Chamber and committees

Details of the UK Government's euro preparations work was set out in the Fifth Report on Euro Preparations, published in November 2001. The Scottish Executive has not established any pilot projects as part of that work. The government will continue to provide regular updates in future progress reports. Membership of the single european currency is a reserved issue.

The Scottish Executive's annual survey regarding the number of primary and secondary pupils excluded from local authority schools in Scotland commenced in 1998. The figures for the three years documented are as follows:

Year	Primary Pupils	Secondary Pupils	Total
1998-99	4,402	29,612	34,014
1998-99(Revised figure)*			37,200
1999-2000	4,652	32,954	37,606
2000-01	4,507	33,145	37,652

*In 1999 the overall figure for exclusions for 1998-99 was revised due to resubmission of data from local authorities, in light of additional guidance and discussions. The revised figure was not broken down between primary, secondary and special education pupils.

Capital resources are not specifically allocated to individual NHS boards for the provision or replacement of medical equipment.It is for individual NHS boards to determine annually the level of funding required for new and replacement medical equipment taking into account other local priorities. NHS boards can use both capital and revenue resources to meet equipment costs.

Finance Circulars for each year since 1996-97, detailing the Aggregate External Finance (AEF) allocations to local authorities, are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Finance Circulars and respective Bib. no's are listed).

Finance Circular	Title	Bib. No.
8/1996	1996-97 Grant Aided Expenditure Figures	20314
31/1996	1997-98 Aggregate External Finance Distribution Proposals	20051
20/1997	1998-99 Aggregate External Finance Distribution Proposals	20052
19/1998	1999-00 Local Government Finance Settlement	20053
9/1999	2000-01 Local Government Finance Settlement	8310
13/2000	Local Government Finance Settlement: 2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-04	20054
3/2001	Revised Local Government Settlements: 2001-02 to 2003-04	20316
8/2001	Local Government Finance Settlement: 2002-03, 2003-04	17961

The Scottish Executive has not, and does not, plan to make representation to the UK Government on this matter.

The Scottish Executive has reached agreement with COSLA and the local authorities on a funding package to meet the cost of enhancing existing concessionary travel schemes to provide free local off-peak bus travel from October 2002.

Along with officials at the Executive and Scottish Development International, I have been in regular close contact with Rolls Royce over a number of months. We are working hard to ensure that this important company continues to develop its manufacturing presence in Scotland.

The Plotnikoff and Woolfson Report was commissioned to assist the Lord Advocate's Working Group on Child Witness Support. The membership of the Child Witness Support Implementation Group, which is taking forward the working group's recommendations, comprises officials of the Scottish Executive, including the Crown Office, and the Scottish Children's Reporters Administration. It met in September, October, and November 2001 and in January 2002. It will meet again in April.Regarding the completion of its work, I refer the member to the answer given to S1O-4737 on 28 February 2002.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-22879.

The Executive has no plans for the establishment of further Enterprise Zones.