Chamber and committees

An assessment of ongoing costs has not been made because the Executive has made it clear it will not use the power in this Parliament

The study was carried out by the Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation on behalf of the NRPB Board. The Executive continues to be in close contact with other UK Health Departments to consider the findings of the report.The Executive fully supports the report's recommendation that the current uncertainty indicates a need for further research. The UK Government is funding its own studies and providing support for the multinational Electromagnetic Fields Project set up and co-ordinated by the World Health Organisation. The UK Government will also work with the NRPB to begin new research into the factors that lead to certain households having higher levels of EMFs.

No. Scottish Prison Service see no need to do so as the contract is working well.

As reported in our Social Justice Annual Report, the proportion of children in relative income poverty has dropped from around 34% in 1996-97 to around 30% in 1998-99, after housing costs have been taken into account. We are also transforming pre-school education, funding nursery places for around 100,000 children a year and supporting childcare. The percentage of children living in workless households fell from 19% in 1997 to 16% in 2000.Our progress is backed up by programmes such as Sure Start Scotland and the new £70 million Children's Change Fund, which help to improve children's start in life.

The Scottish Higher Education Funding Council's staffing numbers and associated costs over the last three (financial) years are as follows:In 1998 there were 57 staff at an associated cost of £1,660,000In 1999 there were 55 staff at an associated cost of £1,678,000In 2000 there were 45.5 staff at an associated cost of £1,314,000

The information provided shows the data for 1999-2000. Information on 2000-01 funding arrangements is not yet available.While the Scottish Executive is the primary funder to all the Careers Service Companies, many of the companies have endeavoured to find additional project/service specific funding from other sources such as the Enterprise Networks and some European funding.Column 1 - Shows the total company income as reported in the companies' annual accounts for 1999-2000.Column 2 - Shows funding identified being received from statutory organisations.Column 3- Shows other income generated. This figure may still contain some funding from statutory organisations, because where the income generated by the company is very small we have not requested that the company provide a breakdown at this time.Column 4 - Shows non-statutory organisation funding as a percentage of Total Company Income.

Careers Service Company	Total Company Income from Annual Accounts 1999-2000 (£000)	Total Company Income received from Statutory Organisations (£000)	Other Income Generated (£000)	Non Statutory Organisation Funding as % of Total Income
Argyll and Bute	572	544	28	4.9
Ayrshire*	1,682	1,627	55	3.3
Scottish Borders	499	462	37	7.4
Careers Central	2,077	1,795	282	13.6
Edinburgh and Lothians	3,960	3,542	418	10.5
Dumfries and Galloway*	774	744	30	3.9
Dunbartonshire and Lomond	1,224	1,199	25	2
Fife	1,800	1,732	68	3.8
Glasgow	3,238	3,087	151	4.7
Grampian	2,313	2,253	60	2.6
Highland	1,220	1,211	9	0.7
Lanarkshire	2,799	2,791	8	0.3
Orkney	232	143	89	38.3
Renfrewshire	2,750	2,468	282	10.2
Shetland	234	181	53	22.6
Tayside	1,607	1,587	20	1.2
Western Isles	257	208	49	19

* Accounts for 1999-2000 not available - figures based on 1998-99.

It will be expected under the new organisation that all appropriate and relevant staff will transfer under their existing terms and conditions, and therefore we anticipate no substantial increase in staffing costs. As yet we are unable to determine the percentage of staff who will opt to transfer to Careers Scotland and it is therefore impossible to give an accurate figure to reflect these future staffing costs.

No. We are content that all the Research Councils, which are reserved bodies, abide by the general principle that funding decisions are made on the grounds of quality, not location.

A total of £64.6 million will be allocated to higher education institutions in Scotland by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council. The allocations to individual higher education institutions over the two years 2002-03 and 2003-04 are as follows:

Institution	Scottish Science Research Investment Fund
	2002-03 to 2003-04
	£
Aberdeen, University of	5,371,000
Abertay Dundee, University of	243,000
Dundee, University of	7,098,000
Edinburgh College of Art	89,000
Edinburgh, University of	19,499,000
Glasgow Caledonian University	640,000
Glasgow School of Art	25,000
Glasgow, University of	14,561,000
Heriot-Watt University	3,587,000
Napier University	604,000
Northern College of Education	25,000
Paisley, University of	222,000
Queen Margaret University College	265,000
Robert Gordon University	319,000
St, Andrews, University of	3,299,000
Stirling, University of	1,933,000
Strathclyde, University of	6,792,000
Total:	64,572,000

£44.6 million of this £64.6 million has been provided by the Office of Science and Technology through the Science Research Investment Fund.

The methodology used to calculate the distribution of funding of the Scottish Science Research Investment Fund was described in a Circular Letter issued to higher education institutions by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) on 1 March 2001 (HE/05/2001).Allocations to higher education institutions were calculated using a straightforward formula agreed by the UK higher education funding councils. The allocations were linked to research excellence and the volume of research. 50% of the funding was calculated on the basis of the funding from the SHEFC Research Assessment Exercise-based grant. The other 50% of the funding was calculated on the basis of the total external research income received by institutions. There is a minimum allocation of £25,000 for institutions that are eligible to receive funding through SRIF. The calculations were based on those areas of the science research base falling within the remit of the Office of Science and Technology.