Chamber and committees

Health department officials have kept colleagues in Department of Health and the NHS Information Authority informed of the proposals set out in Connecting Scotland: our broadband future on the basis that existing contract arrangements will be sustained and will not constrain exploration of options for broadband delivery in the period leading up to the expiry of NHSnet contracts and beyond.

SuperJANET4 is an academic network operated by the Joint Information Systems Committee on behalf of the UK's higher and further education communities. The Scottish Higher Education Funding Council and the Scottish Further Education Funding Council are members of the JISC and are responsible for the provision of the SuperJANET network in Scotland and the Scottish Executive has had discussions with UKERNA. The development of SuperJANET will not constrain the proposals set out in Connecting Scotland.

Officials have had discussions with the Office of the e-Envoy, the Executive is represented on the OEE Broadband Stakeholder Group, and I have met the e-Envoy.

Telecommunications companies have, where they wished, provided information to us to inform our broadband strategy. A formal procurement process has not yet commenced.

Regulation of the telecommunications market is a reserved matter.

Information on the financial support paid to students aged under 18 in higher education is not held centrally. The main support for living costs is by way of a student loan. The Student Loans Company Limited pay loans and do not currently hold information in the form requested. In addition, institutions administer payments of Hardship Funds and Hardship Loans. Information on the age categories of those students in receipt of the Hardship Loans and Funds is not held centrally.

Age specific information on financial support paid to students aged under 18 in further education courses is only available for the years 1998-99 and 1999-2000. Details of the Education Maintenance Allowance Pilot scheme funded by the Scottish Executive are also shown.

Bursary payments made by FE colleges to students under 18 on further education courses

	1998-99 (£ million)	1999-2000 (£ million)
Bursary payments made by FE colleges to students under 18	9.2	10.2

Notes:

Bursary expenditure is shown by financial year and includes exam fees, maintenance allowance, travel expenses, study expenses, books and equipment, residency costs and other unspecified support.

The latest information available in respect of students on further education courses is for the academic year 1999-2000. Information for academic year 2000-01 will not be available until next spring.

Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA)

The Scottish Executive has been funding an Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) Pilot scheme in East Ayrshire since 1999. The money is paid to East Ayrshire Council who administers the EMA pilot in schools and colleges for 16 to 19-year-olds. The money that has been allocated to the two further education colleges in this pilot, Kilmarnock College and Ayr College is as follows:

	1999	2000
Kilmarnock College	£121,706.25	£172,129.36
Ayr College	£115,043.49	£95,964.54

Notes:

From this year on, EMAs will be available to under 18's attending colleges in Glasgow, Dundee and West Dunbartonshire.

The total EMA budget for 2001-02 is £10.2 million. However, this covers all schools and colleges in the pilot areas and includes for 16 to 19-year-olds.

The available information is given in the tables:

Crimes and offences recorded by the police in Scotland in which an imitation firearm was alleged to have been used: 1997

Police force	Crime/offence
	Serious Assault	Robbery	Reckless Conduct	Firearms Act 1968 offences1	Petty Assault	Other offences	Total
Northern	0	0	0	0	1	1	2
Grampian	0	0	1	2	2	0	5
Tayside	0	2	0	13	1	1	17
Fife	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Lothian & Borders	0	1	0	0	4	0	5
Central	0	1	0	0	1	1	3
Strathclyde	1	10	0	28	6	0	45
Dumfries & Galloway	0	0	2	6	0	0	8
Scotland	1	14	3	49	15	3	85

Notes:

1. For example, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, commit a crime etc. and other miscellaneous firearms offences.

Crimes and offences recorded by the police in Scotland in which an imitation firearm was alleged to have been used: 1998

Police force	Crime/offence
	Serious Assault	Robbery	Reckless Conduct	Firearms Act 1968 offences1	Petty Assault	Other offences	Total
Northern	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Grampian	0	1	0	2	0	0	3
Tayside	0	1	0	4	0	0	5
Fife	0	0	0	1	1	0	2
Lothian & Borders	0	0	0	0	2	0	2
Central	0	3	0	0	0	3	6
Strathclyde	0	8	0	16	5	0	29
Dumfries & Galloway	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Scotland	0	13	0	23	8	3	47

Notes:

For example, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, commit a crime etc. and other miscellaneous firearms offences.

Crimes and offences recorded by the police in Scotland in which an imitation firearm was alleged to have been used: 1999

Police force	Crime/offence
	Serious Assault	Robbery	Reckless Conduct	Firearms Act 1968 offences(1)	Petty Assault	Other offences	Total
Northern	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Grampian	0	5	0	6	2	4	17
Tayside	0	0	0	5	0	0	5
Fife	0	0	1	0	0	1	2
Lothian & Borders	0	0	0	2	5	1	8
Central	1	1	0	1	3	5	11
Strathclyde	0	8	0	27	8	0	43
Dumfries & Galloway	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
Scotland	1	15	1	41	18	11	87

Notes:

1. For example, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, commit a crime etc. and other miscellaneous firearms offences.

Future support for further education students under the age of 18 will be based on the findings and conclusions that emerge from evaluation of the Educational Maintenance Allowance pilots currently under way in East Ayrshire, Glasgow, Dundee and West Dunbartonshire.

