Chamber and committees

Figures published earlier in March show that the Executive has made clear inroads in defeating poverty. Since 1997 we have lifted over 170,000 people in Scotland out of relative poverty, which is an indicator of how the living standards of poorer families compare with those of society as a whole. We are working across the Executive on various measures to close the opportunity gap including reducing fuel poverty and developing Scotland's skillbase through programmes like education maintenance allowances and modern apprenticeships.

The Scottish Executive is working with the advice sector to promote agreed standards for money advice, including independence, training and quality assurance.

The decision to make £3 million available, to enhance money advice provision, was informed by an assessment of need. Following decision by Cabinet this was announced to Parliament by Scottish ministers on 19 December 2001. There has been no change in the amount available for this purpose since that date.

The Executive funds 48 Social Inclusion Partnerships (SIPs) across Scotland, to tackle existing social exclusion and prevent future exclusion in regeneration areas. SIPs use the funding allocated to them in pursuit of their own locally defined strategic objectives, one of which may be tackling financial exclusion through debt advice. Firm funding allocations for 2002-03 have been communicated to SIPs, along with indicative allocations for 2003-04.Support to local advice services is primarily provided by local authorities, SIPs and other non-statutory sources. From April 2002, the Executive will make an additional £3 million annually available, through local authorities, to enhance money advice provision across Scotland. This will not affect funding for SIPs.

Councils will have the flexibility to use these resources alongside their existing expenditure on debt advice services, without formal ring-fencing. However, it will be a condition of allocating the funding that individual authorities demonstrate how the resources will be used to deliver enhanced debt advice provision.

The available information is given in the following tables:Number of seizures of controlled drugs by police force and drug type, 1998-99¹1998

Police force2,3	All4 seizures	Cocaine	Heroin	Ecstasy	Amphet-amines	Cannabis	Other drugs
Central	829	8	73	20	52	727	34
Dumfries and Galloway	509	8	140	13	54	341	18
Fife	655	5	54	26	108	551	45
Grampian	1,682	36	270	45	213	1,329	160
Lothian and Borders	2,432	46	130	107	359	2,055	248
Northern	399	4	5	14	58	357	13
Strathclyde	10,045	134	1,709	179	1,102	7,355	1,349
Tayside	1,261	13	43	61	156	1,066	111
Scotland	17,812	254	2,424	465	2,102	13,781	1,978

1999

Police force2,3	All4 seizures	Cocaine	Heroin	Ecstasy	Amphet-amines	Cannabis	Other drugs
Central	609	3	91	13	33	493	29
Dumfries and Galloway	415	3	132	11	36	271	17
Fife	537	2	59	23	84	432	23
Grampian	1,468	35	238	105	121	1,125	146
Lothian and Borders	2,762	67	207	177	359	2,275	280
Northern	649	6	21	33	72	566	21
Strathclyde	9,553	206	1,752	324	810	6,965	849
Tayside	1,080	6	31	65	110	919	67
Scotland	17,073	328	2,531	751	1,625	13,046	1,432

Source: Home Office.Notes:1. Published data for 2000 are not yet available.2. Seizures from joint operations involving HM Customs and Excise and the police are generally recorded by HM Customs and Excise.3. Seizures made by the Scottish Crime Squad are recorded by the appropriate police force.4. As a seizure can involve more than one drug, figures for individual drugs cannot be added to produce totals.Persons with a charge proved in Scottish courts where the main offence was a drugs offence, by police force area and drug type, 1998-2000.1998

Police force area	Total number with a charge proved	Estimated percentage1,2 relating to:
		Cocaine	Heroin	Ecstasy	Amphet-amines	Cannabis	Other
Central	242	0	12	6	7	84	7
Dumfries and Galloway	182	1	20	4	15	70	8
Fife	325	1	7	6	22	72	10
Grampian	861	3	20	4	16	70	16
Lothian and Borders	841	2	3	6	21	80	13
Northern	382	1	1	2	20	87	2
Strathclyde	3,639	1	19	3	14	71	9
Tayside	446	2	4	7	16	78	12
Scotland	6,918	2	14	4	16	73	10

1999

Police force area	Total number with a charge proved	Estimated percentage1,2 relating to:
		Cocaine	Heroin	Ecstasy	Amphet-amines	Cannabis	Other
Central	258	3	16	4	9	79	6
Dumfries and Galloway	172	2	31	4	12	65	3
Fife	295	0	11	5	15	78	4
Grampian	650	5	25	7	14	64	6
Lothian and Borders	789	3	8	7	18	82	7
Northern	311	2	2	8	19	81	2
Strathclyde	3,421	2	27	3	13	64	14
Tayside	504	2	4	8	11	80	7
Scotland	6,400	2	21	5	14	69	11

2000

Police force area	Total number with a charge proved	Estimated percentage1,2 relating to:
		Cocaine	Heroin	Ecstasy	Amphet-amines	Cannabis	Other
Central	233	0	23	5	9	67	2
Dumfries and Galloway	129	0	34	5	9	56	6
Fife	148	0	16	7	13	77	3
Grampian	442	5	21	14	6	65	5
Lothian and Borders	732	2	11	8	17	81	6
Northern	266	2	4	9	8	86	2
Strathclyde	2,965	3	24	4	10	65	11
Tayside	468	2	3	10	7	79	6
Scotland	5,383	3	19	6	10	70	8

Notes:1. Estimated from Home Office data.2. As an offence can involve more than one drug type, row percentages may sum to more than 100.

The Executive carried out a fundamental review of the public bodies it sponsors in 2001. Details of the 183 bodies then in existence, together with recommendations about the method and timetable for abolition or further review of 113 of them were published in Public Bodies: Proposals for Change, in June 2001, this can be found at:www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/government/pbreview.pdf. The number of public bodies sponsored by the Scottish Executive as at 12 March 2002 is 153.Comprehensive information about Non-Departmental Public Bodies, including details of Chief Executive salaries, is collected and published annually in the publication Public Bodies. Copies of the 2001 version, together with earlier editions, are available from the Cabinet Office website at:www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/quango. Public Bodies 2002, which will include financial information in respect of the 2001-02 financial year, is expected to be published later this year.

Fifty-two per cent of staff in local authority homes hold no relevant formal qualification. For all homes, including those run by voluntary or private organisations, 60% of staff have no relevant formal qualification. Targets were set in 1993 following a review of Residential Child Care, Another Kind of Home.These were:1. "Local authorities and independent organisations should aim to achieve a position in which 30% of all residential child care staff, and 90% of all senior residential child care staff, hold a Diploma in Social Work or equivalent." At the end of 2001 26% of all staff, and 40% of senior staff, had a Diploma or equivalent.2. "Local authorities and independent organisations should aim to achieve a position, in which 60% of residential child care staff are assessed as competent at HNC/SVQ level 3." At the end of 2001 40% of all staff were assessed as competent at HNC/SVQ level. Progress to achieve these targets was very slow and that is why, in 1999, the Executive set up the Scottish Institute of Residential Child Care. They have already established new training at all levels and conducted the first comprehensive qualification audit of residential child care in Scotland.

The Executive intends to publish a consultation paper in April, which makes proposals for reform of the law of diligence. After analysis of the responses to the consultation, the Executive will consider how and when to proceed with a bill. The paper does not consider the humane and effective replacement for poinding and warrant sale which is the subject of a separate bill that will be put before Parliament shortly.

Each trust has nominated a dedicated member of staff to act as the initial contact point for parents and other relatives wishing to obtain information about organ retention. Trusts are encouraged to deal with inquiries as promptly and sensitively as possible.The Executive does not hold information on the number of requests awaiting a response at any given time.