscal.

£22.5 million is available over three years from April 2001 to raise levels of adult literacy and numeracy. £18.5 million of this is being distributed through local authorities to Community Learning Strategy Partnerships (CLSPs) where all providers can access funding. Action plans submitted by the CLSPs indicate that over 80,000 adults will be helped over the three years.A national training team has been established to respond to the immediate training needs of practitioners and develop a fully accredited national training programme for tutors.A new national development unit on literacy and numeracy is being established within Communities Scotland. On 16 April four pathfinder projects were announced, three of which provide the first national support for raising awareness of the issue within the workplace. The development of a national curriculum for adult learners is also being progressed.It will take time for these initiatives to produce results, but a sound platform for reducing the number of adults with low literacy and numeracy skills is being established.

There is no place for age discrimination in Scottish society. We are committed to putting equality at the heart of the work of the Executive. At the centre of our Equality Strategy is the integration of equality into policymaking, legislation, programmes, spending plans and service delivery. This mainstreaming approach demands that policymakers and those delivering services take account of, and reflect the diverse needs of, the population. We have not set specific targets for reducing discrimination against older people.

There have been no arrests in Scotland to date in connection with the Individual Learning Accounts scheme.

None. The deployment of police officers to particular tasks is an operational matter for Chief Constables.

Funding for the police service in Scotland is now at record levels, as are the number of police officers. Within the totals made available, an extra £24 million has been provided over the last three years by the Executive specifically to boost police recruitment. It is for police authorities to set budgets and for chief constables to make decisions about operational requirements within their force areas.