The information requested isshown in the following table.

	Argyll and Bute Council (£ Million)	Increase %	West Dunbartonshire Council (£ Million)	Increase %
1997-98	104.687	0.4	112.239	-2.3
1998-99	105.352	0.6	109.574	-2.4
1999-2000	108.878	3.3	115.424	5.3
2000-01	111.694	2.6	118.784	2.9
2001-02	120.464	7.9	131.795	11.0
2002-03	131.200	8.9	141.489	7.4
2003-04	145.735	11.1	154.660	9.3
2004-05	157.810	8.3	164.698	6.5
2005-06	166.670	5.6	174.674	6.1
2006-07	173.486	4.1	176.841	1.2
2007-08	177.935	2.6	181.567	2.7

Notes:

(i) There have been a numberof adjustments to the GAE totals over the period covered, including from 2006-07the transfer of concessionary fares provision from schemes locally administeredby councils to a national scheme administered by Transport Scotland. If concessionaryfares are taken out of the 2005-06 figures for consistency, the increases between2005-06 and 2006-07 would be 4.8% for Argyll and Bute Council and 1.4% for WestDunbartonshire Council.

(ii) Grant aided expenditureprovision is neither a budget nor a spending target. Rather it is part of a methodologyused in the local government financial settlement for calculating the overall levelof support the Scottish Executive provides through the block revenue support grant.

(iii) The methodology used inthe local government financial settlement protects those councils with falling populations(such as West Dunbartonshire Council). It ensured for example that in 2006-07, allcouncils received a revenue support grant increase of at least two per cent over2005-06.

Grant Aided Expenditure for SureStartScotland in Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire Councils was as follows:

	Argyll and Bute	West Dunbartonshire
1999-2000	£117,000	£232,000
2000-01	£230,000	£334,000
2001-02	£306,000	£450,000
2002-03	£306,000	£450,000
2003-04	£372,000	£548,000
2004-05	£578,000	£797,000
2005-06	£875,000	£1,205,000
2006-07	£980,000	£1,229,000

 

Decisions on the allocation ofSureStart Scotland funding to specific projects are a matter for local authoritiesand has been spent in a range of ways to provide an integrated package of supportfor families with very young children. Arobust mapping exercise, published in December 2005, provided a detailed pictureof SureStart Scotland services and their positive impact on children and familiesacross all local authorities.

The Scottish Executive publisheda Plan for Action on Alcohol Problems in 2002. The plan sets out a range of actionsto tackle alcohol problems in Scotland.

Delivery of the aims of theplan is being taken forward by a range of organisations including at a local levelthrough Alcohol and Drugs Action Teams (ADATs). Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire are covered by the Argyll and Clyde ADAT other than theClydebank area of West Dunbartonshire, which is covered by Greater Glasgow ADAT.

Since2002-03 each ADAT has been tasked with producing annual Corporate Action Plans whichinclude actions that are being taken forward locally to tackle alcohol related problems.These are available on the ISD website at:

http://www.drugmisuse.isdscotland.org/dat/cap/dat.htm.

Someof the activities to tackle alcohol problemsin these areas include almost £500,000 being spent in West Dunbartonshire to supportnew service development for alcohol problems, almost £400,000 to extend and developcommunity alcohol services in Argyll and Bute and over £300,000 in Greater Glasgow(which is inclusive of the Clydebank area of West Dunbartonshire) to develop projectsaimed at early intervention in community and primary health care and workplace settings.

Additional information can beobtained direct from NHS boards. Information is not available centrally on tacklingalcohol problems prior to 2002-03.

The Executive has increased resourcessubstantially to Argyll and Bute and WestDunbartonshire Councils, as indeed to all councils in Scotland, toenable them to deliver community care policies in their areas. Grant Aided Expenditure for community care across Scotland hasmore than doubled from £810 million in 1997-98 to £1.7 billion in 2006-07. Thatincludes £162 million this year for free personal and nursing care; £48 milliona year specifically to support more older people at home, and £13 million from thisyear for faster access to home care. In September 2004 we introduced the targetof increasing, by 2008, the number of older people receiving intensive home careto 30% of all older people receiving long-term care.

The Scottish Executive has activelyencouraged the establishment of community safety partnerships led by the local authorityand the police and involving the public, private and voluntary bodies to tacklecommunity safety issues at a local level.

The specific crime preventionprojects funded by the Scottish Executive in Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire are outlined in the answer to question S2W-26712 on 21 June 2006.

Both council areas have alsobenefited from action taken within disadvantaged areas through regeneration programmessuch as the Better Neighbourhood Services Fund (BNSF), Social Inclusion Partnership(SIP) and Community Regeneration Fund (CRF) which have included crime preventionactivities.

Argylland Bute Community Planning Partnership (CPP) was awarded CRF of £2.415 millionfor the period 2005-06 to 2007-08. From CRF, the CPP has allocated funding to anumber of crime reduction projects, including the employment of two outreach workersby the Domestic Abuse Partnership for work in the Kirkmichael/Craigendoran, Helensburghand Ballochgoy areas. The CPP has also been instrumental in promoting a range ofdiversionary activities for young people including a skateboard park and one-to-oneyouth project in Helensburgh.

