Chamber and committees

Yes.

Yes.

Microsoft products used in the parliamentary estate are purchased under an agreement negotiated in March 2002 by the Office of Government Commerce on behalf of the UK public sector, including the devolved administrations. Through consolidating the purchasing power of the UK public sector this agreement has secured the most competitive prices for Microsoft products available to the organisations within its scope. The confidentiality provisions of this agreement do, however, prevent the publication of those prices.When developing the current Technology Refresh strategy, several office automation suites were considered, all of which offered basic compatibility. The Microsoft Office suite best met the technical and business needs of the Parliament.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:The available information is given in the following table:Male Prisoners in Custody on 30 June with a Sentence of Four Years and Over Whose Main Crime was a Crime of Indecency

As at	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
Number of prisoners	250	275	303	309	301

The number of hits on the site since its introduction is 395,908. However, given the opinion of the National Audit Office, in their report on Government websites, that hits is not a reliable way to measure activity, we monitor the site using figures relating to page impressions. Page impressions measure the number of actual pages a user views on the site. Since its introduction in June 2001, there have been 76,989 page impressions viewed on the Learn to Let Go website - monthly figures are as follows. We had no firm projections of how many page impressions the site would attract, as there were no precedents to benchmark against. Page Impressions

June 2001	2,455
July 2001	3,413
August 2001	3,122
September 2001	5,493
October 2001	2,438
November 2001	2,679
December 2001	4,355
January 2002	5,154
February 2002	4,324
March 2002	4,034
April 2002	4,451
May 2002	4,957
June 2002	7,201
July 2002	7,213
August 2002	7,311
September 2002	6,113
October 2002	4,476

The available information is published at tables 8 and 9 in the statistical bulletin Motor Vehicle Offences in Scotland for the years 1997-2000 (Bib. numbers 19450, 4848, 10421 and 17819 in the Parliament's Reference Centre). The available statistics relate to the offence categories of "speeding in restricted areas", where the speed limit involved is generally 30 mph, and "other speeding offences".

Aberdeenshire Council's original intention was to develop an internet portal for people aged 65 and over. However, the scope of the project has changed and instead of this the council will, with £100,000 from the Modernising Government Fund, examine the use, and interest in using ICT, by over 65s as part of Aberdeenshire's strategy for older people, Live Life to the Full. The council has chosen the Marr area as a suitable pilot area for this project.The Executive is supporting internet developments for older people and the Scottish Executive's Older People's website: www.scotland.gov.uk/olderpeople, was established on 29 August 2002. The website was designed with input from older people and early trials show an average of 3,500 visits per month. Steps are now under way to further publicise and develop the site.

Aberdeenshire Council will measure the level of success of the project and the extent to which it has enabled older people to use ICT to improve access to services. The main aim of the project is to take technology out to older people in a rural setting and to work with older people to determine how technology might improve access to services. The project is at an early stage and the criteria used for measuring success will be based upon usage of the service and feedback on the technology by older people themselves.I understand that the Project Co-ordinator has enlisted a number of volunteers and that technology training has been provided in four areas using portable computers. This includes a number of introductory sessions and short training courses run, for example, in sheltered housing complexes and in day-care settings. Residents and users in a sheltered housing complex/resource centre are also participating in a series of one to one classes covering the basics of using a computer, word processing, email and internet. In addition, an outreach project has been developed to work in people's homes and training for this will commence shortly.The initial work of the pilot has proved popular and the council already intends to extend the project until September 2003. Over that time the council will explore ways to extend the life of the project and the area that it covers to ensure the evidence gathered is representative of older people in AberdeenshireThe Executive monitors all Modernising Government Fund projects on a quarterly basis and all progress reports, including the Aberdeenshire project, are posted for public information, to the 21st Century Government Section of the website at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/government/c21g/fund.asp.

The National Grid for Learning (Scotland) web services are funded by the Scottish Executive and managed by Learning and Teaching Scotland. The web services were launched in February 2000 and the cost in financial year 1999-2000 was £245,000. The budgeted running cost for 2002-03 is £850,000.

The Scottish Executive has commissioned one completed study, other than the research for the Foolsspeed campaign, from the Centre for Social Marketing at Strathclyde University. This was to provide advice on dissemination to the Effective Interventions Unit in the Substance Misuse Division, Health Department. The contract was from January to May 2002 at a cost of £8,770.The Centre for Social Marketing are part of a joint team (with Glasgow University and the National Centre for Social Research) which was this month awarded a contract by the Scottish Executive (total cost £161,600) to evaluate the Lloyds TSB Partnership Drugs Initiative. The final research report is due to be completed in February 2005.