Assistance to owners of private sector housing to make their houses suitable for the needs of disabled occupants is given by local authorities through housing improvement grants and from community care budgets. It is for local authorities to determine the priority given to expenditure on this type of assistance. The Scottish Executive is not aware of the detailed priorities which local authorities attach to relevant assistance in the owner-occupied and private rented sectors.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-29183 on 30 September 2002. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

The Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive is funded by the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority. The Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority receives both revenue and capital support from both central and local government. The Scottish Executive does not hold information on the total financial support provided to the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority.

I hope to do so shortly.

The Crown Office and Prosecutor Fiscal Service is the sole prosecution authority in Scotland. Prosecutions under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976 are subject to the same criteria as any other alleged contravention of the criminal law. Procurators Fiscal must be satisfied that there is sufficient admissible and reliable evidence before raising proceedings. The maximum penalties for offences under the licensing laws are prescribed by statute. Sentencing within these parameters is solely a matter for the consideration and discretion of the Judiciary and the Executive cannot intervene.

Realising the benefits of stroke unit care will be a central element of the CHD/Stroke strategy which the Executive will publish in the autumn. The evidence for their effectiveness is also integral to the standards for stroke care currently being developed by the Clinical Standards Board for Scotland. Both the strategy and the standards will promote implementation of the recommendation in Adding Life to Years, the report of the Chief Medical Officer's Expert Group on the Healthcare of Older People which we published in January of this year, that stroke patients admitted to hospital should be managed in a stroke unit.

Significant amounts of Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) block grant funding to universities are being used to support teaching and research staff who are working in the field of nanotechnology. Most of Scotland's universities already have departments which are engaged in nanotechnology research - typically these include engineering and life sciences departments. In addition, since 1997, SHEFC has awarded nine Research Development Grants into nanotechnology related areas, totaling over £8 million. SHEFC has also funded three Joint Research Equipment Grants in nanotechnology related areas. In many cases this funding has underpinned additional support from the UK Research Councils, European Framework programmes and directly from industry.Our universities are also able to access existing support vehicles - such as the Proof of Concept Fund - to assist in the commercialisation of research in this area.

There is good evidence that care in specialised stroke units reduces the number of deaths, leads to fewer admissions to long-term care and increases the number of patients able to return home to independent living.

The information requested is contained in the following table:

Local Authority	2001	2000	1999	1998	1997
Aberdeen City	3,001	3,602	4,766	4,391	4,053
Aberdeenshire	1,828	2,052	2,041	2,384	2,306
Angus	1,804	1,802	1,867	1,878	1,885
Argyll and Bute	927	973	950	1,032	1,033
Clackmannanshire	656	652	601	586	710
Dumfries and Galloway	2,015	1,669	1,880	2,075	1,869
Dundee City	2,445	2,891	2,978	3,240	3,762
East Ayrshire	1,311	1,348	1,398	1,512	1,936
East Dunbartonshire	986	1,022	1,010	1,207	1,275
East Lothian	1,195	1,287	1,196	1,408	1,456
East Renfrewshire	765	847	820	881	826
Edinburgh, City of	5,969	6,393	7,261	7,719	7,839
Eilean Siar	779	803	870	1,000	1,126
Falkirk	2,281	2,287	2,420	2,693	2,717
Fife	5,858	6,496	7,491	7,942	9,272
Glasgow City	8,802	9,763	10,048	11,258	12,425
Highland, The	2,748	2,915	2,999	2,946	3,104
Inverclyde	1,146	1,281	1,311	1,314	1,598
Midlothian	1,256	1,319	1,253	1,253	1,307
Moray	1,063	1,056	1,163	1,161	1,045
North Ayrshire	1,490	1,629	1,696	2,167	2,327
North Lanarkshire	2,895	3,075	2,999	3,133	2,140
Orkney Islands	442	465	492	376	385
Perth and Kinross	1,477	1,463	1,479	1,425	1,490
Renfrewshire	2,542	2,453	2,505	2,762	2,672
Scottish Borders	1,491	1,569	1,576	1,563	1,986
Shetland Islands	722	659	514	527	538
South Ayrshire	1,203	1,358	1,199	1,485	1,734
South Lanarkshire	2,445	2,629	2,773	2,924	4,047
Stirling	881	921	930	1,427	1,240
West Dunbartonshire	1,558	1,767	1,760	1,699	1,641
West Lothian	1,552	1,764	1,812	1,926	1,872
Scotland	65,533	70,210	74,058	79,294	83,616

Source: Home Care Statistical Return H1.

Information on jobs lost is not held centrally. However, information on the number of employee jobs is available from the Annual Business Inquiry. Therefore, the change in the number of employee jobs each year is available.The net change in manufacturing employment on the previous year was as follows:

	Scotland	Dundee City	Glasgow City
1996	-3,892	1,518	-3,502
1997	5,083	-1,372	618
1998	4,597	1,019	-102
1999	-12,201	-438	-340
2000	-10,079	-241	-1,270

2000 is the latest year for which data are available.