Chamber and committees

As stated in my response to question S1W-13460, the Scottish Executive has reviewed the Standard Grade course with the aim of making it more attractive to pupils and revised courses will be available from academic session 2001-02. A number of other measures have been taken to promote technological studies in schools, as outlined in my response to question S1W-12194. In addition, the Deputy Minister will meet with representatives of education and industry to discuss ways in which the profile of technological studies in schools can be raised.

Services for young runaways are provided by a wide range of statutory, voluntary and private agencies. The Scottish Executive is helping to tackle many of the underlying problems which can cause children to run away. We are supporting a variety of initiatives focused on the development and well being of children within the family and others are aimed at improving the quality of care for children who are looked after by local authorities. We will continue to keep this under review, taking account of the recommendations of the Aberlour Trust's publication Missing Out - Young Runaways in Scotland and other related work.

Clinical guidance issued to all medical practitioners involved in treating drug misuse in 1999 acknowledges that some people can become drug-free in the short term, others require support over a long period of time.Substitute prescribing of methadone should not be delivered in isolation, however, but as part of a wider social care programme which will assist drug misusers to address the difficulties which drug use causes to them, their families and the wider community. The Executive has provided an additional £20.4 million to local authorities for rehabilitation services over the next three years for that purpose. It has also allocated a further £6.5 million to assist reforming drug misusers prepare for training and employment.

Information on the number of users of class "A" drugs is not held centrally. The Executive, however, is currently funding a National Prevalence Study of Problematic Drug Use, which will assist DATs, local authorities and health boards to determine the need for services in their areas.Local authorities fund drug rehabilitation services from within their general allocations. Additional funding of £20.4 million is being allocated specifically for these services over the next three years. Allocations for this financial year are as follows:

	Remaining Social Work Services
	Primary Indicator Total Pop.	GAE (£000)	of which; Drug Rehabilitation (£000)
Aberdeen City	212,650	1,992	282
Aberdeenshire	227,440	2,131	302
Angus	109,840	1,029	146
Argyll & Bute	89,730	841	119
Clackmannanshire	48,530	455	65
Dumfries & Galloway	146,800	1,375	195
Dundee City	144,430	1,353	192
East Ayrshire	120,940	1,133	161
East Dunbartonshire	110,690	1,037	147
East Lothian	90,430	847	120
East Renfrewshire	89,280	837	119
Edinburgh, City of	451,710	4,232	600
Eilean Siar	27,560	258	37
Falkirk	144,370	1,353	192
Fife	349,200	3,272	464
Glasgow City	611,440	5,729	812
Highland	208,600	1,954	277
Inverclyde	85,190	798	113
Midlothian	81,680	765	108
Moray	85,210	798	113
North Ayrshire	139,410	1,306	185
North Lanarkshire	327,940	3,073	436
Orkney	19,600	184	26
Perth & Kinross	134,030	1,256	178
Renfrewshire	177,230	1,661	235
Scottish Borders	106,400	997	141
Shetland	22,740	213	30
South Ayrshire	114,250	1,070	152
South Lanarkshire	307,520	2,881	408
Stirling	84,700	794	113
West Dunbartonshire	94,980	890	126
West Lothian	154,680	1,449	205
Scotland	5,119,200	47,964	6,800

Information on the total cost of treating heroin addicts with methadone is not held centrally.Total costs include the cost of the methadone, fees to pharmicists to dispense methadone and to supervise consumption, the cost of counselling and social support and fees to GPs participating in shared care schemes. There are also costs of providing specialist drug services.Current resources for treatment services in this financial year total £14.352 million. This includes £2 million from the £100 million package of additional resources provided through the 2000 Spending Review.

This is a matter for local authorities and I know that, particularly in Glasgow, much good work is being done within existing resources. The key is to have strategies in place to encourage awareness and understanding between local residents and asylum seekers before asylum seekers arrive.

Data about accidents on roads (including footways) in which a vehicle is involved, and which result in death or personal injury, are collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive using the STATS 19 statistical report form. Information about accidents in which no vehicle was involved, such as injury to a person after slipping on a pavement, is not held centrally.The table gives the numbers of people killed or injured in accidents in which a vehicle was on the footway or a pedestrian was on the footway or verge. The information is broken down by local authority area. Figures for years prior to 1999 are not available because the information required to identify vehicles which were on the footway (pavement) at the time of the accident has only been collected in the STATS 19 returns with effect from 1999.The total numbers of people killed or injured in road accidents which involvedeither (i) a vehicle whose location, at the time of the accident, was on the footway (pavement) or (ii) a pedestrian casualty whose location was on the footway or verge

Local authority area	1999	2000(provisional)
Aberdeen City	12	4
Aberdeenshire	7	12
Angus	8	5
Argyll & Bute	15	4
Clackmannanshire	5	4
Dumfries & Galloway	10	7
Dundee City	5	6
East Ayrshire	5	2
East Dunbartonshire	5	4
East Lothian	2	5
East Renfrewshire	6	7
Edinburgh, City of	28	20
Eilean Siar	-	-
Falkirk	9	6
Fife	28	25
Glasgow, City of	52	53
Highland	21	13
Inverclyde	7	3
Midlothian	2	2
Moray	1	-
North Ayrshire	10	11
North Lanarkshire	13	9
Orkney Islands	1	2
Perth & Kinross	10	4
Renfrewshire	10	15
Scottish Borders	2	1
Shetland Islands	-	1
South Ayrshire	4	5
South Lanarkshire	18	12
Stirling	10	8
West Dunbartonshire	5	6
West Lothian	7	2
Total for Scotland	318	258

Notes:The figures for 2000 are provisional because the process of checking police forces' returns for 2000 has not been completed.The STATS 19 returns do not distinguish between pedestrian casualties who were on the footway and those who were on a verge.These figures cover all people who were injured in the kinds of accidents described in the table heading - not just pedestrian casualties.

This information is not held centrally.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-15410.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-15312 on 9 May 2001.