The available information concerning crimes involving possession of a knife is given in the following tables:Crimes of possession of an offensive weapon recorded by the police in Scotland 1997

Force	Possession of an offensive weapon1	Having in a public place an article with a blade or point2	Total
Central	144	55	199
Dumfries & Galloway	175	20	195
Fife	258	30	288
Grampian	275	105	380
Lothian & Borders	372	220	592
Northern	165	47	212
Strathclyde	2,257	1,287	3,544
Tayside	433	137	570
Scotland	4,079	1,901	5,980

Notes:1. Crimes of possession of penknives or other short bladed articles are normally recorded under this category but possession of offensive weapons other than knives will also be included.2. This crime category may include possession of articles that are not knives but have blades or sharp points but will not normally include possession of penknives or other short bladed articles.Crimes of possession of an offensive weapon recorded by the police in Scotland 1998

Force	Possession of an offensive weapon1	Having in a public place an article with a blade or point2	Total
Central	143	56	199
Dumfries & Galloway	150	18	168
Fife	205	63	268
Grampian	266	103	369
Lothian & Borders	378	224	602
Northern	169	43	212
Strathclyde	2,505	1,773	4,278
Tayside	526	117	643
Scotland	4,342	2,397	6,739

Notes:1. Crimes of possession of penknives or other short bladed articles are normally recorded under this category but possession of offensive weapons other than knives will also be included.2. This crime category may include possession of articles that are not knives but have blades or sharp points but will not normally include possession of penknives or other short bladed articles.Crimes of possession of an offensive weapon recorded by the police in Scotland 1999

Force	Possession of an offensive weapon1	Having in a public place an article with a blade or point2	Total
Central	173	60	233
Dumfries & Galloway	121	21	142
Fife	270	59	329
Grampian	316	119	435
Lothian & Borders	489	254	743
Northern	224	53	277
Strathclyde	2,784	2,396	5,180
Tayside	428	127	555
Scotland	4,805	3,089	7,894

Notes:1. Crimes of possession of penknives or other short bladed articles are normally recorded under this category but possession of offensive weapons other than knives will also be included.2. This crime category may include possession of articles that are not knives but have blades or sharp points but will not normally include possession of penknives or other short bladed articles.Crimes of possession of an offensive weapon recorded by the police in Scotland 2000

Force	Possession of an offensive weapon1	Having in a public place an article with a blade or point2	Total
Central	162	57	219
Dumfries & Galloway	135	17	152
Fife	332	86	418
Grampian	348	90	438
Lothian & Borders	701	242	943
Northern	178	54	232
Strathclyde	2,863	2,301	5,164
Tayside	477	106	583
Scotland	5,196	2,953	8,149

Notes:1. Crimes of possession of penknives or other short bladed articles are normally recorded under this category but possession of offensive weapons other than knives will also be included.2. This crime category may include possession of articles that are not knives but have blades or sharp points but will not normally include possession of penknives or other short bladed articles.Crimes where a knife is used to threaten or injure will be recorded only under the relevant crime e.g. Serious Assault, Robbery etc and are not separately distinguished in the available statistics. The only exception is crimes of homicide, where the available information is given in the table:Homicide victims¹ by police force area in Scotland, where the main method of killing is by a sharp instrument, 1997-99

Force	1997	1998	1999
Central	2	-	2
Dumfries & Galloway	1	-	1
Fife	1	-	-
Grampian	-	3	4
Lothian & Borders	4	7	5
Northern	-	1	1
Strathclyde	26	31	51
Tayside	1	2	2
Scotland	35	44	66

Notes:1. Currently (as at November 2000) recorded as homicide victims.

The Scottish Executive maintains regular dialogue with the industry on key issues through the Scottish Construction Industry Group. Two key issues that have been raised at recent meetings have been taking forward Rethinking Construction in Scotland and industry capacity. In response to a proposal from the Scottish Construction Industry Group and key industry stakeholders, the Executive has granted funding for a secondee to a short-term project to manage and promote knowledge on best practice and Rethinking Construction activities throughout Scotland. To help ensure capacity within the industry, the Executive in January announced up to £100,000 funding for research to help maximise employment opportunities from housing stock transfer. A report from the research is expected shortly after which the Executive will consider the findings.

The table shows the number of students under 18 enrolled in further and higher education for the academic years 1997-98, 1998-99 and 1999-2000.

	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000
Higher Education	7,286	7,151	6,920
Further Education - Vocational students	67,331	67,500	70,325
Further Education - Non Vocational students	N/A*	9,933	11,731

Sources:

Higher Education Statistics Agency, Scottish Further Education

Funding Council and Scottish Executive.

Notes:

*Age data was not collected for students on non-vocational courses until 1998-99, therefore figures for 1997-98 are not held centrally.

Information for the most recent year (2000-01) is not yet available. This is because the information is collected after the end of each academic year. We have therefore included figures for 1997-98 to illustrate a three-year period.

No such assessment has been undertaken by the Scottish Executive or any of its agencies or non-departmental public bodies. No plans exist to carry out such an assessment.