- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 21 February 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to tackle hate crime against people with learning disabilities.
Answer
The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) has established a newly constituted Race and Community Relations Standing Committee to reflect the importance ACPOS gives to diversity issues. The new committee has several portfolios, one of which is disability/mental health. ACPOS is currently consulting with major stakeholders to ascertain which issues on disability/mental health the committee should consider addressing.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 21 February 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether police forces are receiving any specialised diversity and hate crime related training.
Answer
The Scottish Police College has developed a National Equal Opportunities Training Strategy (NEOTS) which covers all aspects of equal opportunities. NEOTS training has been incorporated into the new Probationer Training Programme. In addition to this centrally delivered training, all police forces in Scotland are now running NEOTS courses. The college also delivers a two-day Diversity Awareness course.The Scottish Police College has recently appointed a Diversity Co-ordinator and is in the process of setting up a diversity panel, made up of officers from all police forces, whose remit will be to advise the college on diversity issues.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 21 February 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is measuring the level and type of hate crime against people with learning disabilities and whether it has any performance targets in this area.
Answer
The Executive collates and publishes crime statistics from information recorded by the police. The police do not record either the level or type of hate crime against people with learning difficulties or any other disabilities. Only the nature of the offence is recorded.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 20 February 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many inclusiveness projects there are in the (a) Argyll and Bute and (b) West Dunbartonshire local authority area and how much funding has been allocated to each such project.
Answer
The Pan Highlands and Islands inclusiveness project includes the Argyll and Bute area. Of the overall allocation to this project, Argyll and Bute was awarded £357,670 by the Scottish Executive for the period April 2001 to March 2004.The West Dunbartonshire local authority area is included within the Dumbarton and Lomond inclusiveness project. Scottish Executive funding of £594,500 was awarded to this project for the period April 2001 to March 2004.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 February 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it is making in the Dumbarton parliamentary constituency on the implementation of the 10-point action plan arising from Scotland's Action Programme to Reduce Youth Crime 2002.
Answer
Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire Councils received around £175,000 and £422,000 respectively for investment in youth justice this year. Of this, £111,092 for Argyll and Bute and £236,444 for West Dunbartonshire is new money made available by the Executive following the publication of the action plan. The Executive published a report in September 2002 of a local authority youth justice mapping exercise which contains information about initiatives in Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire using these funds. The report is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 24541).West Dunbartonshire will also benefit between now and 2005 from two projects to be run by Includem, funded by the Youth Crime Prevention Fund: £165,400 to the West Home Team to provide advice and support to parents and families of those at risk of offending; and £139,700 for the Relapse Project which offers support and supervision to persistent young offenders to ease their transition back into the community. These projects and the national initiatives we are taking forward under the action plan will support local implementation.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 February 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what policies it has implemented in the Dumbarton parliamentary constituency to tackle youth crime and what funding it has allocated for such policies.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-33877 today. 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.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 19 February 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to increase the employment rates of disadvantaged groups such as lone parents or ethnic minorities in the Dumbarton parliamentary constituency.
Answer
Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government which takes the lead on funding and delivery of Welfare to Work programmes. In Scotland it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing organisations.The New Deal for Lone Parents is available on a voluntary basis in the Dumbarton parliamentary constituency. Following a qualifying period of unemployment Jobcentre Plus clients are eligible to join the New Deal for Young People and the New Deal for the Long Term Unemployed. Both these programmes have targets to achieve parity of outcomes for those clients from Minority Ethnic Groups.Action Teams for Jobs, available in three Dumbarton wards - Dumbarton North, Dumbarton West and Dumbarton Central, is a programme which aims to increase employment rates amongst disadvantaged groups in employment deprived areas. This programme is available to lone parents and ethnic minorities. The action team has co-funded two One Plus Child Care training courses to help address child minding problems of lone parents returning to work. The action team is also able to provide additional funding to lone parents not available through mainstream provision.A number of disadvantaged groups have early access to the Training for Work programme (TfW). TfW offers a selection of work focused training opportunities and, in the Dunbartonshire area, is enhanced by the JOBlink project and by the Adult Recruitment and Training Credit that is available to employers recruiting unemployed TfW eligible clients.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 19 February 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how much the Scottish Further Education Funding Council allocated to Clydebank College in each year since 1997.
Answer
The Scottish Further Education Funding Council has been responsible for allocating funds to further education colleges since 1 July 1999, when it took over that responsibility from the Scottish Office Education and Industry Department. The annual allocations to Clydebank College were as follows:
| Year | £ |
| 1997-98 | 7,432,900 |
| 1998-99 | 8,346,450 |
| 1999-2000 | 8,386,494 |
| 2000-01 | 9,058,602 |
| 2001-02 | 13,078,008 |
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 19 February 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many New Futures Fund projects have been funded in (a) Dumbarton parliamentary constituency, (b) the Argyll and Bute Council area and (c) the West Dunbartonshire Council area.
