Chamber and committees

The information requested is detailed in the following table.

Department	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Justice	£679,630	£1,050,044	£1,080,256	£1,159,467	£1,189,047
Communities	£85,115	£91,429	£94,171	£96,966	£99,906
Total	£764,745	£1,141,473	£1,174,427	£1,256,433	£1,288,953

 

Since 2002, the Executive has provided dedicated additional funding to every local authority in Scotland to introduce restorative approaches to youth offending or to enhance their existing provision. Details are published as part of the annual youth justice mapping exercise at http://www.childrens-hearings.co.uk/youthjustice.asp.

I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-18768 on 21 September 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the searchfacility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The table sets out funding under the Youth Crime Prevention Fund in each year since it started. This table provides an update to the funding position laid out in the answer to question S2W–11334 on 4 November 2004. By outlining actual spend for 2004-05 and an increased budget for 2005-06. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Actual spend was less than budgeted as not all projects took up their full allocation. In order to effectively support all the good quality projects within the fund the budget has been increased to £2.75m. The budget will be held level from 2005-06 to 2007-08.

	Youth Crime Prevention Fund
2002-03 (actual)	£3,447,550
2003-04 (actual)	£2,423,553
2004-05 (actual)	£2,270,949
2005-06 (budget)	£2,751,236

 

The Executive recognises the important contribution that properly targeted and focused restorative approaches can make to the wider repertoire of services aimed at preventing, tackling and cutting youth crime.

The Scottish Executive’s Action Programme to Reduce Youth Crime (January 2002) included a commitment to encourage the expansion of this type of scheme. National youth justice standards, announced in December 2002, require that every victim of youth crime will have the opportunity to participate appropriately in restorative justice by April 2006.

A dedicated grant of £2 million was made in March 2002 to introduce these services in every authority or to enhance existing provision. On top of increased youth justice expenditure, a further £3 million has been invested in the past two years to facilitate continued expansion in restorative youth justice.

Fro million a low baseline in 2002, returns fro million the youth justice mapping exercise indicate that there were around 3,800 places across Scotland as at April 2005.

The focus is now on building consistency and quality as well as capacity. We have supported a national training and consultancy resource to disseminate best practice, and worked with partners to agree guidance for restorative police warnings and the operation of restorative justice in the children’s hearings system.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:

As of 9 September 2005, the number of application received for Futurebuilders Scotland funding was 1,025, of these 273 were successful, and 368 were unsuccessful with the remainder under active consideration. Applications continue to be received.

Of the £25 millionadditional Cancer in Scotland investment, more than £2.3m is availableon a recurring basis for palliative care. This investment has been used forstaffing, training and equipment to support improvements in patient care in thecommunity.

Apart from this, funding forpalliative care, hospices and pain relief training is a matter for NHS boards.The information is not held centrally.

The Sports Programme at an Olympic Games is determined by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and not the host city or the local organising committee. The Executive has no plans to make representations to the IOC about the inclusion of a particular sport in the 2012 Olympics.

On 20 May 2005, the Isle of Man hostedthe seventh British–Irish Council (BIC) Summit in Douglas, attended by myself and Mr Andy Kerr MSP, Minister forHealth and Community Care. The focus of the summit was telemedicine, on which theIsle of Man takes the lead in the council.

The council recognised the strong potential of telemedicine to modernisethe delivery of health and social care and highlighted both the common challengesBIC Members face in this area, and the mutual benefits of exchanging experienceand best practice. The council discussed the opportunities which telemedicine offersto address health and social care issues affecting BIC administrations. Such issuesinclude support for rural and remote communities and challenges in meeting demandfor consultant and expert advice. It was also noted at the meeting that successfulimplementation of telemedicine in all BIC administrations relies on investment inthe associated information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure.

The summit recognised that patient confidence is a significant factorin fully realising the benefits of telemedicine and the Scottish delegation fullysupported the proposal that BIC Members co-operate in examining relevant issuesincluding the safe and secure electronic transfer of patient data/records and effectiveways of ensuring that telemedicine and e-health information from the Internet canbe quality assured.

As with previous summits, the meeting also received progress reportsand agreed a plan for future work on the other subjects being taken forward bycouncil members. These are Drugs, Environment, Knowledge Economy, Minority and Lesser–UsedLanguages, Tourism, Transport and Social Inclusion.

I am placing a copyof the Communiqué issued by the British–Irish Council after the summit meeting inDouglas in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre (Bib. number 36855)

The Executive is committed to providing modern high-quality education facilities to encourage people to take up the development opportunities offered by our lifelong learning agenda. This will provide a sound basis to stimulate economic growth and tackle problems associated with exclusion. I can report that I have approved substantial funding to assist in the relocation of the Borders College. An award of up to £2,821,568 will be made from the European Regional Development Fund to assist in the provision of a modern facility in new build at, and the refurbishment of part of the Heriot-Watt University campus at Netherdale, Galashiels. The application also involves the creation of a new Community Learning Centre in Hawick which will replace the existing Henderson Building and include the Knitwear Design and Technical Centre.