Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive has made no representations to BAA Scottish Airports with regard to the economic competitiveness of its airports. The continuing growth at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen Airports directly supports the economic competitiveness of Scotland and local economies.

We launched a breakfast services grant of £250,000 in November 2001. However, before issuing funding guidelines, we are conducting a review of breakfast services to establish details on numbers of places and providers, where appropriate demand lies and best use of the funds to support the service. The review is being led by Health Education Board for Scotland and will aim to complete during summer 2002.In her answer to S1O-4973 on 28 March 2002, Cathy Jamieson indicated other ways that the Executive is supporting the development of breakfast clubs.

Sensitivity testing is a key element of the current methodology for assessing value for money. Detail is given in Treasury Taskforce Technical Note No.5 How to Construct a Public Sector Comparator a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre.

£21 million was spent on the programme in 2001-02. The budgets for 2002-03 and 2003-04 are £30 million and £40 million respectively. The budget for the two years 2004-05 and 2005-06 will be announced later in the summer when the Executive publishes its spending plans for that period. Additional resources, which cannot be quantified at present, will come from fuel companies.The benefits of installing central heating in dwellings which lack it have long been established. They accrue to the household which receives central heating and to the taxpayer. Warm homes can lead to better health. In particular they can reduce the likelihood of cold and dampness related illnesses and the incidence of excess winter deaths. This in turn reduces demands on the health service. Warm homes are less likely to suffer from condensation dampness and so central heating helps maintain the condition of the housing stock. When central heating is coupled with insulation it can lead to lower energy consumption, hence lower fuel bills. Central heating therefore tackles fuel poverty. Lower energy consumption reduces emissions of greenhouse gases, principally CO₂, and so helps combat the threat of climate change.Before the central heating programme was introduced our research showed that the households to benefit were mainly on low incomes and so would not have been able to install central heating themselves. The precise benefits, and their extent, will differ between households and cannot easily be quantified on an individual basis. But, taken as a whole, the benefits of the central heating programme are likely to far outweigh the cost.We have commissioned research linked to the central heating programme. One project will determine the extent to which beneficiaries of the programme have been taken out of fuel poverty. Another will examine health impacts. Reports on both projects will be published. We will also be publishing an annual report.

There is no single definition of child poverty. Household income is one way of measuring child poverty, but we also understand child poverty in a wider sense focusing on giving all children the best start in life, and, providing appropriate and integrated services for children, in health and education and housing. The Social Justice Annual Report contains six milestones relating to children which describe different aspects of poverty and social exclusion and 20 measures of child income. These are the measures on which we judge our success in tackling child poverty in Scotland.Table 1 details the proportion of children below our range of low income household thresholds and cover the latest five years for which data are available. Table 2 provides the same information but includes school age children only. Tables 3 and 4 provide this information in terms of our absolute measurement, 60% of median GB income (after housing costs) taken from our base year of 1996-97.Table 1 - Proportion of Children in Low Income Households in Scotland (Relative Measure)¹

	50% Mean		60% Mean		50% Median		60% Median		70% Median
	BHC2	AHC3	BHC	AHC	BHC	AHC	BHC	AHC	BHC	AHC
1996-97	29	34	41	43	15	21	29	34	39	42
1997-98	29	32	40	41	14	21	28	30	38	40
1998-99	28	31	39	41	14	23	26	30	35	37
1999-2000	26	31	39	41	12	19	24	29	36	38
2000-01	27	32	39	43	12	16	25	30	35	38

Table 2 - Proportion of School Age Children⁴ in Low Income Households in Scotland (Relative Measure)

	50% Mean		60% Mean		50% Median		60% Median		70% Median
	BHC	AHC	BHC	AHC	BHC	AHC	BHC	AHC	BHC	AHC
1996-97	31	34	41	42	16	22	31	33	40	42
1997-98	31	33	41	43	15	22	29	31	39	41
1998-99	29	31	40	42	16	25	28	30	37	37
1999-2000	27	30	39	40	12	20	25	28	36	38
2000-01	27	32	40	42	13	17	25	30	35	38

