Chamber and committees

Details of the number of interceptionwarrants issued by the Scottish ministers are contained in the annual reports of the Interception ofCommunications Commissioner. The most recentreport – Bib. number 37809, document number SE/2005/203 – was laid before the Scottish Parliament on 3 November 2005.

It is not in the public interestto give details relating to interception warrants beyond the figures reported bythe commissioner. To do so could potentially damage the effectiveness of what is an important part of our ability to tackle seriousand organised crime.

The use of Interception as aninvestigative technique is governed by strict safeguards within the Regulation ofInvestigatory Powers Act 2000. The commissioner has stated in successive annualreports Scottish ministers take considerable care to satisfy themselves that warrantsare necessary and proportionate for the authorised purposes – preventing and detectingserious crime.

The Executive already hassome, limited, powers to support individual post office businesses. Anamendment to the Scotland Act makes an exception to the reserved status ofpostal services for “financial assistance for the provision of services (otherthan postal services and services relating to money or postal orders) to beprovided from public post offices.” Communities Scotland has used thisprovision to enhance Government assistance to post offices through a £2 millioncapital grants scheme and recently-announced business improvement trainingopportunities for post offices in deprived areas. Any extension of thesepowers, through primary legislation or an order under the Scotland Act, wouldrequire the approval of both the Scottish and the UK Parliament.

The Scottish Executive EducationDepartment provided funding of £3 million per year for the last two years to NHSboards to meet their obligations under the Education (Additional Support for Learning)(Scotland) Act 2004. These resources are being used in a variety of ways, includingthe recruitment of speech and language therapists and other professionals to workwith autistic children in schools.

I refer the member to the questionS1W-26485, answered on 3 July 2002, providing information on advertising spend by the ScottishOffice-Scottish Executive Departments from 1991-92 to 2001-02.

For information on the Scottish Executive’s advertising spend for 2002-03 please see answer to questionS2W-2481. For information on advertising spend for 2003-04 please see the answer to question S2W-15204.

Advertising spend for 2004-2005is published on the Scottish Executive Marketing Unit website. Please see attachedlink http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/media/17963/adspend05.

Scottish Executive advertisingspend for 2005-2006 is detailed in the following table. Please note these figuresare un-reconciled. Definitive figures will be published in July 06:

Campaign	Total
Alcohol	£664,223.89
ASB	£251,372.67
Career Opps in NHS Scotland	£976,107.92
Childrens Hearings	£99,643.02
Domestic Abuse	£295,950.03
Drug Misuse	£967,016.93
Environment	£368,951.96
Fire Domestic	£287,463.05
Flu	£365,333.28
Healthy Living	£743,600.76
Mental Health	£117,683.10
Organ Donation	£190,570.49
Race	£611,471.60
Road Safety	£605,732.53
Smoking	£1,056,867.36
Teacher Recruitment	£618,668.61
Violence Against PS Workers	£163,263.66
Volunteering	£164,003.13
Miscellaneous	£791,458.64
Total	£9,339,382.63

 

The miscellaneous figure is advertisingexpenditure out with specific campaigns. Thisincludes the central purchase of a block of outdoor advertising which is used throughoutthe year by the campaigns listed.

All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Executive and MedicalResearch Council (MRC) have been taking forward a jointly funded researchprogramme based on the agenda outlined in the MRC Review of Autism Research.The MRC has now committed over £3 million to new research. The awards rangefrom clinical investigations in children and adults, to environmental riskfactors, brain imaging and intervention studies.

The Scottish Executive ASDReference Group is represented on the UK Wide Autism Research Co-ordinationGroup (ARCG), which has been established by the Department of Education andSkills to provide a framework to enable greater co-ordination of autismresearch activity in the UK. ARCG has a number of aims including focusing inautism research funding on identified gaps such as biomedical research andresearch on interventions.

In addition, the ScottishInter-collegiate Guidance Network (SIGN) Council are developing a guideline forprofessionals working with children and young people up to age 18 on evidencebased approaches to diagnosis, assessment and early clinical interventions forautism. The SIGN Guideline development will cover surveillance and shouldconsider the evidence base for routine screening.

Up to and including 2001,information was only collected on those pupils with records of needs. Manypupils with high functioning autism and Asperger Syndrome would not have metthe criteria for records of needs but would have Individualised EducationalProgrammes (IEPs). The increase in 2002 onwards is, therefore, partlyattributable to pupils with IEPs being included in the statistical collection.

The Executive is not awareof any peer-reviewed evidence that the prevalence of autistic spectrumdisorders (ASD) has actually increased. The causes, nature and development ofASD are not fully understood but the general consensus is that ASD are aheterogeneous group of disorders resulting from a number of different causes,including a strong genetic factor. Diagnostic boundaries have been broadenedand awareness has increased dramatically over the past 20 years leading to morecases being detected and correctly diagnosed.

The Education (AdditionalSupport for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 places new duties on educationauthorities and appropriate agencies, including Careers Scotland, furthereducation colleges and higher education institutions, to ensure early planning,preparation and the effective exchange of information to support children andyoung people with additional support needs to make a smooth and successfultransition to post-school life – whether that is to education, training orwork.

As autonomous bodies, Scotland’scolleges and universities are responsible for ensuring their provision isaccessible and inclusive to students with disabilities and other additionalsupport needs. Both sectors have been successful in achieving this, asevidenced by the year on year increase in participation by students withdisabilities.

Colleges and universitiescan draw on various support to help them improve their provision. Guidance toPE Colleges on the subject was published in January 2005 when PartnershipMatter’s set out the roles and responsibilities of the various bodies involvedin providing support to students, and other tools from the Scottish Further andHigher Education Funding Council.

The information requested isnot held centrally.

The Scottish Executiveprovides significant funding each year to help local authorities make provisionfor children and young people with additional support needs, including autismspectrum disorder. Funding is allocated on the basis of each authority’s two to19-year-old population. It is a matter for local authorities to decide how toutilise this funding in the light of local needs and circumstances.

The information requested inrelation to estimates carried out by local authorities and NHS boards is notheld by the Scottish Executive.

The Scottish Executive has beenmaking project grant awards to individual voluntary sector organisations in respectof additional support needs since April 1999. The awards specifically related toautism spectrum disorders have totalled over  £1.5 million and are made on the basisof a two or three year cycle.

In addition, the Executive provideda total of £3 million in 2004-05 and in 2005-06 to the Health Boards to assist themto prepare for and to support the implementation of the Education (Additional Supportfor Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004. This funding could be used in a variety of ways,such as to provide additional allied health professionals to support children andyoung people with additional support needs, including autism spectrum disorders.