Chamber and committees

Under our Strategy for Carers in Scotland we set up a Carers' Legislation Working Group to consider proposals for new legislation to support carers. The group has been meeting since February and its recommendations will be consulted upon later this year. Legislation will be introduced as soon as possible.

We will invest a further £137 million in pre-school education next year, bringing our total spend in this area to more than £380 million over 1999-2002. I am confident that we will meet our target of universal provision by 2002.

Scottish Ministers have instructed that proposals are developed to prevent an accused person charged with a sex offence from cross-examining a victim personally and to strengthen provisions restricting cross-examination on sexual history. Ministers will immediately begin the process of taking advice on how this can be done while ensuring that the accused receives a fair trial.

The Executive is aware of concerns about delays in dealing with alleged breaches of community service and probation orders in some areas of Scotland. It recognises the need to ensure speedy processing of such breaches in order to maintain public confidence in the acceptability of community disposals and maximise their use by sentencers. It is in discussion with the relevant agencies in order to determine the nature and scale of any problems. In the light of these discussions it should be possible to determine whether any action needs to be taken to deal with delay. I shall write to the member to let her know of the outcome.

On 23 March the Scottish Executive published a consultation paper inviting comments on current law and practice in relation to harassment and stalking. The consultation period ends on 9 June. Thereafter the Executive will report its findings and its recommendations to the Scottish Parliament.

Each council's allocation and percentage share is shown in the following table. The allocations arise from the distribution formulae for individual social work services agreed with CoSLA. These are set out in the Grant-Aided Expenditure 2000-01 Green Book, copies of which are available from SPICe.

Allocations from Additional Social Work Grant-Aided Expenditure 2000-01

Council	Allocation from Additional Social Work GAE 2000-011	% Share of Additional Social Work GAE
	£ million
Aberdeen City	1.3	3.0%
Aberdeenshire	1.7	3.9%
Angus	0.8	1.9%
Argyll & Bute	0.6	1.4%
Clackmannanshire	0.4	0.9%
Dumfries & Galloway	1.3	2.9%
Dundee City	0.9	2.0%
East Ayrshire	1.0	2.2%
East Dunbartonshire	0.8	2.0%
East Lothian	0.7	1.7%
East Renfrewshire	0.7	1.6%
Edinburgh, City of	4.3	9.8%
Eilean Siar	0.2	0.4%
Falkirk	1.4	3.1%
Fife	3.3	7.6%
Glasgow City	5.5	12.7%
Highland	1.4	3.2%
Inverclyde	0.7	1.6%
Midlothian	0.8	1.7%
Moray	0.6	1.3%
North Ayrshire	1.3	3.0%
North Lanarkshire	2.9	6.6%
Orkney Islands	0.2	0.4%
Perth & Kinross	1.2	2.8%
Renfrewshire	1.4	3.2%
Scottish Borders	1.3	3.0%
Shetland Islands	0.1	0.2%
South Ayrshire	1.1	2.6%
South Lanarkshire	2.8	6.4%
Stirling	0.7	1.7%
West Dunbartonshire	0.7	1.6%
West Lothian	1.5	3.5%
TOTAL	43.4	100.0%

Notes:1. Allocations before damping.

This information is not held centrally.

This information is not held centrally.

The local government settlement for 2000-01 provides for the City of Glasgow Council to increase its revenue expenditure to around £1.1 billion. Older people in Glasgow will benefit from a significant proportion of these resources through a range of services.

Considerable progress has been made in reducing the number of road casualties. In Scotland, fatal and serious casualties in 1998 were half the level of the early 1980s and all casualties had fallen by 17% during a period of substantial growth in road traffic. The progress made reflects great credit on all those involved in road safety.The Scottish Executive and the UK Government wish to build on that progress. A new GB road safety strategy, Tomorrow's roads - safer for everyone, is being published today. The strategy sets stretching new targets to reduce further the number of casualties on our roads. By 2010 we want to see a 40% overall reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured and a 50% reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured, compared with the average for 1994-98. We also want to see a 10% reduction in the rate of slight injuries per 100 million vehicle kilometres.The strategy describes a range of road safety measures which will help achieve the new targets. Copies of the strategy are being placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.The UK Government is also publishing today a detailed review of speed policy. Again, copies are being placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.