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I refer the Member to the answer to question S1W-13720.

Our strategy document A Smart Successful Scotland sets out that Scottish Enterprise has a key role in supporting the social economy by providing quality information and business development support.Scottish Enterprise Glasgow co-funded Social Firms UK's annual conference in Glasgow in November 2000.It also co-ordinated meetings on behalf of Social Firms Scotland with the Joint Employment Unit/Greater Glasgow Health Board and voluntary sector representatives to develop a proposal to support social firms' work of job creation. This proposal was approved under the new European Community Initiative, EQUAL, and funding is being provided by Scottish Enterprise.

Support for setting up social firms is available through the European Social Fund, administered in Scotland by the Scottish Executive.Scottish Enterprise (SEn) has a key role in supporting the social economy by providing quality information and business development support.SEn are currently part-funding a Social Firms Scotland pilot which will assist new and developing projects throughout Scotland.

Applicants are required to indicate the local authority area within which will be found the addresses of the beneficiaries of their projects, but there is no breakdown below this level available at this stage. On this basis, there were 44 unsuccessful applications made in respect of the Glasgow City Council area. There were also 89 successful applications in respect of the Glasgow City Council area and these projects were awarded grants totalling £14,966,499.

None of these figures take account of those applications which had beneficiaries in more than one local authority area, of which there were 214 successful applications and 154 unsuccessful applications across Lowland Scotland as a whole.In terms of the proportion of applications which were successful in securing funding, I can confirm that, of the 133 applications made in respect of the Glasgow area, 89 were awarded grants, a success rate of 66.9%. By comparison, the overall success rate of applicants to Objective 3 as a whole was only 59.6%.

The transfer of Enterprise and Lifelong Learning from Edinburgh to Glasgow in 1999-2000 means that 21.5 full-time equivalent posts in the Higher Education, Science, and Student Support Divisions are now based in Glasgow.

The local government grant distribution formula already takes account of the impact of deprivation on the costs of service delivery, and 13 assessments within the formula - mainly those for social work and education - include deprivation adjustments. In addition a number of important social work assessments are influenced by health indicators which reflect deprivation. The Scottish Executive and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities together carried out a thorough review of the account taken of deprivation in the local government finance system this year. As a result we have redistributed an additional £12 million to help councils tackle the effects of deprivation in schools. We have also made available through the Better Neighbourhoods Services Fund an additional £90 million to help improve services within the most deprived neighbourhoods.The National Review of Resource Allocation for NHS in Scotland (the Arbuthnott Review) has only recently resulted in an allocation of resources through a needs-based approach. For 2000-01, Aggregate External Finance (AEF) per head for Glasgow City Council is 22.4% higher than the all Scotland average, while grant per head for Greater Glasgow Health Board is 8.6% above average.

The Scottish Law Commission are looking at the issue of the age of criminal responsibility as it affects both the criminal justice and children's hearing systems. The Commission will be reporting to the Scottish Ministers towards the end of this year.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

Each prisoner's religion is among routine information collected on admission to prison. As at 29 January the breakdown of the prison population's declared religious beliefs was as follows:

		% of total
Baptist	4	-
Buddhist	5	-
Christian - other	77	1
Church of England	65	1
Church of Scotland	2,565	45
Episcopalian	5	-
Hindu	1	-
Jehovah Witness	5	-
Muslim	48	1
No Record	91	2
No Religion	1194	21
Other	53	1
Roman Catholic	1621	28
Total	5,734

The Scottish Prison Service accepts all prisoners referred to it by the courts irrespective of their religion.

The Executive currently provides grant of £64,890 towards the HQ funding of Community Service Volunteers. CSV's Clyde Street office is not under threat of closure but some of the projects based there may be. Officials are seeking further information from the Director of CSV ScotIand to find out if there is any way in which the Executive can properly assist.

The Scottish Executive has not received any proposals from Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive for a CrossRail scheme to link north and south Glasgow with Glasgow airport.