Chamber and committees

Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government which therefore takes the lead on the funding and delivery of New Deal throughout Great Britain, working together with its partners, including the Scottish Executive.

The comparisons made by OECD can only be regarded as approximate as for most countries the figures used are based on a prescribed curriculum.

The figures stated for Scotland by OECD represent only the minimum of time to be spent on maths and science contained in the Structure and Balance guidelines. The actual curriculum data for Scotland for 1997 indicates that pupils in S1 and S2 spent 22% of their time on maths and science rather than the recommended minimum time of 20% assumed by the OECD.

Within the Scottish curriculum guidelines there is a 20% flexibility factor which schools are encouraged to use for activities which reflect their own needs and circumstances. Schools may choose to allocate some of this time to maths and science.

None. The Direction will remain until North Lanarkshire's Business Plan for recovery is achieved.

The Executive supports the aim of providing patients with full and useful information about prescribed and over-the-counter medicines. UK law now requires medicines to be supplied to consumers with specified information on the label and with an accompanying leaflet to ensure safe and correct use. There has therefore been a general move by manufacturers towards supplying medicines in packs which have patient information leaflets sealed into them.

The Executive's research report Climate Change: Scottish Implications Scoping Study, published December 1999 (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/cru/kd01/ccsi-01.pdf), sets out the possible implications of climate change for Scotland. Flooding, including flooding of coastal areas, was identified as one of the main impacts of climate change for Scotland. In response to the report's findings the Executive have commissioned further research to examine, among other things, the effect of climate change on the frequency of floods, including coastal flooding, and the effect on design standards of existing riverine flood prevention schemes.

This research, together with research due to be published next year by the UK Climate Impacts Programme to update their Climate Change Scenarios for the United Kingdom, will provide a clearer view of the impacts of climate change on Scotland, including sea level rise and increased storminess. In anticipation of this we are gathering information to identify those areas which may be vulnerable to the predicted increases in sea level.

DETR's proposals for arms length companies have limited attraction in Scottish circumstances as there are no plans to relieve the companies of any debt burden, in the same way as we are doing for Scottish councils who move to community ownership. In addition, all borrowing by the proposed arms length companies will be subject to the normal controls on public expenditure and, consequently in Scottish circumstances, would be met from the resources available in the assigned budget.

We will of course continue to monitor how any proposals are taken forward by DETR.

The Key newsletter will be distributed to all council tenants to inform them of issues related to the development of a proposal for housing transfer. The frequency of issue will be determined in the light of tenants information requirements. It is estimated each edition will cost £30,000 including postage. The costs will be met from the New Housing Partnership funding allocated to the council.

Following the abolition of Crown Exemption from non-domestic rates from 1 April 2000 police forces are liable to pay non-domestic rates for police properties. The Grant Aided Expenditure (GAE) settlement for 2000-01 was increased to recompense in full the costs associated with the payment of rates. The effect of Crown Exemption on the police is therefore cost neutral and has no bearing on officer recruitment.

The additional £8.9 million invested in the Scottish police will enable the recruitment of more than 300 extra police officers. Decisions on recruitment and deployment of staff are, however, matters for individual chief constables. After allocating £1 million to the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan for the training of the additional recruits the funds were distributed as shown in the table below. Also shown is the notional number of additional officers that could be recruited from the extra money available.

Police Force	Additional Funding £000	Number of Additional Officers
Central Scotland Police	369	15
Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary	233	9
Fife Constabulary	435	17
Grampian Police	676	27
Lothian and Borders Police	1,442	58
Northern Constabulary	423	17
Strathclyde Police	3,710	148
Tayside Police	612	24
TOTAL FUNDING	7,900	315

The Scottish Executive is committed to supporting the Glasgow Alliance and the Joint Economic Strategy for Glasgow published by Glasgow Development Agency and Glasgow City Council as members of the Alliance in 1999. The main aim of that strategy is to build on Glasgow's distinctive qualities to develop a dynamic, internationally competitive economy which creates wealth and provides quality, sustainable work opportunities for all the residents of the city.