Table 3 - Proportion of Children in Low Income Households in Scotland (Absolute Measure)⁵

	50% Mean		60% Mean		50% Median		60% Median		70% Median
	BHC	AHC	BHC	AHC	BHC	AHC	BHC	AHC	BHC	AHC
1996-97	29	34	41	43	15	21	29	34	39	42
1997-98	27	30	39	40	14	20	27	29	38	40
1998-99	25	29	35	37	13	19	25	28	33	34
1999-2000	21	25	34	36	9	14	21	25	31	34
2000-01	18	22	31	34	9	11	17	21	30	32

Table 4 - Proportion of School Age Children in Low Income Households in Scotland (Absolute Measure)

	50% Mean		60% Mean		50% Median		60% Median		70% Median
	BHC	AHC	BHC	AHC	BHC	AHC	BHC	AHC	BHC	AHC
1996-97	31	34	41	42	16	22	31	33	40	42
1997-98	28	31	41	41	15	21	28	30	39	41
1998-99	27	29	37	37	15	21	26	29	35	35
1999-2000	22	25	34	35	9	15	22	24	31	33
2000-01	19	23	32	33	9	11	18	22	30	32

Notes:1. Thresholds are measured against the GB mean or median for the relevant year.2. Before housing costs.3. After housing costs.4. Defined as dependent children aged between five and 18.5. Thresholds are measured against the GB mean or median for 1996-97 uprated to remove the effects of inflation.6. All figures are based on a sample survey, and as such are subject to sampling variation. Care should therefore be taken in their interpretation.

There is no single definition of child poverty. Household income is one way of measuring child poverty, but we also understand child poverty in a wider sense focusing on giving all children the best start in life, and providing appropriate and integrated services for children in health, education and housing. In order to have a detailed understanding of children in low-income families we track a number of measurements, as outlined in our Social Justice Annual Report and listed in the answer given to question S1W-25985 today.We are committed to improving the school meals service across Scotland by improving nutritional standards, making school meals more attractive to all children and ending stigma attached to receiving free school meals. We are taking steps to ensure that the poorest families are getting maximum benefit from free school meals, from both a health and income perspective.The current system of qualification for free school meals is well targeted. In terms of our 60% median absolute measure (after housing costs), 22% of school-age children are in low-income households. Approximately 20% of school-age children in Scotland qualify for a free school meal.

The following table details PFI/PPP projects awarded Level Playing Field Support, including the date from which support was or will be provided. Each project was assessed according to the guidance set out by HM Treasury and, where appropriate, a discount rate of 6% as specified by HM Treasury was used.

Authority	Project	Start Date
Aberdeenshire	Schools	Jan-02
Argyll and Bute	Waste management	Apr-01
Dumfries and Galloway	Waste management	Jul-01
Dundee City	Baldovie	Dec-99
East Renfrewshire	Schools	Aug-01
Edinburgh	Schools	Aug-03
Falkirk	Schools	Aug-00
Fife	Schools	Aug-02
Glasgow	Schools	Apr-01
Highland	IT	Apr-99
Highland	Schools	Aug-02
Moray	Education IT	Apr-99
Perth and Kinross	Office Accommodation	Jan-01
Stirling	Schools	Aug-01
Strathclyde Police	Training College	Oct-01
West Lothian	Schools	Oct-02

We are preparing the Executive's draft accounts and will make an announcement on end-year flexibility before the summer recess.

The Scottish Executive does not plan to make any representations to the UK Government, Civil Aviation Authority or BAA Scottish Airports on airport tax/charges. BAA Scottish Airports has, and is continuing to have, considerable growth in passenger numbers. The taxation regime does not appear to provide either an economic disadvantage or a disincentive to tourists and other visitors.

The Scottish Executive has worked in partnership with the UK Government on the aviation policy review as it affects Scotland. The Executive has also ensured that Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise have been involved at all stages of the policy development process and have been represented directly on associated working/steering groups.