Chamber and committees

There are two sources of capital allocated to police forces. The capital allocations, issued under Section 94 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and financed by borrowing, determines the amount of capital expenditure a police authority may undertake in a given year. In addition, five forces use revenue to fund capital expenditure - known as capital from current revenue (CFCR). CFCR is funded by a combination of police grant and general revenue. It is used mainly for expenditure on vehicles and other items with a relatively short asset life. Forces may also use capital receipts eg arising from the disposal of assets to augment their capital spending. Capital allocations for 2001-02 have not yet been determined.

The information requested, at 2000-01 prices, is shown in the table below.

Police Capital Resources: Section 94 and CFCR at 2000-01 Prices

	1995-96		1996-97		1997-98		1998-99		1999-2000		2000-01
Force	S94	CFCR	S94	CFCR	S94	CFCR	S94	CFCR	S94	CFCR	S94	CFCR
Central	515	525	962	411	934	336	444	282	352	316	2722	310
D&G	248	177	827	164	803	135	817	255	666	252	705	260
Fife	5,115	0	584	0	1,458	0	1,182	0	1,012	0	765	0
Grampian	276	1,208	668	723	971	910	255	787	1,262	767	444	775
L&B	900	1,378	1,458	1,229	1,415	1,093	1,052	1,090	1,301	1,022	2,833	1,000
Northern	1,462	0	2,077	0	3,031	0	7,074	0	2,772	0	1,198	0
Strathclyde	6,784	0	11,267	0	10,931	0	6,550	0	9,951	0	8,726	0
Tayside	1,198	0	1,936	205	1,841	183	1,242	159	849	153	350	150
Total	16,948	3,288	19,779	2,732	21,385	2,658	18,618	2,573	18,164	2,510	17,743	2,495

Decisions on the recruitment, deployment and the ratio of special to regular constables are operational matters for chief constables. A report on the role of the special constabulary was prepared by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland and presented to the Police Advisory Board for Scotland last year. It recognised that there would be benefits in developing and enhancing the opportunities for members of the special constabulary to contribute to community policing. The recommendations contained in the report are currently being implemented by forces.

Between the late 1980s when it became apparent that the bridge was suffering from a number of serious structural problems, and 1 April 1996 when the M8 through Glasgow was adopted as a trunk road, Strathclyde Regional Council, the local roads authority, incurred expenditure of approximately £11.6 million.

The estimated final cost of the current strengthening contract is £31.5 million. Since the M8 was adopted as a trunk road all costs in connection with the bridge have been the responsibility of The Scottish Office, now the Scottish Executive.

This type of technical information relating to the operational management of the structure has not been published in the past and it is not proposed to do so in the future.

The Scottish Executive welcomed the establishment by the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) of a Voluntary Sector Health Network. The Network, which was launched on 10 May, gives the voluntary sector a collective voice to represent its interests and concerns to the Scottish Parliament, statutory health bodies and wider community health interests.

As was made clear in the debate on 17 May, the concept of Managed Clinical Networks has the potential to bring about significant improvements in services for those with epilepsy. The Scottish Executive Health Department has therefore been encouraging clinicians and the voluntary sector to develop the idea of such Networks.Five health boards already include epilepsy in their Health Improvement Programmes.

The current strengthening works have been designed so that they could be undertaken with minimal disruption to traffic on this extremely busy and important route. No adverse effects have been reported by commerce and industry in Glasgow and the surrounding area.

The Secretary of State inherited two court actions against the consulting engineers who designed the bridge when he took over responsibility for this structure when the M8 through Glasgow was adopted as a trunk road on 1 April 1996. The actions were settled out of court in 1997 without any admission of liability on the part of the defendants. Each party bore its own expenses. Beyond that the terms of the settlement are confidential to the parties.

No. The current strengthening works will rectify the serious structural problems which have affected the bridge and will with normal maintenance ensure the integrity of this important traffic link.

The Scottish Executive regularly receives from the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation representing the 32 local authorities, information on the total number of council owned and privately owned road-carrying bridges to be assessed and strengthened to meet the 40-tonne EC standard.