Chamber and committees

The fees for civil legal aid work were last increased in 1995.

The Scottish Legal Aid Board has raised the issue of remuneration rates for solicitors who undertake civil and criminal legal aid work. Initial discussions have taken place within the Tripartite Working Group which comprises officials of the Scottish Executive, the Board and the Law Society of Scotland.

The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues including the taxi provisions contained in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. We anticipate that consultation on the taxi proposals will take place later this year and will take account of the information contained in Mr Oxley's Report.

I announced on 13 March that I have decided to set up a national group to advise the Executive on the transport needs of people with disabilities. The group, on which a variety of organisations concerned with people experiencing mobility problems, including blind and deaf people will be represented, will be able to contribute to the formation of policies on access to all forms of public and private transport. The full remit and membership of the group will be announced following consultation with disability groups and transport bodies.

The Scottish Executive is very conscious of the particular problems of areas such as Falkirk and we shall seek to ensure through investing in jobs and skills, fostering enterprise and encouraging the growth of new businesses that we create sustainable economic growth and employment opportunities for all members of the community.

I refer Mr Matheson to my answer to his question S1W-5172.

An annual grant of £10,150 was awarded to the Disablement Income Group Scotland from 1995-96 until 1998-99. This funding ceased at the end of March 1999 because of the decision to establish a new disability information service, UPDATE. UPDATE will receive funding of £227k in 1999-2000, £238k in 2000-01 and £235k in 2001-02.

People with disabilities will also benefit from a wide range of policy initiatives including our Social Justice programme addressing the multiple causes of poverty and social exclusion.

The Scottish Executive along with health boards and NHS Trusts work in partnership to ensure the delivery of a responsive, high quality ambulance service. A range of measures with the Scottish Ambulance Service have been or are being taken to improve the service given to patients including:

- changes to crew shift patterns and working practices

- new radio and communications and control system

- investment in ambulances and ambulance station and front line staff

For the future, the Ambulance Service's revenue allocation for 2000-01 provides new development funding, including an extra £500,000 to put 20 more frontline staff into Glasgow, £115,000 in further support of the improvements being made to the Air Ambulance Service, and £485,000 to enable the service to train an extra 75 paramedics in the coming year. This is in addition to the funding being provided to enable the service to investigate the case for introducing a priority-based dispatch system for emergency ambulances. Plans are also being progressed to provide new ambulance stations in Edinburgh.

Police forces' budgets are set by their respective police authorities. It is for chief constables to decide how to allocate resources on operational equipment such as the provision of stab proof vests.

The Scottish Executive announced on 7 March that we are providing the Scottish Ambulance Service with £100,000 to help them investigate whether a priority-based system for answering 999 calls would provide a better and more responsive service for patients. We expect to see the findings of the service's investigations later this year, which will include the estimated costs and timescales, associated with introducing such a system.