WestDunbartonshire CPP was awarded CRF of £13.368 million for 2005-06 to 2007-08, andamongst a number of projects has allocated £155,000 towards consultation with youngpeople through youth action groups established across the area. Over the three-yearfunding period £155,000 has been awarded to Streetlinks - a youth outreach project– while further awards have been made to the Pupil and Family Support network, andto assist the Tullochan Trust to develop the potential of young people. The Careand Repair service provides crime awareness and prevention information, and equipment,to elderly and disabled residents.

Under BNSF Argyll and Bute was awarded£2.7 million and West Dunbartonshire £9 million over the three year period 2001-04. Althoughthe Local Outcome Agreements for neither area are specifically aimed at preventingcrime, Argyll and Bute did include activities aimed at reducing the fear ofcrime among older people and West Dunbartonshire provided a range of information, services and activitiesfor young people to make it less likely that they will become involved in crime.

Since 1997, the Argyll and ButeSIP funded various crime prevention projects totalling £204,000. Although in WestDunbartonshire few project allocations by the SIP have been for direct crime preventionwork they have provided £1 million funding for projects which have an impact oncrime prevention and reduction such as young person’s befriending schemes, actionagainst vandalism, domestic violence, Crimestoppers, youth diversion schemes etc.

The capital consents issuedunder section 94 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 to each council fornon-housing capital borrowing is shown in the following table.

£ million

Years	Argyll and Bute Council	West Dunbartonshire Council
1999-2000	10.060	5.742
2000-01	10.766	5.809
2001-02	12.463	8.713
2002-03	16.184	6.185
2003-04	18.531	7.655

Notes:

1. Figures given excludecapital receipts.

The consent system ceased from1 April 2004, with the introduction of the Prudential regime. 2. Inaddition to the non-housing consents, Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire Councilsreceived allocations of £1.6 million and £5.7 million respectively in each of the years above for housing capital expenditure.

We have funded a range of measureswhich contribute to crime prevention including Make our Communities Safer Challenge Competition, the Community Safety Partnership Award Programme, AntisocialBehaviour funding and our investment in record numbers of police officers.

Underthe Make our Communities Safer Challenge Competition which ended in March 2002,the awards detailed in the following table were made:

Argylland Bute

Year	Project	Award
1998-99	Rothesay Town Centre CCTV	£63,300
1999-2000		£0
2000-01	Campbeltown CCTV	£9,500
2001-02	Dunoon New Community Schools	£8,100

 

West Dunbartonshire

Year	Project	Award
1998-99		£0
1999-2000	Dumbarton Town Centre CCTV	£160,000
2000-01	New Bonhill CCTV	£140,000
2001-02	Clydebank Trust CCTV Youth Shelters	£129,440 £18,500

 

On1 April 2002 we introduced a new Community Safety Partnership (CSP)Award Programme for all local authority-led CSPs. The programme assists CSPs toidentify and address their local community safety priorities, including crime prevention.The awards for 2002-03 onwards are set out in the following table:

Year	Argyll and Bute	West Dunbartonshire
2002-03	£84,127	£118,491
2003-04	£78,465	£122,875
2004-05	£87,609	£120,508
2005-06	£75,097.39	£108,594
2006-07	£75,097.39	£108,594

 

Argylland Bute and West Dunbartonshire Community Planning Partnerships have been allocatedfunding to tackle antisocial behaviour over the period 2004-08 as set out in thefollowing table. This has included funding for a range of initiatives, which includemeasures that can contribute to crime prevention, such as community wardens.

 

Year	Argyll and Bute	West Dunbartonshire
2004-05	£184,000	£1,364,000
2005-06	£204,700	£1,513,550
2006-07	£247,000	£1,765,000
2007-08	£260,000	£1,900,000

 

PoliceGAE funding is paid directly to Strathclyde Joint Police Board and it is for theChief Constable of Strathclyde Police to decide on the best use of the funding availableto him. The amount of police GAE allocated to Strathclyde Police in each year since1999 is shown in the following table.

Year	Police GAE (£000)
1998-99	328,336
1999-2000	339,260
2000-01	352,183
2001-02	370,940
2002-03	389,140
2003-04	421,023
2004-05	444,070
2005-06	476,424
2006-07	496,307

 

Details are as follows:

	(£ Million)
1999-2000	349.083
2000-01	379.134
2001-02	411.698
2002-03	435.462
2003-04	453.508
2004-05	527.517
2005-06	616.052

 

Details are as follows:

	NHS Greater Glasgow (£ Million)	NHS Highland (£ Million)
1999-2000	800.079	171.762
2000-01	864.156	184.198
2001-02	951.162	204.907
2002-03	1,034.677	222.063
2003-04	1,101.880	244.851
2004-05	1,280.160	302.818
2005-06	1,370.302	330.287

 

The information has been placedin the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 39879).