Chamber and committees

Of the 20,000 persons in nursing homes currently, 4,300 fund their own care, the remainder being funded by local authorities and DSS. As announced on 5 October, the NHSiS will be responsible for funding the nursing care of all residents of nursing homes. The estimated cost of funding the nursing care of all residents of nursing homes will be £100 million per annum. Of that, £75 million will represent transfers of responsibility and resources. It is not practical to estimate how these figures might change over the next three years nor how many NHSiS beds if any will become available as a result.

The 1999-2000 survey of drug education in schools produced the following results for primary and secondary schools:

Type of School	No of Schools1 Included in Survey	No of Schools Responding to Survey	No of Schools Responding who said they did provide drug education
Local Authority Schools
Primary	2,293	2,185	2,107
Secondary	389	376	376
Special	185	161	117
Independent, grant aided and opted out2 schools
Primary	73	55	44
Secondary	63	49	49
Special	41	32	27
All Schools
Primary	2,366	2,240	2,151
Secondary	452	425	425
Special	226	193	144

Notes:

1. School which have both a primary and a secondary department have been counted under both categories for the purposes of this survey.

2. There are no opted out secondary or special schools.Full details of the survey were published on 26 July.

Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government, which takes the lead on funding and delivery of the New Deal. In Scotland, it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing Scottish organisations.In Scotland, the number of employers signed up to the New Deal at the end of December 2000 is 12,600; this represents approximately 8% of businesses registered for VAT and/or PAYE.Data on the number of companies which have taken on New Deal for Young People clients is not available.

No date has been fixed. The report of consultants appointed to evaluate the performance of the contractor currently providing these helpline services should be available by the end of March. The report will inform decisions on the future direction of the helplines.

Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government, which takes the lead on funding and delivery of the New Deal. In Scotland, it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing Scottish organisations.This information is published and can be found in the monthly New Deal news release www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00065-00.asp (table A5).

Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government, which takes the lead on funding and delivery of the New Deal. In Scotland, it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing Scottish organisations.This information is published and can be found in the monthly New Deal news release www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00065-00.asp(tables A0 and A3).

Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government which takes the lead on funding and delivery of the New Deal. In Scotland it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing Scottish organisations.The expenditure on each New Deal programme in Scotland to January 2001 was:

1. New Deal for Lone Parents: £7 million
2. New Deal for Disabled People: £1 million
3. New Deal for Partners of Unemployed People: £1 million
4. New Deal 25 plus: £23 million

(e) New Deal 50 plus: £1 millionThese figures do not take account of a proportion of the total costs due to time lags in claims from New Deal service providers and subsequent reimbursement.In addition, there are central running and marketing costs for each programme which have not been included in these figures.The number of people in Scotland who have taken part in each New Deal at the end of December 2000 are:

1. New Deal for Lone Parents: 19,600 (to end November 2000)
Figure refers to numbers attending an initial interview.
2. New Deal for Disabled People: 2,300
This figure only includes the personal adviser service based in Lanarkshire.
3. New Deal for Partners of Unemployed People: 800
This figure refers to those attending an initial interview.
4. New Deal for 25+: 34,500
5. New Deal for 50+: 3,100

The figures for ND50+ relate to the number of Employment Credit Starts. At present, caseload figures are not published.

No review is currently planned.

The Scottish Executive does not hold information on the cost of policing individual events. These involve operational decisions which are matters for Chief Constables.

The Executive has discussed business rates with representatives of the following bodies; in some cases separately or as part of meetings with business representative groups:

British Hospitality Association;

Confederation of British Industry, Scotland;

Chemical Industries Association;

Convention of Scottish Local Authorities;

Forum of Private Business;

Federation of Small Businesses, Scotland;

Institute of Directors;

Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in Scotland;

Scottish Assessors' Association;

Scottish Chambers of Commerce;

Scottish Council Development and Industry;

Scottish Licensed Trade Association;

Scottish Retail Consortium;

Scottish Tourism Forum;

Scottish Valuation and Rating Council;Scottish Wholesalers' Association.