Chamber and committees

The best route out of poverty is through work. The Executive will continue to invest in policiesthat support employment opportunity for all and increase household income throughprogrammes like education maintenance allowances, which will be rolled outnationally from 2004-05, Modern Apprenticeships and Training for Work.

I recentlyannounced the allocations of the £20 million Working for Families Fund, whichwill help those in the most disadvantaged areas by providing affordable,flexible child care to enable parents to enter training or employment.

There areother examples of Executive initiatives which help tackle child poverty. Forexample, funding for Sure Start Scotland, which supports vulnerable children and families throughout Scotland, has been significantly increasedand will rise to £50 million in 2006.

For 2003-04, the estimatedexpenditure for management and administration is £83 million, as stated inScottish Enterprise’s operating plan for this year, but excluding the costs ofCareers Scotland, which are estimated at £43 million. The figure of £43 millionincludes expenditure previously classified as programme expenditure, since itis now recognised that Careers Scotland activity is for the most part, staff based.

For 2004-05 and 2005-06, theadministration budget figures are £92 million in each year, as contained in the Scottish Executive publication Draft Budget 2004-05. Thesefigures are provisional until firmed up as part of Scottish Enterprise’s operatingplan process for each of the year’s concerned. They again exclude the costs ofCareers Scotland. However, budget publications next year will see the estimatesfor Scottish Enterprise’s administration budget adjusted to include CareersScotland costs.

It should also be rememberedthat in addition to Scottish Enterprise’s administration budget including coreand support staff costs for the entire network, it also includes costs ofpermanent staff employed in delivering business activity.

2. Difference inunemployment rates between the worst 10% of areas and the Scottish average overthe last three years is:

Note: 2002 is the mostrecent year this data is available.

 “verification by the AuditCommission (England and Wales), the Accounts Commission (Scotland)and Government (Northern Ireland) that the intended benefits (including savings) of the various national changes are being delivered locally.”

The arrangements for theverification process are a matter for the parties to the agreement. However,the Executive has an interest in the outcome because the release of transitionalfunding by the Executive in support of the implementation of the agreement isconditional on satisfactory verification. The detailed arrangements for theverification process will have to be agreed between Audit Scotland andCOSLA and the Executive will assist as necessary. Those discussions are takingfull account of arrangements for verification of the agreement elsewhere in theUK.

The table shows the netskills and learning increase, the short-term items and the resulting ScottishEnterprise budget baseline when these adjustments are taken into account.