Answer
(a) Dumbarton parliamentary constituency has one project: the East Dunbartonshire Multi-Agency Drug and Alcohol Forum, which works with drug misusers.(b) There are currently no New Futures Fund Projects in Argyle and Bute Council area.(c) The West Dunbartonshire Council area has one project; the West Dunbartonshire Partnership, which works with drug misusers.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 19 February 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what action has been taken to reduce the gap between unemployment rates in the areas of lowest employment in the Dumbarton parliamentary constituency and the rate in Scotland as a whole and whether this gap has reduced since 1999.
Answer
Narrowing the gap in unemployment is a key area of the Executive's strategy for the enterprise networks. By offering a range of skills and training initiatives, Scottish Enterprise Dunbartonshire is working hard to ensure that employment opportunities are open to all.The answers to S1W-33915 on 18 February 2003 and S1W-33916 today, provide information on action being taken through New Deal, and other Welfare to Work Initiatives, to reduce the gap between unemployment rates in the areas of lowest employment in the Dumbarton parliamentary constituency, and the rate in Scotland as a whole. 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.Specifically, the Action Teams for Jobs Programme (available in three Dumbarton Wards - Dumbarton North, Dumbarton West and Dumbarton Central) aims to increase employment rates amongst disadvantaged groups in employment deprived areas. Statistics for the New Deal for Young People, for the long-term unemployed, and for lone parents indicate that to the end of September 2002 a total of 1,489 people had gone into jobs within the Dumbarton constituency since the introduction of these programmes.The Dumbarton constituency has benefited directly from £3.9 million from the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund from the Western Scotland Objective 2 Programme 2000-2006. Projects supported will promote economic regeneration, vocational training and economic development opportunities. It is forecast that these projects will cater for 670 trainees and create 2,145 jobs.In the last five financial years to end March 2002, 11 projects creating and safeguarding jobs in the area have benefited from over £3.4 million in Regional Selective Assistance.Claimant unemployment rates have fallen in all wards in the Dumbarton parliamentary constituency between January 1999 and January 2003 as shown in the following table.Residence-based claimant count unemployment rates, by all council wards in the Dumbarton parliamentary constituency, in January of each year between 1999-2003.
| Ward | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 |
| Dumbarton West | 12.5% | 11.3% | 10.2% | 10.3% | 8.3% |
| Dumbarton North | 11.8% | 11.5% | 10.9% | 10.2% | 7.8% |
| Renton/Alexandria South | 7.6% | 7.8% | 8.1% | 7.2% | 7.1% |
| Bonhill East | 9.0% | 8.9% | 8.2% | 7.2% | 6.4% |
| Haldane/Kilmaronock | 7.3% | 6.8% | 6.7% | 5.5% | 5.5% |
| Tullichewna/Luss | 6.5% | 4.9% | 4.6% | 5.0% | 5.1% |
| Dumbarton Central | 5.5% | 5.4% | 5.3% | 5.9% | 5.0% |
| Riverside | 5.5% | 4.7% | 4.8% | 5.6% | 4.9% |
| Helensburgh East | 7.4% | 8.4% | 7.0% | 6.6% | 4.8% |
| Dumbarton South | 4.7% | 4.7% | 3.9% | 4.2% | 3.7% |
| Arrochar/Kilcreggan | 6.0% | 6.3% | 4.2% | 4.2% | 3.6% |
| Dumbarton/Bowling | 4.3% | 3.3% | 4.0% | 4.2% | 2.9% |
| Helensburgh Central | 4.3% | 4.3% | 3.5% | 2.9% | 2.8% |
| Helensburgh West | 3.9% | 3.4% | 2.8% | 2.5% | 2.1% |
| Rhu/Garelochhead | 4.4% | 4.1% | 3.1% | 3.2% | 2.4% |
| Cardross/Craigendoran | 3.3% | 2.3% | 2.5% | 2.0% | 1.9% |
There has been a reduction in the claimant count unemployment rate between January 1999 and January 2003 for Scotland of 1.5% and for the parliamentary constituency of Dumbarton of 1.9%. The percentage point gap between the average claimant count unemployment rate for Scotland and the average residence-based claimant count of the worst four wards in Dumbarton has also been reduced from 4.7 in 1999 to 3.4 in 2003.Claimant count unemployment rates for Scotland, the Dumbarton parliamentary constituency and the average of the worst four wards in Dumbarton in January of each year between 1999 and 2003:
| Area | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 |
| 1. Scotland | 5.5% | 5.1% | 4.5% | 4.1% | 4.0% |
| 2. Dumbarton | 6.5% | 6.0% | 5.6% | 5.3% | 4.6% |
| 3. Average of worst 4 wards in Dumbarton | 10.2% | 9.9% | 9.3% | 8.7% | 7.4% |
| Row 2 - Row 1 % point difference | 1.0 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 0.6 |
| Row 3 - Row 1 % point difference | 4.7 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.6 | 3.4 |
All the rates in the previous table will be subject to revisions in autumn 2003 when the revised mid-year population estimates become available from analysis of the 2001 census.
